Saturday, August 25, 2012

MY FIRST RAG QUILT...FOR AUNTIE

UPDATE!! Since I wrote this post, I have made a tutorial for making a simple rag quilt. You can check it out here at this POST.

I recently shared the  western theme rag quilt I made for my cousin Marie HERE.   I thought I would share the first rag quilt I made in this post to you.  This pattern was probably the easiest one I made.

The very first one I made I had planned to keep for myself so I chose two of my three favorite colors....blue and yellow.  While I was making it though I decided I wanted to give it to one of my aunts that my family (sons and their wives) and I lovingly call, "Auntie".  I used two cotton prints for the front and a yellow flannel for the back.  I think I just used a white flannel for the batting.

All pieces (the cotton prints for the top, the flannel for the batting, and the flannel for the backing) were cut 6 - inch squares.  

You make the finished square by sewing the "sandwiches" together.  A "sandwich" is the three layers together---with the backing on the bottom right side face down, the flannel/batting on top of that, and then the top piece with the right side facing up.  The three layers are sewn together by sewing diagonally across the square making an X.  

This X is meant to hold the batting in place as it is cut an inch smaller than the top and backing so that it isn't caught in the seams when you sew the squares and rows together.  

I decided to use flannel for the batting so that I didn't have to "fool" with the batting being smaller and not showing in the seam.  If you have never made a rag quilt and plan to, I would highly recommend that you use flannel for the batting. 

You sew the squares together with a 1/2 inch seam with the backs together. This will make the seam on the top and the finished squares 5 inches.  I simply alternated the two prints like a checker board for the top.

 






















 
 


In the post for Marie's rag quilt, I talked about how after the first quilts Ruth and I made, we decided to start "clipping" closer together.  This picture shows how the look is different when you clip the seams about 3/8 inch apart.  It gives the seam a scalloped look.  The next pictures show the back.


 I also cut out a heart shape from the yellow flannel and wrote "For Auntie" on it with a fabric pin and then just hand stitched it down about a 1/4 of an inch inside the raw edge.

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