How To Make A Quilt From Precut 10″ Squares

At Mäntyharju quilt market 30.6.-1.7.2023, I was asked several times how to use precut 10″ squares to make a quilt, and what its size would be. Or would it be enough for anything larger than a small quilt for babies, dogs and wall decorations? Let’s investigate these beginner-friendly fabric pieces from full designer collections!

In This Post

I cover the following in this blog post:

1. The 10″ Square
2. The Precut 10″ Square Bundles
3. The Quilt Maths
   1. All 42 Pieces
   2. Go Smaller
   3. Go Larger
4. My Work-In-Progress
5. Wrapping Up

1. The 10″ Square

The blog reader, who has checked our archives, will recall my post on cutting 10″ squares: How To Cut Your Own Precuts: Layer Cakes Or 10″ Squares.

In this case, however, focus is on precut bundles, which usually contain 42 squares for a quick entry to making a quilt.

Regardless of origin, 10″ means a 9,5″ square finished in the quilt. The half inches do add up, so they are worth remembering at this point.

For the reader well versed in centimetres, 10″ equals 25,4 cm and 9,5″ is 23,75 cm.

2. The Precut 10″ Square Bundles

The question people asked was one of slight worry: ”What size quilt would the 42 squares end up making?” as in would it be large enough for an adult to use as lap quilt, also called throw?

Most patterns used in bundles in our webshop are indeed geared towards adults, so the question is good to ask when planning.

At this point I want to bring up my blog post above again, though, because the squares are very easy to cut from your other fabric stash, or fabric bought for this specific purpose, if you want to add some filler squares to increase the quilt size just a bit.

Or a lot! A calm blender pattern could create lovely negative space for a busy collection, to give you an idea of how versatile these precut bundles can actually be.

3. The Quilt Maths

And now we move on to mathematics, hooray!

3.1  All 42 Pieces

If you want to use the whole collection and no more, no less either, 42 squares in the bundle equals 6 x 7 squares arranged into a quilt.

The width of this quilt will be 6 x 9,5″ = 57″, or almost 145 cm.

The height is only a bit larger then: 7 x 9,5″ = 66,5″, or almost 169 cm.

Rephrased, the quilt will be approximately 57″ x 67″.

3.2 Go Smaller

If you want to make a smaller quilt, consider dividing the bundle in half to create two baby or pet-sized quilts. This means using 20 squares, with one left over from each pile. The grid ends up at 4 x 5 squares, or 38″ x 47,5″ (ca 97 x 121 cm).

One step larger equals 5 x 6 squares, or a total of 30 squares, and the size 47,5″ x 57″ (ca 121 x 145 cm).

3.3 Go Larger

There are too many nice options to create larger quilts (compared to the 6 x 7 squares using a full precut bundle) to list all of them here. I will mention some examples though.

The first larger size to pay attention to is a quilt made from two precut bundles, with a total of 84 squares. This gives you a good idea for a starting point when striving for something larger.

A square-shaped quilt is impossible to create from these, but set aside three pieces for later use, and you would have a 9 x 9 quilt of 81 squares. The size for this is 85,5″ x 85,5″ (ca 217 x 217 cm).

Correspondingly, 10 x 10 squares means cutting 16 extra squares from stash (or buying a third precut bundle) for a final 100 pieces. The size then is 95″ x 95″ (ca 241 x 241 cm). (42 – 16 = 26 leftover squares from the third bundle, enough for another small quilt as calculated above.)

For a traditional twin-size quilt (70″ x 90″) you will need 8 x 10 squares, which creates a 76″ x 95″ finished project. Slightly larger in other words. This will use 80 of the 84 available pieces in two precut bundles.

4. My Work-In-Progress

My own project is made from one bundle of the Bookish collection by Sharon Holland for Art Gallery Fabrics. At the time of writing there are some products left, so hurry up if you or someone you know is a book nerd!

Here is a (quite awful-looking, hehe) late-night photo when I had sorted all squares into an arrangement that I liked:

I decided to scatter as evenly as I could the different prints and values included. Some row sewing has already happened!

5. Wrapping Up

Sometimes we want to quilt something quick without sacrificing prettiness. This booklovers’ bundle was an instant hit with me but I am pressed for time at the moment.

Also, I wanted to test 10″ squares for the first time in my life! They are wonderful to handle and even lovelier to use as is.

Have you used these precuts yet? Would you consider a simple design like this? Share in the comments below!