Hannah's Birthday Rag Quilt

This project started with some polar fleece fabric that I had purchased about a year ago because it was on sale.  I had gone to the fabric store trying to think of a project that was different so I started to stroll outside of the quilting cotton section and ended up at the back corner with the giant bolts of fleece.  Joann fabrics often has good sales and this was a 50% off sale.  At the time there were a few nieces of mine expecting babies so I bought a few girly colors and set them aside.  The babies ended up being boys so into the fabric stash the fleece went.  Then a few weeks back we were shopping for a birthday gift for my son's friend Hannah's 7th birthday and the light bulb went on over my head and I remembered the fleece was still in my bin.  I had always wanted to try a quick rag quilt and thought these two colors would compliment each other nicely.

A rag quilt is a good project for beginners or if you are short on time as they come together very quickly and require no basting or quilting.  Most fleece bolts come in 60 inch widths so a little yardage goes a long way.  This project was for a full sized bed and unlike a traditional quilt that you want to have hang over the sides of the bed enough to cover the sides of the mattress this type of quilt is fun to make as a throw blanket or a bed topper.  So first step was to decide on sizes for my squares and cut them out from each of the two fabrics.  Since the fabric is so wide and would be difficult to cut if folded two times due to the 4 layers of a very thick fleece I had to be creative when cutting.

This method works well for me.  I lay wider fabrics on one of my larger cutting mats and establish a straight side.

Then using my 12 x 12 cutting square as a guide I place my 24 inch ruler against that for my straight cut line for my cutting wheel.  The trick here is to not allow the longer ruler to leave the fabric until the cut is across the entire width of the piece.  To do that I remove the 12 x 12 while making my cut.  I then replace the 12 X 12 and slide the long ruler along that until it extends to the other side of the fabric, I then finish the cut.

 The cutting here is very quick, strips of fleece, then into squares.  Another thing to know is that there is single sided and double sided fleece.  When you create a rag quilt from a fabric like cotton or even flannel you would create your squares with a front and a back fabric and sometimes, depending on the thickness of the flannel you may even choose to line it with more flannel or batting like a traditional 'quilt sandwich'.  However, with fleece you already have such a thick warm fabric that there really is no need to do that.

If you have a double sided fleece then it is as soft and fuzzy on one side as the other.  However, you also want to be aware that there is a slight difference between the front and back of the fabric.  It's difficult to see if you don't look closely, but if you make a mistake and don't keep the front fabrics to the front of your work it will stick out in the finished product.  Here's an example of the fabric that I have with a printed design, I've folded over the fabric so you can see the back.  It's just slightly less plush, I was careful to keep my cut squares oriented the same way to avoid making this mistake.

The noticeable difference in making a rag quilt vs any other traditionally pieced quilts is the seam in this type of project is exposed.  I chose a seam allowance of 1 inch here and when assembled the seams can get a bit crowded.  If you choose to make your rag quilt from cotton or flannel that has a liner or batting you would potentially have three layers of fabric as your seam which can get a bit bulky.  This bulk is fine and will help to give the quilt the special look that makes it a rag quilt. 

Although the style of this quilt is a bit forgiving it is important to be precise in your seam allowances and square intersections as variations will show on the back of the project.  Once you've got all your squares together the next step is to cut the seams.  I use a spring loaded scissor for this part of the project so that my hand wouldn't hurt from all the cutting.  This is my sewing machine scissor that sits next to me all the time and I love it.. it really gives my hand a break as I tend to have numbness and pain in my fingers and hands.  The cuts should be in approx 1/2 inch intervals along all seams.  Keep to approx 1/8 inch away from any stitched seam to avoid creating a hole in your finished work.  As you can see near the edge I cut away about an inch and a half to create the fringe around the edge when the cutting in the middle is complete.

In a project of this size there is a lot of cutting that needs to be done.  I tried to stay roughly the same size although since you are eventually going to toss this into the laundry so that the seams can get fluffy and frayed looking it isn't going to make much of a difference if they aren't all exactly 1/2 inch.  Once completely cut the last step before tossing it into the washing machine is to secure the outside edge with one stitch all around the project and then to cut the same fringe style cuts around the entire project.

Edge 'fringe'

The finished project.  Hopefully it fits well as a bed quilt or as a fun throw blanket.  Seems like soft fabric a 7 year old girl might enjoy.