Rag Quilt for Kat

Isn’t it cute?  It’s called Free Spirit and cost me $4.

For the backside I simply used fleece – just wanted something soft for her to snuggle up with!  The pink came from scraps that my friend Shirley had given me.  I was able to cut 24 squares from it.  I bought the yellow from Walmart for $12 and . . . love this part –  after I had cut out the 72 squares that I needed, I had exactly none left!!!  Don’t you just love it when things work out perfectly!

I bought three fat quarters – needed a little more fabric, and raided my stash for a little bit more.  So this whole project cost me just over $20 – how awesome is that!!!

Let me mention here that my guy strongly dislikes all this fabric – the colours and the patterns.  I’d show him things and gush over how cute it was and he’d just roll his eyes and say things like “Looks like the 60’s”, or “Our house is in earth tones, why are you doing this?”  He was a little better once he realized it was for Kat’s room – he thought it was going in the living room!

My squares were 6 1/4 inch and I had 96 of them.  12 rows with 8 in each row.

I arranged them all on the floor to make sure the colours and patterns were evenly spaced apart.  This photo was very handy to refer back to once I started sewing – just to make sure I was putting things in the right places.

Let me mention that Kat got very good at averting her eyes whenever she would come into the room and see me working on her quilt.  With her being home-schooled, she’s always here, so there was no way I could keep it a secret from her.  So while she did see bits and pieces of the production (even picked her Top 10 favourite squares!) she never did see the completed quilt til her birthday.

Before the sewing began though, I had to create my little sewing oasis.  I put this desk in the closet in the office.  During construction I had a light and outlet installed in this non-closet closet just for this purpose.  Now all I need are some shelves on the walls.

It’s sew nice to be able to have a spot where the sewing machine does not have to be put away!  (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!)

That paper and pencil was the little pattern I made of how to space my pink squares evenly throughout the yellow.  How would you mix 24 pink among 72 yellow?  I’ll show you how I did it in a minute!

This is the easiest quilt ever – which is why I make it!

After cutting out all your fabric, just sew a top piece to a bottom piece by sewing an X through it.  If you want it thicker you could put some batting between the layers (like a sandwich).  But cut your batting a little smaller than these squares so the edges don’t show in the rag part – unless you want them to!

I just eyeballed my lines, going from one corner to another – and didn’t even need to worry about backstitching.

Do a continuous strip from one square to the next – no stopping or backstitching needed.

Then you’ll get a nice a long strip (thanks for holding it Jen!).  I cut these apart and then sewed them again, doing the other side of the X.  Then I cut them apart again and now had a nice pile of 8 squares that needed to be sewn into a strip.  Be sure to keep them in the right order – I referred to my picture a few times!

I forgot to take pictures of the next part.  I sewed my 8 squares together (5/8 seam allowance) into one long piece – with all the raw edges showing on the top side (totally opposite of what you usually do!).  Don’t forget to backstitch for this part – you need to secure these seams!

Then sew your strips of 8 to each other (that photo came in really handy here to make sure I wasn’t sewing anything backwards!).

When it’s all sewed together, put on a good movie and start clipping all your edges – be sure not to clip any of your stitching!!!  That would be bad.

This kind of quilt is great for novice sewers like me because if your squares don’t line up properly, no one can tell!  It only shows on the bottom side, which is fine because – it’s the bottom!

I only had time to wash and dry it once before her birthday – it’ll get shaggier with more washing.  I just used my own washer – it didn’t make too much of a mess because the fleece doesn’t really fray.  I shook it outside though until my arms were going to fall off to shake off excess threads.

The outside edge is simply stitched around (5/8) and then clipped as well.

Okay – I think it’s totally adorable!!!  Love all the colours.

Can you see my pattern with the pink/yellow fleece?

Here’s the back view.

I did three yellow between each pink, with staggered starts.  It looks like my corners matched up pretty well for the most part – phew!!!

And what did the birthday girl think of her new quilt . . .

. . . well, she was hugging it before she even opened it up to see how it looked.  She was actually very excited about it – which was nice for me because, face it, a blanket isn’t the most exciting thing for a seven year old to get on their birthday!

And as for my guy . . .

. . . he tolerated the colours and patterns to have a snuggle with Kat for a birthday picture.

There she is in bed – g’night Kat!

Isn’t it fun to make things for your family?  Although, my oldest daughter will soon be Maid of Honour for one of her friends and needs to sew a dress – eek!!!  That’s a little out of my league!  Hope she does a good job!  She’ll be calling gramma for advice.

Back to the rag quilt, the size I made fits the top of a twin size mattress – doesn’t hang much over the edges.  She’s on a top bunk so we didn’t need edge hanging, but if you’re copying my sizes, you might need to add some extra rows.