Bar Quilts series - make it rectangular
Do you love the Bar Quilts series patterns but don't have a use for a square throw?
Square throws are a bit of a "love it or hate it" thing. They make a great canvas for a design, and are perfect to use for picnics or at the beach, but may not be long enough to cover your toes if you use them on the couch.
So, what's a quilter to do? Make it rectangular, of course!
I'm sharing two options below, depending on how much you want to, or need to, change the design to fit your lifestyle.
Spinning Top rectangular throw
Viky, one of my fabulous pattern testers, needed to make the Spinning Top quilt to fit a bed, as well as the standard size pre-cut batting sold in Germany, where she lives. She's kindly shared her measurements here for adjusting the quilt pattern to fit her batting.
Viky's finished quilt is 150cm x 200cm (or 60" x 79").
Since the width measurement of her quilt is narrower than the original, she's adjusted the width and length of all of the strips in the pattern to make the Spinning Top design work for this narrower quilt.
I think the elongated, almost diamond-shape of the design looks fabulous and I love how her quilt turned out.
If you'd like to do the same, here are her cutting measurements for each strip:
| pattern piece | inches | centimetres |
| A | 4" x 6" | 10,5 x 15,5 cm |
| B | 4" x 14 1/4" | 10,5 x 36,5 cm |
| C | 6" x 10 1/2" | 15,5 x 27,5 cm |
| D | 4" x 25“ | 10,5 x 63,5 cm |
| E | 6" x 17 1/4" | 15,5 x 44 cm |
| F | 4" x 35 3/4" | 10,5 x 91 cm |
| G | 6" x 23 3/4" | 15,5 x 60,5 cm |
| H | 4" x 46 3/4" | 10,5 x 119 cm |
| K | 4" x 4" | 10,5 x 10,5 cm |
| L | 4" x 14 1/4" | 10,5 x 36,5 cm |
| M | 6" x 25" | 10,5 x 63,5 cm |
| N | 4" x 35 3/4" | 10,5 x 91 cm |
| O | 4" x 46 3/4" | 10,5 x 119 cm |
| side borders | 5 1/2" x 57 1/2" | 14 x 146 cm |
| top and bottom borders | 10 1/4" x 60" | 26 x 150 cm |
The piecing still works the same, just follow the letters in the pattern to put it together.
Twin size adjustments
If you don't have the size restrictions of pre-cut batting, you can turn the 63" square throw quilt into a 70" x 90" standard twin size quilt with just two quick tweaks to the borders.
Simply add 4" to the width of the border strips for the side, and 14" to the top and bottom borders. So this means cutting the borders for the sides 10.5" wide, and those for the top and bottom 20.5" wide. The rest of the measurements all stay the same as written in the pattern.
Add the side borders first, then the top and bottom.
This does mean a few adjustments to your fabric requirements, though.
You will need an additional 1.75 yards of background fabric, the batting needs to be 78" x 98" and you will need a total of 5.5 yards of backing fabric. You'll also need to add 5" to the binding, and cut an additional two strips.
This border adjustment will work the same for all the quilt patterns in the Bar Quilts series, so you can easily adjust any of the square throws to be a twin size quilt.
