How Many Blocks Do I Need for My Quilt?

If you’re wondering how many blocks you need to make your quilt you’ve come to the right place. We’ll show you how to calculate the number of blocks and share exactly how many 6-inch, 9-inch, and 12-inch blocks you need for your quilt.

We love block-based quilt designs here at DTQ. They’re super fun to make. And as quilt pattern designers we also appreciate the simplicity behind the quilt math involved.

Now, I know this may sound ridiculous because we all know quilt math can get super-complicated. Even with block-based quilt tops.

But compared to some other designs, it’s actually much more straightforward. Especially if we’re talking about calculating how many blocks you need for your quilt.

And that’s exactly what I want to teach you today. How to determine how many blocks you need to make a desired size quilt.

In this article, I will show you exactly how to calculate the number of blocks required to make a quilt (no matter what the size of the blocks and no matter what size quilt you are making).

I will show you two ways to do this: first, I’ll share how you can quickly do it using our quilting calculator app, Quilt Geek. Then, I’ll teach you how to do it the old-school way – the pen-and-paper calculation.

We’ve also put together guides on how many blocks you need for three different ‘standard’ block sizes. So after all this quilt math, we’re sharing pre-calculated charts for 6-inch, 9-inch, and 12-inch blocks.

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Table of Contents

1. How do you determine how many blocks you need for a quilt?
   • Option A: use the Quilt Geek calculator
   • Option B: Calculate the number of blocks with the pen-and-paper method
2. How many 6-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?
3. How many 9-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?
4. How many 12-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?

How do you determine how many blocks you need for a quilt?

So let’s jump right in. Before you start calculating, you need to determine:

• The size of the blocks you’ll be using
• The size of the quilt you want to make

Let’s say you’re making a quilt using 6×6” finished bear paw blocks like the one pictured below. (This means your unfinished blocks measure 6,5 x 6,5″.)

You want to make a queen-size quilt, which according to our quilt size chart, is about 92×106″.

We’re only defining the approximate quilt size that we’re going for. The reason for that is that the actual size we’ll be able to make depends on the size of the block we’re using.

Option A: use the Quilt Geek calculator

I wanted to share the easiest option first and this is definitely it. Use our quilting calculator app and you’ll get the calculation you need in seconds!

We offer a free trial, so you can work out the math you need for your project with no charge at all!

Here’s how it works:

With Quilt Geek, all you need to do is enter the size of the finished quilt blocks in the calculator:

With Quilt Geek, all you need to do is enClick CALCULATE and you’ll get all the math done not just for a queen-size quilt, but for 9 standard quilt sizes!

What’s so great about it is that it calculates THE ACTUAL SIZE of the quilt you’ll be getting. It also provides the number of columns, rows and – of course – the number of blocks you need to make.

That was super easy, right?

Quilt Geek’s handy Blocks to Quilt Size Calculator calculates how many blocks you need for 9 standard quilt sizes.

It tells you how many rows and columns you need in your layout and exactly how many blocks you need to make – no matter the size.

Learn more about Quilt Geek’s 20+ calculators and charts here or get started right away:

Option B: Calculate the number of blocks with the pen-and-paper method

The other option is of course to do this the old-school way, using a pen, paper and an old school calculator.

Let me just remind you of the numbers we’re working with:

• the finished size of the quilt block (bear paw): 6×6″
• the (approximate) desired finished size of the quilt: queen size – about 92×106″

Let’s do some math!

Step 1: How many blocks in a row?

To calculate how many blocks we need for one row, we’ll divide the desired quilt width by the width of the block:

92″ ÷ 6″ = 15.333

Right away you can see that you can’t get a quilt that’s exactly 92″ wide using 6″ blocks. Because the number we got (15.333) is closer to 15 than it is to 16, we’ll round it down to 15 blocks.

So, we need 15 blocks in each row.

The finished quilt width will be: 15 x 6″ = 90″

Step 2: How many blocks in a column?

We’ll now repeat the same calculation to get the number of blocks in a column. We’ll divide the desired quilt length by the length of the block:

106″ ÷ 6″ = 17.666

This time, we’ll round the number up (because 17.666 is closer to 18 than it is to 17).

We need 18 blocks in each column.

The finished quilt length will be 18×6” = 108”

Step 3: How many blocks total?

The last step is easy. We’ll multiply the number of columns by the number of rows to get the total number of blocks we need.

18 x 15 = 270

We need 270 6×6” blocks for a queen-size (90×108”) quilt.

I think this wasn’t too bad – but you can’t argue it’s much easier with Quilt Geek. We’d love for you to try it out and tell us what you think!

In case you were wondering, here’s what our finished bear-paw quilt would look like.  It’s mesmerizing and I want to have one yesterday!

Of course, you can always have some fun with it, incorporating different colors (check out our quilter’s color wheel for some ideas).

How many 6-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?

As I said, there are certain sizes of quilt blocks that come up over and over again. We wanted to save you the trouble of doing the calculations yourself. 

So we used Quilt Geek to provide the calculations and you can print them out if you want.

I want to emphasize again that when talking about 6-inch blocks here we’re referring to 6-inch FINISHED blocks. This means that the blocks will measure 6“x6“ after they’ve been sewn in your quilt top. Before you sew them into the quilt top, the size of these blocks should be 6 1/2 “x6 1/2 “ (the extra ½ inch account for the seam allowance).

If you’re using 6-inch finished blocks you need the following number of blocks to make the desired size quilt:

How many 9-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?

9- inch blocks are also a very popular size.

If you’re using 9-inch finished blocks you will need the following number of blocks for your quilt:

How many 12-inch blocks do I need to make a quilt?

If you’re using 12-inch finished blocks you will need the following number of blocks for your quilt:

Remember! Everything I shared here today assumes you are only sewing blocks together without sashing or borders.

If you want to make a quilt a bit larger, you can definitely think about adding borders and/or sashing. And we’ll talk about how to calculate those some other time!

There you go! I hope this has helped you determine how many blocks you need to make a quilt. If you have any questions about the calculation or about the Quilt Geek app, let us know in the comments below.