quilts

by Heather Spence

Okay, I understand that the title may not be entirely inspiring.  At least you'll know exactly what you're making!!  :D

A couple of thoughts about rag quilts:

• They are very low on the perfection scale.  Because all the seams are on the outside of the quilt you don't really need to worry about whether or not seams are matching or even if the stitching is perfect.
  
• In my opinion, the most time consuming part of making rag quilts is the cutting.
  
• Rag quilts are super easy and great for beginners.
  
• Great for scrap fabric and batting (can we please get an amen to that??)
  
• The 1/2" seam allowance is super important.
  

With that out of the way let's get started!  (oh ... you can also skip straight to the bottom of the post for the PDF version of the pattern.)

Quilt Size:  48" x 56"

Great size for snuggling under on the couch.  A little big for a lap quilt.

Fabric:

I used Little Ruby Flannels by Bonnie & Camille for Moda.

You'll need:

• 1 Layer Cake or (42) 10" x 10" squares
  
• 3 yards backing of 44/45" fabric or 2 yards of Minkee (which is, generally 60" wide)
  
• 1 1/2 yards 90" wide batting from a roll or twin size package ... or leftovers!  I used scrap batting for my quilt.
  

Before cutting:

• Separate the Layer Cake into two piles of 21 fabrics each.  One pile will be predominately one color (i chose red), which will be the large squares, and the other pile will be a mixture of all the other colors, which will be for the small squares.

Cutting Instructions:

Trim the squares that will stay large to 9" by taking 1" off of two sides that run perpendicular to each other.  Set them aside.  (you can discard the extras or make something out of them ... totally up to you.)  As a side note:  Do not try and cut the entire pile of 10" squares at the same time. I stacked 3 on top of each other and, as this is low perfection, didn't worry too much if they didn't line up perfectly.

• Cut the other 21 squares in half vertically and horizontally to make eighty four 5" squares.
  

From your backing fabric:

• Cut WOF (width of fabric) six 9" strips.
  
• Sub-cut into twenty-one 9" squares.
  

Then:

• Cut WOF eleven 5" strips of fabric
  
• Sub-cut into eighty-four 5" squares
  

Then from batting:

• Cut five 8" strips
  
• Sub-cut into twenty-one 8" squares
  
• Cut eleven 4" strips
  
• Sub-cut eighty-four 4" squares
  

Done??  Excellent!  Let's get on to some sewing.

1)  Lay one backing square with right (printed) side down.

2)  Next center one square of batting on top of the backing square.

3)  Lay one Layer Cake square on top of the batting, lining up the corners and edges with the backing square.  It's totally fine if it's too big or doesn't match up perfectly.  Just do the best you can.  Remember:  Low Perfection Quilt!

4)  Sew diagonally from one corner to opposite corner.  Hint:  If the corners of your fabric are pushed down into the machine by the needle try running a piece of scrap fabric folded in your half through the machine first.  Do not cut it off!  This helps keep a tension on the fabrics and minimizes problems.

5)  This a great time to chain piece.  Chain piecing is when you don't cut the threads between the pieces that you've sewn.  You'll have a really long chain of quilt blocks.

6)  Once you've stitched all the squares in one direction, clip the chain apart, turn the blocks and stitch the other direction creating an X on the block.  Hint:  You may find the presser foot pushing the fabric towards you causing a pucker to happen at the previous stitching line.  I counter this by gently pushing the fabric back under the presser foot.

7)  Repeat steps #1 through #6 with the large squares.  You should have eighty-four 5" blocks and twenty-one 9" blocks.

8)  At this point, depending on what level of I-Just-Want-To-Finish-This-Quilt you are at, you can choose to square up the blocks to the backing squares. 

9)  Next sort the little squares into the different colors.  My piles were blue, pink and green.  And ... there's no picture.  How I missed this I'm not entirely sure ... so imagine three piles.  One pile will be the bigger than the rest, in this case it was the blue pile.

10)  Using the layout on the pattern (PDF at the bottom of the page) I decided to use the blues as my dark squares and the green and pink squares as my cream squares.  Pair one medium and one dark (in this case a green with a blue). 

Hint:  Due to the nature of Layer Cakes there is an extremely high chance of a wide variety of colors...this is good!  It lends to the scrappy nature of these quilts.  Go with the flow of it and try not to get hung up on what will look good where.  The most important part is the contrast between light and dark so be consistent!

11)  Put your two squares together with backings touching.  Line up the edges and the corners ...

13)  Sew down the side using a 1/2" seam allowance.  Did you get that??  1/2" SEAM ALLOWANCE.  That's super important.

14)  Repeat #11 through #13 with remaining green/blue and pink/blue squares.

15)  Match two pairs turning the second pair so the blues are opposite of each other.

16)  With backing sides together, match center seams by folding them opposite of each other.  Butt them up right next to each other.  Pin if you need to.  Sew according to step 13 with a 1/2" seam allowance.

17)  Open that bad boy up!  Should look something like mine with those seams standing up for the whole world to see.  :D

18)  Repeat #15 through #17 until all four patches are completed.  (btw ... you're more than half way finished!  congratulations!!)  You should have 21 four-patches.

Take a moment ... get something to drink.  Stretch.  We're in the home stretch with the sewing but it's the perfect time to move a bit.

Okay.  Ready??  Now we're going to make rows:

19)  Lay out your blocks. Be sure to alternate one large square with one four-patch with six blocks in each row.  Make 7 rows.

20)  Sew the the blocks together following steps #12 and #13.

21)  Sew rows together following step #16 where seam allowances match up.  I like to sew a completed row to the rest of the quilt when I'm done sewing it together.  Gives me the feeling of progress as I move down the quilt!

22)  Once all the rows are sewn together sew around the outside edge of the quilt with a 1/2" seam allowance.

23)  I open up the seams as I come to them.

24)  Don't forget to back-stitch at the beginning and end of each side of the quilt!

Phew!  Almost.  Done.  I guess if you really wanted to not go any further you'd have a wonderful quilt but ... BUT ... it just wouldn't be finished.  Right??

Okay ... grab your scissors.  But not any old scissors!  Spring loaded scissors are your best bet.  Though my very favorite scissors for rag quilts?  The Kai 5150 6-inch Rag Quilt Scissors.  Like cutting through butter.  I promise.

25)  Now ... all those 1/2" seam allowances ... you are going to start clipping them.

I keep my sections about 1/2" so they are square'ish.

What NOT to cut:

• The four actual corners of the quilt.  Don't do that.  Not good.
  
• Any stitching lines.  Yeah ... don't do that either.  Really not good.
  
• The quilt top fabric itself (it is possible to accidentally catch some of it when clipping).  That's not good either.
  

What to clip:

• The outside edges ... all four
  
• All the seams that are sticking up
  

26)  When you come to a seam that is sewn open, clip one side ...

then clip on the other side ...

and when the seam stands up continue clipping 1/2" sections until the next intersection.

27)  I start at the top edge and work along each row until the row is finished.  Inevitably I miss a section.  But it's fine ... it's simple to clip it later (the wonderful part of having the seams outside the quilt).

28)  When it's all cut (but not yet washed) it'll look like this.

Thoughts on washing ... rag quilts create a huge amount of lint so I recommend that you take it to a laundromat to wash it the first time, especially if it's a larger quilt.

29)  Throw it in the washing machine on regular cycle with whatever soap you use. LOTS of little threads will be in your machine when the cycle is done so be sure to wipe it out really good.

30) Once washed put into the dryer.  Regular heat. BEWARE!  The lint trap will be super full of lint so change it.  (of course ... my quilt is flannel so there was an exceptional amount of lint ... if you use regular cotton quilting fabric you won't have nearly as much lint.)

And here it is!!  All soft and warm and finished!

You can get the downloadable PDF version here.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you learned something new and enjoy the pattern.

xo,

~ h

by Sarah Curry

I don’t mean Here-here – I mean Quilty-here –Hooked-here; totally awash in books (usually bought for the one quilt with those “oooh” colors, teeny-tiny patches, and curves and angles inside); astonished and embarrassed at how those four Fat Quarters of fabric you bought that said, “Oooooh” apparently bred like rabbits (like those old wire coat hangers used to do) during the night, and you suddenly have a Stash.  Hooh, boy. 

I guess I got the Q-gene from both sides, because both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were quilters – as was my mama before me. Mama’s mother (Nana) was built like a Pouter Pigeon - soft to cuddle up to.  Little wire spectacles. A cardboard box in the closet that held kid-stuff – old jewelry, most of a deck of cards, battered pot lid. She baked with cinnamon. And she made quilts.  Completely UTILITARIAN quilts, made of men’s WOOLEN suits and all were rectangles and squares. And they were tied with red yarn. H-E-A-V-V-V-Y. 

Grandma Curry, on the other hand, lived in an old Victorian house in West Texis (not a typo – I spell it like it’s pronounced).  I remember the gables, the wraparound porch, the gingerbread, the “hidden” rooms, and that “children are to be seen and not heard". Grandma Curry looked like the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz” (squinchy eyes, hook nose, thin lips), and as far as the grandkids were concerned she was just about that distant and scary.  She made “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” and “Lone Star” quilts with patches that were about the size of a nickel - finished.  All cut with scissors, hand-pieced, and hand-quilted. E-X-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E. 

Mama was a quilter, too, although she didn’t really enjoy the cardboard-template-pencil-scissors routine.  And her sense of color wasn’t the best.  But she quilted. Also hand-pieced, and hand-quilted.  And WASHED those quilts, every weekend, with the sheets. Not one of her old quilts survived.  But they were definitely clean! 

By the time my boys graduated from high school and went to college (thank gawdess!  I got’erdun!), I was SO-O-O-O ready to begin the next phase of my life (after a 48-hour nap). That's when Mama burst into the living room one afternoon, laden with all sorts of bags and suitcases and more bags and an ironing board and what looked suspiciously like one of Daddy’s old tackle boxes. Mama travelled like that. She had “discovered” the rotary cutter and mat and was READY to make a quilt for the “Sweet Darlin’ Angel Baby Boy” who didn’t yet have one. 

So the next morning off we shot to the quilt shop. By noon, we found appropriate fabric for a 6-log “Rail Fence” (blues for a hockey player – no florals), with 1 ½” finished “logs".  What?  Can’t start yet?  Gotta wash the fabric (with salt & vinegar)?  Geez.  Press same.  I became the “cutter”.  Woo-HOO!  Lookit how FAST that is (still don’t understand what I’m doing, but that’s OK)!  As I cut strips (fast), Mama sewed (slowly – she insisted on PINNING every seam).  Then I pressed the strips (Mama was always behind, still pinning).  Then I cut some more.  Mama pinned and sewed.  I pressed and cut.  And had a WONDERFUL time! 

Finally, about midnight, Mama lurched up and announced that I could quit cracking the damn’ bullwhip, ‘cause she was tired and going to bed, and she did.  I did not.  How COULD I?  The pattern was REALLY starting to show!!!!  YOWZA!!!!!  So, when Mama arose the next morning, bleary-eyed and demanding coffee, there was a finished quilt top laid out on the couch.  Every time she told the story, Mama never forgot to mention the fact that I had pressed those seams “everwhichaway, bless her heart.”  Hmph.   

And I was hooked.  Beyond just “hooked,” I had bumbled onto the fourth passion of my life. I haven’t a clue how much money I’ve spent on that stash (from which I am working, these days, almost exclusively), or even how many quilts I’ve made.  I did make 6 (SIX!) “Rail Fence” quilts before I “graduated” to “Double Irish Chain.”  Made 6 of those before I “graduated” to another level, and I reckon I’ve averaged a quilt every 2-3 months for 30 years.  Yeah, it’s a Passion.   

So. That’s how *I* got hooked.  Passionate.  How did YOU find quilting? 

...

Our glorious guest blogger, Sarah Curry...

"3d-generation quilter, 3d-generation grammarian/teacher, born and raised in Hobbs, NM. NMSU, twin sons (and when they started coming in litters, I was done with that sort of project), happily divorced since 1977, UNM Law School, civil litigation for nearly 20 years, now retired, 4 grandsons,  but still quilting – these days, almost exclusively from a legendary stash.  AllieCat and I grow old together, but she’s still an excellent “Quilt Inspector/Block Re-arranger”."

Welcome to our new series called The Best Of ... !

Every month we'll introduce to  you one of our designers, and they'll share their very Best's.  To kick off our first month, we are thrilled to acquaint you with, Valerie Smith and her "best of" list.