She Who Dies with the Most Fabric Does Not Win

When our grandson was born, I went to the fabric store and purchased new fabric to make a quilt. When our granddaughter was born, I decided it was time to use the fabric I already own to make something beautiful. How much fabric do I have? One closet, two dressers, a couple of baskets and a bin full.

I sorted my fabric scraps looking for pink and decided to make a rag quilt. Rag quilting is something I had never done and is quite easy. 

To make this rag quilt:

1. Cut sixty 8-inch blocks of fabric
2. Cut thirty 7-inch blocks of cotton batting
3. Center a 7-inch square of batting between two 8-inch squares of a matching cotton print (wrong sides together)
4. Top stitch an “X” on each block going from corner to corner, creating 30 squares
5. Arrange squares into a pleasing design
6. Sew the blocks together into strips with a 1/2″ seam allowance
7. Sew each strip together with 1/2″ seams
8. To create the rag effect, snip each seam at 1/2” intervals to within 1/8” of all seams being careful not cut into the stitching
9. I bound the edge with a purchased satin binding ~ Simple directions for binding can be found on Heather Bailey’s Quilt Binding tutorial.

To rag your quilt, wash the quilt in warm water and detergent. It is important to shake the quilt before drying to shake off loose strings. Dry, with no dryer sheet, making sure to clean the lint trap once or twice during drying. Once dry, repeat with a second wash and dry this time with dryer sheets. Remember to clean the lint trap half way through.

The best fabric for rag quilting is flannel because it makes a soft, cuddly quilt. I didn’t have enough pink flannel so I used cotton fabrics to create a beautiful gift for the special little one in my life.

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