Rag Quilt

I'm so happy that I did my 1st ever rag quilt!  I love the way it turned out!  You know how I said that I love  baskets, well I love quilts too!  Jacob's grandmother has made us and Bella quilts and we use them all the time.  I saw a rag (strip) quilt on Pinterest, that was a good type of quilt for me to try.  I visited my favorite Sew Close to Home fabric store and found some adorable fabric.  Ms Sue and her good friend Nancy gave me tons of advice and even told me to come to her shop to make it.  I took them up on the offer.  It was wonderful have their advice with each step.  The atmosphere of the shop was so cool.  There were several people who came in and out all day long.  Some came and sewed on their own projects, some just sat and talked and there were a few that just stopped by on their lunch break.  It was a perfect hang-out for these kind, crafty, christian women. Even though I didn't know any of them well, they were all so kind to me...checking on me often and giving me advice.  I know it wouldn't be anywhere this cute without their help!

How beautiful is this!?!  Right across her house is a cotton field...even better!  Ms Sue's basement is set up perfectly as her shop.

I bought 7 different patterns.  I tore 70 - 9 inch squares of the fabric, then 35 - 8 inch flannel squares for the filling.  I did the same "birdie" fabric for the back, so would be easier for me to recognize the back and the front of the squares.

 Then I made 35 "sandwiches'.  Birdie back side, flannel filling, then different front-of-quilt side.  

I sewed and X to hold them together. 

My 1st square!  I was so excited.

 So I kinda forgot to take pictures for the most of the project.  After all the squares were sown in X's.  We laid them all out and figured out our pattered for quilt.  While it is random, I didn't want the pinks, browns, or greens side-by-side.  Then we carefully stacked them and pinned what number row it was and went to the sewing machine again.  I sewed them together to and made a row, sat it aside and did it again.  Once I finished all 7 of my rows, then I sewed each row together!  I was so excited at this point because it was finally looking like a quilt!  I sewed around the edges of the blanket for good measures.  The next step was to clip little slits to "rag" it up a bit.  I washed it and am under it now!  It smells and feels so soft!  And looks adorable of course!  It took me 5 1/2 hours of uninterrupted time to tear and sew, 15 minutes to cut my slits and whatever wash/dry time to complete.

This was the PERFECT quilt for me.  I ONLY do simple square crafts.  Sewing several squares to create one big square blanket = my kind of project!  I also love how it isn't meant to be perfect.  No one will ever notice all the places that I messed up!  A rag quilt is meant to look cute, cozy and worn! 

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