How to Cut a Quilt Top to Size

You can sew the quilt top together using a needle and thread.

Quilting, unlike making a blanket, doesn’t entail cutting one long strip of material to sew onto batting and backing. Instead, when making a quilt top, a quilter cuts many pieces of fabric to create a design. For example, most quilt tops split into blocks, or sections. Each block consists of a patchwork sequence. The sequence may have a contrasting or similar pattern, depending on how the quilter cuts the pattern and arranges the blocks. Thus, when you’re trying to cut the quilt top to size, you should prepare to give your rotary cutter or scissors a good workout.

Things You'll Need

• Rotary cutter
• Fabric

Instructions

1. Select the fabric for the quilt top. You can have as many colors and patterns as you prefer.

2. Use a tape measure to find the width and length of your squares. Mark the measurements on the fabric, then cut. Repeat as many times as needed. For instance, if you were making a quilt that measures 210 cm or approximately 6 feet, you need make 8-inch squares.

3. Cut the fabric into squares using either a rotary cutter or scissors. If you’re making a 6-foot patchwork quilt top, you must cut approximately 121 squares.

4. Arrange the squares on a hard surface to cut the quilt top to size. When you arrange the squares, place them in a design that you like. You want to place them on a hard surface, such as a table or floor, to make sure that the quilt top is cut to size. Also, you can remove or cut any pieces before sewing the sections together.

Tips & Warnings

• After cutting your quilt top to size, place a label next to each row. For example, if you have nine rows of squares, label them starting from one to nine. Take each row individually and sew together. You can use a sewing machine or sew by hand. Repeat until you sew all the rows together to make a complete quilt top.

• Buy more fabric than you need because you may make a mistake when cutting the quilt top fabric into squares and you don’t want to worry about trying to correct the mistake. Instead, you can use more fabric to make another square.

• Before cutting your quilt to size, cut sample squares. Using sample squares allows you to arrange the fabric to find your perfect pattern.

References

• Quilting101.com: Designing a Patchwork Quilt;
• Cherry Menlove: How to Make a Patchwork Quilt;