Batting scrap assembly planner

What is frankenbatting?

Frankenbatting means joining leftover batting into a larger panel. Sort scraps by material and thickness, straighten their edges, and measure the usable rectangles. This planner keeps your named groups separate; it cannot identify batting or decide whether pieces are compatible.

Measure, arrange, then join

1. Measure your quilt top and enter the overhang your quilter needs on each side. Target width and length each equal the quilt dimension plus twice that overhang. No overhang is added to the scrap sizes.
2. Enter usable scrap sizes after straightening edges. Give pieces with compatible material and thickness the same group name. Choose one group for this panel and confirm compatibility.
3. Try a suggestion or add individual scraps to the diagram. Cut widths and lengths describe the piece after rotation. Positions are measured from the target’s top-left corner. A valid panel has full coverage, touching edges, no overlap and no material outside the target.
4. Check the cut list against your actual scraps. Butt the cut edges together without overlap and join along the listed shared edges. Start with short internal joins to make larger sections, then join those sections. Test your joining method on spare batting first.

OLFA’s batting-piecing tutorial explains sorting, straight edges, butt joins and testing a wide zigzag stitch. This plan consumes no seam allowance; it does not model overlapping or sewn fabric seams. Follow your batting maker’s care and quilting-distance guidance and your quilter’s loading requirements.

Example: a 60 × 72 inch panel

A 52 × 64 inch quilt with 4 inches of overhang per side needs 60 × 72 inches of batting. Put a 30 × 72 piece on the left. On the right, place a 30 × 40 piece above a 30 × 32 piece. They cover the target exactly. Join the two right pieces along their 30-inch edge, then join that 30 × 72 section to the left piece along the 72-inch edge. The diagram lists three shared-edge segments because the long join meets two pieces.

Method and practical limits

Suggestions try rectangular columns filled from top to bottom, then the transposed row method, with at most 24,000 search steps across both attempts. Each individual scrap supplies one rectangular cut. Extra material is trimmed from its right and bottom edges; offcuts are listed but are not reused in this plan. Suggestions may trim good material and do not guarantee minimum waste, fewest joins or an optimal arrangement.

“No plan found within this method” does not prove your scraps cannot work. Try a manual layout, a different set of scraps or a smaller target. Manual layouts use the same independent coverage and stock validator as suggestions. Red hatching marks uncovered or overlapping target regions; text reports uncovered area, pairwise overlap area and material outside the target. Pairwise totals count an area again for each overlapping pair. Tiny differences may be displayed in scientific notation. Geometry tolerance is 0.0000001 inch for edge matching and square inch for area checks; measurements and cutting need their own practical margin.

Limits: 24 scraps total, 1,000 inches per target side, rectangular cuts and 90-degree rotation. Irregular scraps, shrinkage, stretching, quilting quality and multi-cut reuse of one scrap are excluded. The diagram and printed plan are schematics, not actual-size cutting templates. Recheck measurements before cutting.

Keep a copy

Calculations and project files stay in your browser. This planner keeps work in memory until you leave or reload; download a project backup to keep it. Backups can include unfinished layouts and group names. A cutting plan or schematic download is available only when the current layout passes validation. This planner’s backup is separate from the shared backing, border and binding project.

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