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How much backing fabric for a 36 × 36 quilt?

Baby size quilt, finished 36″ × 36″ (91.4 cm × 91.4 cm).

Buy
2 1/2 yd
of standard 42″–44″ quilting cotton — 2 panels × 44″ with 1 vertical seam. Or 1 1/4 yd of 108″ wide backing (one piece, no seams — cut 44″). Metric: 2.3 m of 110 cm fabric.
44″ backing width 44″ quilt top 36″ × 36″

How it's worked out

  1. Add 4″ on every side for quilting (long-arm quilters usually ask for 4″–5″): 36 + 8 = 44″ wide, 36 + 8 = 44″ long.
  2. Quilting cotton is 42″–44″ wide; after trimming selvages about 40″ is usable, and each seam takes 1″.
  3. Running the seams vertically you need 2 widths of fabric, each 44″ long.
  4. 2 × 44″ = 88″ = 2.44 yards → round up to the next ⅛ yard: 2 1/2 yd.

Backing yardage with different overhang

Extra per sideBacking size42″ fabric108″ wideMetric
2″ 40″ × 40″ 1 1/8 yd (1 panels) 1 1/8 yd 1.1 m
3″ 42″ × 42″ 2 3/8 yd (2 panels) 1 1/4 yd 2.2 m
4″ 44″ × 44″ 2 1/2 yd (2 panels) 1 1/4 yd 2.3 m
5″ 46″ × 46″ 2 5/8 yd (2 panels) 1 3/8 yd 2.4 m
6″ 48″ × 48″ 2 3/4 yd (2 panels) 1 3/8 yd 2.5 m

Same quilt: binding & batting

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