Flag rag quilt

You might remember a few months back when I made my 1st rag quilt. We use is a lot when lounging around.  So I had this idea for a larger Christmas quilt and a flag quilt.  I got most of the fabric from my favorite store, Sew Close to Home.  

I did red/white strips of seersucker with a corner of blue/tiny white stars on the front of the quilt and on the back, I did all blue/tiny white stars.  Even though it isn't really hard, it still takes time to do any crafty project.  Needles, scissors and my organized stacks of fabric are no match for 2 busy little girls.  I did a good bit of the tearing during the day.  But when it can to the sewing...I chose to do it while they were sleeping. So for 2 nights (when I was off the next day...not that I get to actually sleep late) I stayed up until about 12-1am working on my little project.  I got into a groove, I had either older country or classic rock playing .  Ya know, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson & George Jones or Led Zepplin, Eagles, CCR, you get the picture...me jamming in my jammies with the sewing machine, singing...maybe dancing a little??

Step 1: Figure out how much fabric you need of each pattern without having lots left over.  If it weren't for Ms Sue's husband, I wouldn't had been able to figure it out.  

Step 2:  I tore my fabric into 8 inch squares and cut my quilt batting in 7 inch squares.

Step 3: Make sandwiches of front fabric, batting, and back fabric & sew corner to corner to make an "X". 

My improvised trash bag

Step 4: Once all the sandwiches are "X"ed together, lay our your quilt the way you would like it to be.   Stack them up, start sewing to make a row, then each row together. 

Step 5: once your quilt is all sewn together, it's time to "rag it".  Clip all the excess fabric around all the squares.  

Step 6: Wash it to get all the strings off and to rag it even more.  I should've pre-washed my fabric so the red or blue wouldn't bleed onto my white strips, but I forgot.  A sweet lady at Ms Sue's told me to try using Shout's Color Catcher sheets in the washing machine.  I tried them.  My white strips are still white, so I think they worked!

Step 7: Enjoy for many years to come.

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