40
CHAPTER PREPARING AND CUTTING FABRIC
How to Adjust a Quilt Pattern
The fun of quilting comes from making a quilt your own. Whether that means choosing fabric that’s
different in color and style than what’s shown in the pattern, adding pieced or appliqué borders, or
making the quilt in a different size, I encourage you to explore your inner artist by choosing your
own quilting path. Adjusting the size of a quilt pattern requires some careful calculation, but greatly
expands your options.
Using the finished block size in the pattern, calculate the
number of blocks you need for the new quilt size.
For example, you have a pattern for a red and yellow wall hanging
with four 10-inch (25.4 cm) blocks. You’d like to adjust this pattern to
make a crib quilt. A crib quilt is usually about 27
1
⁄
2
×52 inches
(70×132 cm). If you make your quilt three blocks wide and four
blocks long, it will measure 30x40 inches (76.2×101.6 cm). You can
add borders to make it a little larger.
1
Divide the number of blocks you want by the
number of blocks in the original pattern.
In this case, you want twelve blocks and the orig-
inal pattern called for four: 12 ÷ 4 = 3. You’ll use
this ratio, 3, to help you adjust the fabric require-
ments in the pattern to meet your new needs.
2
41
HOW TO ADJUST A QUILT PATTERN
If the pattern does not include the
finished block size, subtract twice the
width of the borders from the width of
the finished quilt size to calculate the
width of the quilt center. Divide this
by the number of blocks across and
round up.
Wall Hanging Wall Hanging Crib Quilt Crib Quilt
Fabric Color Requirement Fabric Color Requirement
Yellow
1
⁄
4
yard (23 cm) Blue
3
⁄
4
yard (69 cm)
Red
1
⁄
4
yard (23 cm) Purple
3
⁄
4
yard (69 cm)
White with
3
⁄
8
yard (35 cm) White with 1
1
⁄
8
yard (103 cm)
dots dots
Multiply the original fabric requirements by the
ratio to calculate the new amount of each fabric
needed.
The wall hanging pattern calls for
1
⁄
4
yard (23 cm) of
yellow fabric. You want to use blue fabric in place of
yellow for the crib quilt. To find the amount of blue
fabric you need, multiply the fabric requirement by 3.
1
⁄
4
×3 =
3
⁄
4
, so you need
3
⁄
4
yard (69 cm) of blue fabric.
Repeat this step for each fabric used.
3
Adjust the border fabric requirements.
For straight borders, recalculate the border length to
fit the new size of the quilt. For pieced borders, follow
the instructions in Steps 2–3 to calculate the yardage
needed. To add a second border, use the size of the
quilt center plus the inner border to calculate the
yardage.
4
Adjust backing and batting requirements.
Calculate your new quilt size, plus borders, and add
6–8 inches (15.2 to 20.3 cm) to the width and length
to allow for shrinkage that occurs during quilting. If
this measurement is greater than 42 inches (106.7
cm) in either direction, you will need to piece the
backing. To estimate the backing yardage, calculate
the number of 42-inch (106.7 cm) strips required to
form a rectangle large enough for the back.
5
If the same fabric is used for blocks and borders, subtract the amount needed
for the borders before calculating how much you need for the blocks.
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