Rolling on............

Hi again! I talked yesterday about the roll I was on with my sewing., and showed you my "jelly roll" strips placemats. Here's a new project I tried that I've NEVER done before and I think I do love it.

What is this you say?????? Can you guess???

I've heard of these, but never thought I'd make one.. didn't like them too much and sounded like too much work! I just didn't like the "look". But..............  our minds CAN be changed! While I was sick, I came upon some many videos by Darlene Michaud. She's a quick and easy quilting maniac! I absolutely love her and did some binge watching of her videos (and I still am).

Did you guess?? It's a "rag quilt"!!! And kind of a funny name, as it really doesn't look raggy or like a rag at all. What it IS is soft and fluffy and pretty and different. Darlene's video 1 hour rag quilt is for a 1 hour rag quilt, no cutting blocks. Wow! to make a quilt in an hour? No way...... I just had to try it.

Instead of cutting out tons of smaller blocks and sewing them together, and then "ragging the edges" (by clipping all the seams), she made her quilt with just two big pieces of fabric! She used flannel with no batting inside. I used some flannel I got from my neighbor's mom. I needed something for my great nephew's 4th birthday, and thought this little lap quilt would just be perfect (and easy to mail).  Aren't the trains just perfect? It's a pale yellow but looks almost cream in these photos.

The above quilt is with all the seams sewn. You lay the flannels wrong side to wrong side, sew up the seams in two directions, forming the look of blocks. 

The back of the quilt is plain, but looks "quilted". I happened to have this one piece of flannel that I've hoarded for YEARS... and it was just the right size. See? You have to save everything right? It WILL come into use at some point in your life.

Here's a close-up of the seams before they were snipped. You make at least 3/4" seams to allow lots of room for the snipping. I mean.. the sewing of this little quilt took less than an hour!  NO batting to fuss with, no sewing squares together..........

One downside is: you have to clip all of those seams.. little snips about 1/4" to 1/2" apart on ALL of them! It took longer than sewing the quilt together.... and my hand got a little tired, but not bad. A good thing is that you even snip the outer seams so there is no binding on this quilt.  You just sew around all of the edges with a 3/4" seam and then snip it all. (sorry.. no pictures of the snipping process!).

Now for the "after".......... and this was AFTER I washed it. That's where the magic (ragging) happens.

The seams turn all fluffy and curly looking.. but not all ravelly or anything.. just soft and fluffy and fun to touch.

The back looks nice, even after washing... so very soft.

The finished lap quilt was about 36" x 45"...... perfect for a child. I'm really thrilled with it. The one "not so good" thing about making a rag quilt is that after you wash it, your washer and dryer are FULL of all the lint and strands of fabric, since you left the seams unfinished. And then............ it's even worse when  you go outside and try to shake off all of the lint that stuck to the flannel! 

I was a mess from head to foot.... little bits of lint and strands of the flannel ALL OVER me! I'm still finding pieces on my socks, pants, top and even a few in my hair! 

Oh well.. it WAS quick... took a total of about 2 hours. (and it's already in the mail for my sweet great nephew in Florida).

What do you think?

I'm still on a roll........... more tomorrow...........

~Marilyn~