Rag Quilt

I discovered the joy of rag quilts several years ago and I am still seeing new versions of them today.  But I like the flannel version for babies because it is so soft and cuddly.  I was excited to get to make another rag quilt for my good friend who is having her 7th child and first girl!  Hooray!

I checked my stash and was reminded of the rag quilt I got too busy to make for my own daughter (sigh) along with some super cute flannel I had purchased extra of several years ago when one of my nephews was born.    After checking through my stash of large fabric pieces and playing around with color options I settled on just a double layer of two different fabric patterns.  Flannel is warm to begin with and though you wouldn’t know it from this winter, this is a fairly warm region for much of the year so I thought two layers would be enough.  I cut out 46 6x6 squares of white/strawberry flannel and 26 6x6 squares of green farmyard flannel.  In a perfect world it would have been 18 green farmyard squares 54 white strawberry squares but I patterned the back to make up for my lack of fabric.  If I’d used more green I could have done this BUT this IS for a baby girl, after all so I wanted more of the white and pink or at least as much as I could get!   I sewed each square in a double layer, backsides together, then sewed the double layer squares together with the seam facing up instead of hiding.  Then I sewed around the perimeter of the quilt and the raw edges on the quilt front got clipped every half inch or so.  After a washing, this gives the clips a frayed look that is pretty.  The clipping actually took longer than the sewing!

I then folded the blanket, used some odds and ends of pink baby ribbon tied together that I had in my ribbon box to tie around the folded quilt, made a pretty label for my creation and it was ready to go.  I looked at this blanket and loved it.  Unfortunately I was not able to attend my friend’s baby shower since it was postponed due to weather and moved over top of my daughter’s birthday party but  I hope my friend and her soon to be born baby will love it too.

I got to use that pretty snowflake paper again giving it a pretty and feminine look with a soft pink ribbon tied around it.  I have missed making quilts.  This was a fun and easy project that I spread over two days.