Newborn babies and new parents need lots of soft fabrics on hand. Babies are messy and precut pieces of flannel or cotton gauze can be very helpful to catch spit-up, blow-outs, leaky diapers and more. I measured all of Betty's receiving blankets and they widely ranged in size from 28 inches square to 44 inches square. My smallest receiving blankets were 26 x 28-inches. The largest were 38 x 48-inches. Of course, we rarely used these unfolded. Most often I folded these in half or quarters for easy use for burp cloths, changing table covers, and more.