Rag Time!

This week brought me a new project and I may have just fallen in love!  I belong to a local mom's group (because who wouldn't want their kiddo's to wear themselves out running around with other kids while you get some quality adult conversation!) and there is a mom in our group that makes STUNNING quilts!  She organized a little teaching playdate for what just may be the funnest and easiest quilt EVER! (ok i might be exaggerating a tad...but it is quick, easy and fun and the results are great)

See...how fun is this!

Above is my very first rag quilt ever! And I think it came out rather cute if I do say so myself (and I do...and my daughter is in love and that is all that really counts!)  One of the most time consuming parts is all the cutting...each square is 3 layers...and since I wasn't sure how big I wanted to make the blanket I am going to send as a birthday present I cut a ton of squares! (in the end I separated my squares amongst 3 blankets...a 3x3 (with 7 inch squares), a 4x4 and a 5x5 (both with 8 inch squares) and I have fabric left over (only a few though are cut into squares already the rest I didn't cut).

So now that I am almost as buff as a body builder (in my cutting arm only...lol) I have a sea of squares in front of me and I start to worry about how much time this is all really going to take. (you know, sometimes you pick a project thinking it is going to be fun and quick only later to find you spent waaaaaaaaaaay more time then you thought it would take to finish...and along the way you loose your initial excitement for the project, well not the case here) So staring at my sea of squares I decide to start with the 3 x 3 blanket...because 1. It's the smallest and 2. I was doing something different with the corner squares and I was impatient to wait and see if it would work (i am a bit like a kid in that regard).

See my corner squares are made up for 4 Little Squares (on the front side)

My Daughter Pointing to the Squares

So above you can see my fun corner panels.  What makes them more fun is that on the back of the blanket it is just one full size square.  I wasn't sure if doing this was going to add a ton of extra time to the project, but lucky enough it really wasn't that much extra work and gave me a much smaller scale to practice the piecing together on.

(the piecing together really is fabulously easy...take two squares and stack them together back to back...sew your seam down one side...viola!...when you are doing it with the larger pieces that means you have 6 pieces of fabric stacked together like a layer cake)

Once all your sewing is done (the rows are a tad trickier because then you hit the thick seams...to make sure your back is straight be sure to line up your seams...some people alternate them (top "bump" of seam fabric folded to the left and bottom "bump" folded to the right...i found it easier to iron my seams open to make it a little flatter for sewing (although it is still rather bulky since you then have 12 pieces of fabric feeding through the machine for that brief instant)) the fun begins.  Put on your favorite show, grab your blanket, scissors (spring loaded helps) and get comfortable....because it's Rag Time!

 You are going to snip all the "bumps" of fabric (the seam allowances) about every 1/4 inch apart (although you can vary it however you want).  Then the EASIEST STEP...WASH IT!  That's right the final step is tossing your creation in the washing machine...and then the dryer (now when you dry it there is a ton of lint so make sure your trap is clean before you dry it...and be ready to clean it when you are done).

Now tuck those babies in with your fabulous rag quilt and get to sewing the next one ;-)

This first blanket was for my daughter to use with her Dollies

The day after I made the 3 x 3 blanket I easily sewed together the 4 x 4 in no time...and then ragged it (it is waiting to be washed because today I am doing the 5 x 5 blanket and I want to save water (when i washed the 3 x 3 i had some rag letters to toss in, so i wasn't wasteful there either)).

Here are a few more pictures for you:

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey with rag quilting and if you are looking to give it a go your self there is a full tutorial here. (although you should note i used flannel as my middle layers and had it the same width as the top and bottom squares since i was taught that would give a fuller rag).

Whenever I have a friend who is expecting I like to make their new arrival a blanket, I am excited to have a new blanket to add into the mix (my other blankets are crochet).  And even better I can use scraps from other projects to make sure my daughters dolls are never cold! (and if you know me, you know i like to make every scrap count.)

If you are looking for other fun rag projects you should try Rag Letters (a great tutorial here)...I made a set for my kids and they think they are AWESOME (again i might have over acheieved and made both the upper and lower case at the same time...i would recommend doing one at a time...52 letters can be daunting...lol) And again...Rag Letters are a great use of scrap fabric :-D