There are no rules for sizing most art quilts, quilt wall hangings, or landscape quilts. The two exceptions are artist trading cards and fabric postcards that need to go through the mail. Both of them are made in standard sizes.
Artist Trading Card Size: 2½ x 3½” (6 cm x 9 cm)
Art quilters and fiber artists of all kinds make these small cards to trade with other artists, just like sports fans used to swap baseball and football trading cards. ATCs are always made the same size as the old sports trading cards: 2½ ” x 3½”, or 6 cm by 9 cm.
Fabric Postcard Sizes: 4 x 6” or 3½ x 5”
3 ½” x 5” (9 cm x 13 cm) was the standard postcard size until about the end of World War I. Today’s standard postcard size is 4” x 6” (10 cm x 15 cm). While you can make fabric postcards larger than the standard dimensions, they will need extra postage to be mailed.
Use Nature’s Golden Ratio to Choose an Eye-Pleasing Art Quilt Size
Since most art quilts are hung on walls for display, you can make your art quilt any size that pleases your eye and fits your display space. If that is too much artistic freedom for you, consider doing what artists have done over the centuries: size your quilt based on the proportions found in many of nature’s beautiful shapes, from nautilus shells to pine cones to the dimensions of the human body. This mathematical formula is called the Golden Ratio, and it can be used to figure out how big to make a quilt.
A quilt based on the Golden Ratio will be rectangular, with the longer side of the rectangle about 1.62 times as long as the short side. (Length = Width x 1.62)
While this formula is quite easy to use, you can use the list of Golden Ratio quilt dimensions below to save the trouble of making your own calculations.
Table of Quilt Sizes Using the Golden Ratio
Dimensions in this list are rounded up or down to the nearest inch for ease of cutting. To create a larger quilt, simply use the formula Length = Width x 1.62. Remember that the quilt rectangle can be turned horizontally, like a piece of paper printed in the Landscape position, or vertically, like a paper printed in the Portrait position. Either way, the ratio remains the same.
- 2” x 3”
- 3” x 5”
- 4” x 6”
- 5” x 8”
- 6” x 10”
- 7” x 11”
- 8” x 13”
- 9” x 15”
- 10” x 16”
- 11” x 18”
- 12” x 19”
- 13” x 21”
- 14” x 22”
- 15” x 24”
- 16” x 26”
- 17” x 27”
- 18” x 29”
- 19” x 30”
- 20” x 32”
- 21” x 34”
- 22” x 35”
- 23” x 37”
- 24” x 38”
- 24” x 39”
- 25” x 40”
- 26” x 42”
- 27” x 44”
- 28” x 45”
- 29” x 47”
- 30” x 49”
Sizing your next quilt based on the Golden Ratio puts your creation solidly in an artistic tradition that dates back at least to the Renaissance. What could give an art quilt a better start than that?
Related Quilting Articles
Choosing a Size for Your Quilt. Learn more about standard sizes for table runners, bed quilts, and other quilts. Includes standard U.S. mattress sizes.
Introduction to Art Quilts. Learn how to marry the traditional craft of quilting with concepts and techniques imported from the fine arts and graphic design.
Brief History of Contemporary Art Quilts. Art quilts are quite a recent development in the centuries-long history of quilting. Here is the story of how quilts went from bed tops to gallery and museum walls.
Christine Mann - Christine Mann writes about quilting, home decor sewing, and creativity in daily life.
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