So this past week I was ready to start basting a quilt and I had to go shopping for the batting. 

And once again I’m searching the internet trying to figure out what size batting will fit my dimension of quilt. 

And once again realize I’m right between sizes of quilts, where I could totally squeak by using the throw size batting I have laying around, but reaaaallly should go out to get the twin size. 

Then I have this internal battle of convenience now vs. making my life easier when I go to quilt it later.

Does this happen to anyone else?

Or just me. 

Might be just me. That’s fine too 🙂

So I figured, you know what, I want to make a quilt size reference so I’ll have it all in one easy place to always refer back to. 

And I wanted to post it here just incase anyone else has trouble remembering this stuff just like me.

3 Reasons Why You Should Make Small Quilts

And just because we are talking about quilt sizes today, I figured why not add my three top reasons for throw and baby quilts being my FAVORITE types of quilts to make over bed sized quilts.

1. “You Can Never Have Too Many Baby Blankets”

Is it weird that when I first started quilting I always thought a baby or crib sized quilt was silly?

Coming from a girl who was still in college and didn’t have kids, the thought of making a quilt that small seemed like a waste. 

Babies aren’t buying quilts….

And then somewhere in my late 20’s, my college friends started having kids, and coworkers were having kids, and I was going to all these baby showers.

And actually holding babies and watching them play on the ground. 

And every time, the moms were preferring to pull out quilts as opposed to blankets to put on the ground underneath them while they played. 

This quilt is available now for sale! See this quilt in more detail here!

Blankets were a little more flimsy, so the structure of a quilt was much more preferred apparently. 

The lightbulb went on and I started seeing why baby quilts were so popular to make.

Babies are messy so they tend to go through multiple quilts in a day or week and have a much higher need for quilts compared to any other demographic of quilt users. 

It’s not just because they are quick, but because you literally can “never have too many” when you have a baby.

Quilts gotta get washed and babies gotta play while those quilts are gettin’ washed!

So I believe it, the more the merrier, if more people are using baby quilts than full sized quilts, then bring on the baby quilts!

2. Smaller Quilt Sizes are Quicker to Make

To this day I’ve never made a quilt larger than a throw.

Eeep! I know. 

But there’s a reason why, and it’s not 100% laziness, I promise. 

I don’t prefer quilts as the coverings to my beds, I prefer them for curling up on the couch with.

Also, my attention span is short when it comes to a single pattern. 

Usually I prefer to make my quilts any size smaller than a twin. 

See the above quilt in more detail here!

The patterns, even when they are complicated patterns, only require so many blocks. 

And even if you are using a relatively simple block in your quilt pattern, eventually you have to quilt it.

Massive king quilt sizes take way longer to quilt than small throws.

And if I’m struggling to finish a throw size with my super basic Singer that barely has enough space to fit my arm through, I’m not about to struggle with a king size. 

My little Singer is just not going to survive it. 

Because it will likely get thrown through the wall in frustration trying to manipulate such a large size quilt.

But even if i had a sewing machine that could handle larger projects, I prefer smaller quilts because I can make more projects in the same amount of time as someone doing a queen or king. 

I can play with more colors, practice more types of free-motion quilting, and practice different technical quilting skills much more often. 

3. Smaller Quilt Sizes are More Likely to be Used

When it’s cold in the winter time and you go to grab a blanket to watch TV, what size are you most likely to grab? 

It’s probably not the queen quilt size off your bed. 

When you have four friends over, or three kids gearing up to watch a movie, and everyone is looking for a blanket, do you share the king?

Or do each of you grab a throw?

While the first is not impossible to choose, it’s generally not the typical choice someone would make. 

Typically you are more likely to find a couple of throw sized blankets or quilts in the living room of a home as opposed to full sized quilts. 

Not to mention you can really only have one quilt displayed on a bed at a time. 

So why bother making huge quilt sizes for beds when either you won’t use them at home because you simply have more quilts than beds, or you’ll gift them and hopefully that person prefers quilts on THEIR beds.

As opposed to down comforters. 

By spending more time making throws, even large throws, your quilts are much more likely to be used and cherished in someone’s living spaces (or YOUR living spaces) as opposed to staying stacked nicely in your sewing room. 

This quilt is available for sale in the quilt shop! Click here to head to the quilt shop!

Make More Heirlooms Than Art

Growing up did you parents ever have a living room that was off limits to the kids? Or maybe you were allowed in, but the furniture was covered in plastic?

The furniture was “too nice” to be messed up?

Artistic quilts that stay packed away in a stack of quilts in the corner of your sewing room are the equivalent to these off limits parlor rooms. 

Quilts, forever and always, are meant to be loved and used, overworked, ripped, and dragged around the house to cuddle up with. 

The people around you would much rather cuddle up with one that is just laying around the living room than make a trip to your sewing room just to see the stack you have neatly made. 

So make quilts for people to enjoy as they were intended, whether its your family, or other families, charities, it doesn’t matter. 

That’s what heirlooms are for, right?

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