Merging Cells

Basic & Market Plan Feature // Rectangular Quilt Grid ONLY

In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can create different sized quilt blocks by starting with a quilt grid made up of smaller blocks that are combined (merged) together to create bigger blocks.

• NOTE: The merging cells feature only works on the rectangular quilt grid.

01 | Determine the Common Block Size

Start by finding the largest common denominator for the common quilt block that will fill the quilt grid.

The first step is to figure out the size of the quilt's common block size, which will be the beginning block size that can be merged together to create the larger quilt blocks. You want to use the largest common denominator, not the smallest.

• NOTE: The smallest common denominator is usually 1" square, which can be a headache because the unit is so small and you'll need so many of them to create your overall quilt size. Use this size only when necessary.

So, for example, if you want to create a quilt that has 4" finished squares and 8" finished squares, then the common block size for the quilt grid would be 4" square blocks.

• NOTE: However, if another example is a quilt with 2" x 4" rectangles, 4" squares, 4" x 8" rectangles, and 8" squares - then your largest common denominator would be 2" square blocks.

Once you know the size of the common quilt block, set the quilt grid to that size.

1. From the QUILT dashboard, click on the Create a Quilt button.

   
2. For the Rectangular grid, input the dimensions for the common quilt block size. For this example, we're using 4" square blocks.

   • NOTE: Remember to input finished quilt block dimensions in inches (not unfinished).

   
3. Click on the Use This Grid button to create the quilt.

   

02 | Determine the Quilt Size

Now that we have our common quilt block size determined and set, we will need to determine and set the overall size of the quilt.

In this example, we set our common quilt block size to 4" finished squares. Since PreQuilt's default quilt setting is always 10 columns and 10 rows, our quilt size is 40" x 40".

But let's say we want to make a much bigger quilt - 56" x 64". We can do this by adding columns and rows. By doing the math, we know that the number of columns we need is 14 (56 ÷ 4 = 14; 64 ÷ 4 = 16).

1. Click on the GRID tab on the left side control panel.

   
2. Input 14 for the # of columns and 16 for the number of rows.

   
3. Click on the Update button to save.

   
4. We can now see that the overall quilt grid is set to 56" x 64" using 4" blocks.

   

03a | Merge Cells to Create Larger Quilt Blocks

Now that we've determined what our largest common denominator for the quilt block is (4" squares) and we've determined the overall size of our quilt (56" x 64"), we can now start merging blocks together to create our quilt layout.

In this example, we want to have both 4" and 8" finished square blocks. A 4" quilt block is the foundation common quilt block, so we don't need to do anything to create it. To create an 8" quilt block, we will need to combine 4 individual 4" blocks together.

1. On the quilt grid (or digital design wall), click on the quilt cell blocks that you want to merge (or combine) together to create an 8" quilt block.

   1. NOTE: To select a cell block, click on it. Once selected, the cell block will be outlined in blue.

   
2. With the 4 cell blocks selected, click on the Merge button () on the central, vertical toolbar.

   
3. Once merged, the 4 individual cell blocks will be merged into 1 larger cell block.

   
4. Continue merging smaller common blocks into larger blocks until you have your desired quilt layout.

   

03b | How to Unmerge Cell Blocks

If you want to undo a merged block, that's not a problem!

1. Click on the quilt cell block you want to unmerge back into the smaller common blocks.

   
2. Click on the Merge/Unmerge button () on the central, vertical toolbar.

   
3. Now the larger block has been divided back into 4 individual cell blocks.