Sunday, October 24, 2010

Easy Rag Quilt


I wanted to make something special for my bonus daughter because she is having a baby girl in January. Somehow, I stumbled upon 'rag quilts' and they looked like something I could do. I'm not a perfectionist nor am I a 'detail' person, so a traditional quilt does not really appeal to me, but the rag quilts are so cute and shabby chic AND they don't have to be 'perfect'. So rag quilts looked like a 'perfect' project for me!
I found a video tutorial on You Tube. You can view it HERE. It's from www.beverlys.com and it is a great, step by step video.

I wanted to make a baby quilt, so I picked out 5 different flannel fabrics and cut them into 8x8 squares. Since this was the first time making one of these, I didn't realize that if I had the fabric, wrong sides together as I was cutting, it would make it much easier for me later...lesson learned! You will need 10 squares of each color if you are doing a 5 square by 5 square pattern. If you want the back solid, then you will need to adjust your yardage accordingly. You should only need 1/2 yard of each color....I had enough left over fabric that I might be able to make one more quilt. :)
Since she is having a girl, I wanted something 'chic', not too babish, but still adorably cute. I saw that mom made a black/white wipe case, so I ran with that. I choose black/white and light pink as my pallette choice. Put 2 squares together, wrong sides and then lay out your squares until you get the pattern you want. I wanted a 'random' pattern, and this is what I ended up going with.
Sew each 'set' of squares 1/2 inch seam allowance all the way around the square. Do this on all your sets. I did not pin anything until the end...I don't have the patience for all that!
Sew you 'rows' together, 1/2 inch seam allowance again... I didn't pin this step either.

You should end up with 5 rows with 5 squares sewn together. Like this:
Now this last sewing step, I did pin. You need to be able to control your seams, or you will have them getting caught in the 'foot'. Pin one row to the next row. Match up your seams and then put one seam facing to the left, the other facing the right. This way you don't have too many layers of fabric and your sewing machine will be happy. :)
Sew one row to the next. I did this one row at a time...you could probably pin them all and go...I just didn't want to get stabbed by the pins as I was sewing.

You're almost done! It should look similar to this:
Now to start cutting! I started with that little pair of sissors and quickly knew that was NOT going to work. So I headed to Michael's with my 40% off coupon and bought the Fiskars spring action sissors....love them! And you hand will love you for it too! :) Start cutting all your seams about 1/2 inch apart cuts....all the way around...this takes some time and might be bettter done in 'sessions'.
Your seams should looks like this:

Now time to wash....www.beverlys.com recommends washing without fabric softener for the first wash. She also recommended washing in warm, but I was scared it would bleed, so I did cold the first wash. No bleeding at all.
Dry and clean out the lint trap 2 times during the first drying. Wash again with fabric softener this time and dry, cleaning out the lint trap 1 time during the cycle.
Now you are DONE and you have a gorgeous Rag Quilt.
Isn't it beautiful??!! I just LOVE it!!!
I need to go buy pink or black ribbon to 'wrap' it with!
Without disruptions, this can easily be done in 4/5 hours. How cool is that?
Absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!
Fabric for quilt (online) approx. $50

Time to make quilt - 4/5 hours

Making something with my own hands for my new granddaughter = Pricele$$


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31 comments:

  1. i love rag quilts - and the colors you chose are so so great! you did a wonderful job!

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  2. Wow! $50 for an entire quilt is awesome! And it is so pretty too!

    Thanks for your kind comment. :)

    Lauren
    http://31diy.blogspot.com

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  3. Super cute and EASY! I'm supposed to make all 4 of my kids blankets for Christmas and I think this just solved the question of how I was going to have the time to get them all done! Did you put batting or anything in between your layers?

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  4. To Just Me: Thank you :-)
    To Lauren: yes, $50 AND I think I have enough fabric to do one more quilt!!
    To Cathy: You can put batting, but I used flannel, so two thicknesses of flannel seemed to be enough or you can do one more layer of flannel. :-)

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  5. Beatutiful, I love the fabric. I just discovered rag quilts too!

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  6. Love the quilt! How do I become a follower of your blog??
    Lura Lee

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  7. I love the colours you chose - very girly but still not too baby. I like the idea that quilts will get used for years so it seems silly to me to choose a really "baby" theme that they'll grow out of.

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  8. Lura Lee - I sent you an email. Thank you CraftyMummy...I agree. I wanted a blanket she could carry with her for years :-)

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  9. Maybe I could actually make one of those!!
    Thanks for sharing...found you on Backyard Wed...

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  10. I asbolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it too! WOW -- this is crazy good. It looks so soft and warm and loving. It just makes me smile and want to cuddle somebody. You did a great job, both on the quilt and on the tutorial. I'm so happy that you shared it with the Boardwalk Bragfest. Count me as your newest follower, and I invite you to do likewise with my blog.

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  11. oh,that came out pretty nice. I love tutorials, so this will be one of them I can make with my scraps of fabrics. Love to see fun ideas.

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  12. I love your blog, You ROCK!!!!!!

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  13. Very cool I love the rag quilt! I had come across one some time ago and knew I wanted to try this as it looks super easy. I like the idea of the flannes material and no batting wonderful thanks for sharing and congrads on the new grandbaby!

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  14. You made that look so easy! It looks like something I just may be able to do! Thanks for the tutorial! That is a great and sweet gift!
    Lacy

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  15. This is so cute! I would love to try to make this for my niece! Adding it to my to-do list!!

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  16. Cute, cute, cute!!! I love the color combos.

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  17. Kool! I am going to try and make one. I'll let you know if I do! LOL

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  18. I love your rag quilt! I've always wanted to try one but I've been to hesitant. But you did a great job, especially if that was your first quilt!
    Amie @ http://kittycatsandairplanes.blogspot.com

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  19. New follower! Just love this, will have to make one for my sweet baby girl!

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  20. Very nicely done. I am not a quilt person - at all - but this makes me want to try. I love the simplicity and your colors are fantastic! Thanks for the inspiration.

    Found you from BCD. Come check out LBT when you get a chance. Thx!

    Angelene
    LBT
    http://littlebuggietutu.blogspot.com

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  21. Hi! I'd really like to try this for the bed in my guest room. How many more squares do you think would be needed to do a full size quilt? Or do you think doing a rag quilt that size would just be a disaster?

    Thanks for visiting me. I'm following you too. :)

    Alison

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  22. Thank you all for the sweet words!!! Alison...I think a full size quilt would be beautiful!! I'll try to figure out how many squares you would need to do and get back with you!!! Thank you all for visiting!

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  23. I love these types of quilts! Yours is very fabulous!!! Great job!

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  24. I really like rag quilts, too. I love the colors and the fabric choices you made. It will be a sweet and sentimental gift...because you took the time to make it. ;)

    Thanks for linking to my party. It will be fun to see what you link up each week.

    By the way, I just joined you as a follower and will showcase your project tonight.

    Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage
    http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com

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  25. I love your quilt! I just got fabric to make 4 of these quilts for under $60 and mine are going to be twice as big. Of course it helped that Hancock had their flannel on sale 40 and 50% off. Super easy and fast but special Christmas presents.

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  26. Hi
    Just wanted to let you know that I “ Featured” you on Santa’s Gift Shoppe Blog Hop today for your great project & inspiration! Be sure to grab the “I was featured” on Santa’s Gift Shoppe Button/Code for your sidebar! You deserve it! Thanks so much..If you’re not a follower already we’d love for you to join us...
    Barb

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  27. I love this rag quilt. These are my favorite colors pink & black. I have been searching for some pretty flannel such as yours. But I am not having any luck.
    Beautiful quilt!!

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  30. How do you keep the quilt from being all stringy?

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Please leave a comment because they are Pricele$$ to me!!