Quilting Tips: Determining Bed Quilt Measurements

Do you want to make a quilt for your nephew’s twin bed or your sister’s king size bed but you are not sure what size those mattresses are or what size quilt will fit them? OR have you ever seen a project in a book that you love, but you need to know whether or not it will fit on your bed, or how much you will have to adjust it to get it to be the size you want? Below is a chart that will help you with that problem. It contains the bed sizes and information you need to make a quilt to fit your bed.

“Comforter” refers to a quilt that covers the mattress but not the box spring and doesn’t have a pillow tuck. “Coverlet” refers to a quilt that covers the mattress and box spring and has a pillow tuck. A “bedspread” goes almost to the floor and has a pillow tuck.

*If you do not want your quilt to have a pillow tuck, subtract 10″ from the length measurements.

Note that the size of coverlet or bedspread for your particular bed, might vary depending on the thickness of the mattress/box spring and the height of the bed.

The coverlet size above allows for a total mattress and box spring thickness of 16″. To adjust for your mattress and box spring, measure the thickness of your mattress and box spring to get your thickness measurement. Double the thickness measurement and add to the mattress size for the width of your quilt. For the quilt length, add the thickness measurement plus 10″ for the pillow tuck to the mattress size.

The bedspread size given above allows for 21″ from the top of the mattress to the floor. To adjust for your bed, measure from the mattress top to the floor to get the bed height. Double that measurement and add it to the mattress size for the quilt width. For the quilt length, add the bed height plus 10″ for the pillow tuck to the mattress size.