Crazy Rag Quilt Part 1
Hey Reader,
I know I have talked on more than one occasion about how quilts don't make the best blog posts in the world. However, I am going to go a little more in depth into the making of this quilt, because I have learned a lot from my last two iterations.
As you recall I am sure, I bought half a yard of pretty much every flannel they had at the fabric store during a massive sale a few months ago. I had big dreams of making a mismatched rag quilt that would be super cozy and warm - as well as being covered in some of the silliest patterns I could find.
Cutting hundreds of squares using my cereal box pattern was getting harder and harder. Every time my hand slipped and I cut some of the cardboard I would have to either tape it up or just remember where the cardboard used to go. That definitely wouldn't fly on a traditional quilt, but rag quilts are a bit more forgiving. I really need a plastic square if I am going to keep making these.
The cool thing is that I can cut like 6-10 squares at a time, assuming my cutting wheel stayed sharp - which it did not. I made it through though and will have to go shopping before my next quilt.
Take a close look at this craziness. You will find super cute comic book BOOMs, smiling breakfasts and monkeys with bananas. Its an impressive assortment of cute creatures, anthropomorphized foods and funky patterns.
I think my personal favorite is the ice pops, where the one who is melting has a cute little frown that is horrifying if you think about it too long. Is the stick his brain? Obviously its warm there and this fate is going to meet the other popsicles. What about getting eaten. Shudder.
Anyway, it was important to me that this quilt not have a specific pattern. While I enjoyed the pattern making last time, I wanted this to feel a little more haphazard.
Last time, I had laid out the pattern for the topside of the quilt in my living room and the backside in my dining room. That is all well and good, but then it takes a while to sew it together and in the meantime there are two spaces you can't move around in. The new house has space for that nonsense, but not when I was still in my apartment (and when this part of the project was happening). It also meant assembling the squares as I was sewing, which only made the project take longer.
I figured out a solution that should have been obvious to me from the start. I laid down my front side
in my living room. I messed with it a while to make sure no matching squares directly touched. I even sorted front and back side squares so there would be some different stuff to look at on each side. There was a lot of moving around and it was kind of like a giant sudoku colors puzzle, but with 11 squares in all directions.
Once I was totally satisfied with the pattern, I flipped all of them over to their backside and put the inner white squares over them. You will notice that the center squares don't quite look right. That is because, despite buying an entire craft store worth of flannel, I still managed to run out of white. Thankfully I had extra of the comic book fabric and when its between two fabrics and only a small frayed edge is showing, you will never be able to tell.
Once I had that done, I started putting my back pattern right on top of this. I can't believe I didn't think of this last time. Everything is assembled now, and you can just pick up the parts in one go. I saved so much time on assembly this way, plus its great for smaller spaces.
This made the next part go super fast. It is going to seem like a long while for you though, because I am going to end this post here. The suspense I know!
Anyway, you should keep making your own cool stuff and try to improve on things you already make! It is a fun way to keep challenging yourself and in some cases, wind up with a ridiculously large amount of quilts.
Until next time,
JoshPrime
I know I have talked on more than one occasion about how quilts don't make the best blog posts in the world. However, I am going to go a little more in depth into the making of this quilt, because I have learned a lot from my last two iterations.
As you recall I am sure, I bought half a yard of pretty much every flannel they had at the fabric store during a massive sale a few months ago. I had big dreams of making a mismatched rag quilt that would be super cozy and warm - as well as being covered in some of the silliest patterns I could find.
Cutting hundreds of squares using my cereal box pattern was getting harder and harder. Every time my hand slipped and I cut some of the cardboard I would have to either tape it up or just remember where the cardboard used to go. That definitely wouldn't fly on a traditional quilt, but rag quilts are a bit more forgiving. I really need a plastic square if I am going to keep making these.
The cool thing is that I can cut like 6-10 squares at a time, assuming my cutting wheel stayed sharp - which it did not. I made it through though and will have to go shopping before my next quilt.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwl2zLFmZ47Zz-tVIPOH2QStp1XjcSIeqmbbup6m0EoKtyycM-1Ai9pPtYZYU1S8H37_NFVktu8qNZ-CVmcmy0P09UQzJyFYy90c5iwpX6YjetVijZaPWtxwV3Tn2aNgrqwQygnzVOEMU/s320/1.jpg)
I think my personal favorite is the ice pops, where the one who is melting has a cute little frown that is horrifying if you think about it too long. Is the stick his brain? Obviously its warm there and this fate is going to meet the other popsicles. What about getting eaten. Shudder.
Anyway, it was important to me that this quilt not have a specific pattern. While I enjoyed the pattern making last time, I wanted this to feel a little more haphazard.
Last time, I had laid out the pattern for the topside of the quilt in my living room and the backside in my dining room. That is all well and good, but then it takes a while to sew it together and in the meantime there are two spaces you can't move around in. The new house has space for that nonsense, but not when I was still in my apartment (and when this part of the project was happening). It also meant assembling the squares as I was sewing, which only made the project take longer.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjAYupt9LotOMaGj3NnJ5hpyG3-2ZazTdOP_d2hE8SMlcVUmofakn0kIuFgnaNDMTUSy5nJQeG5SGnDgLtkhS76hHQOtUlfbprP2IiP84bVmYhB5anZ8EnPSOX4cFetPq9_79jQ3OeumL/s200/3.jpg)
in my living room. I messed with it a while to make sure no matching squares directly touched. I even sorted front and back side squares so there would be some different stuff to look at on each side. There was a lot of moving around and it was kind of like a giant sudoku colors puzzle, but with 11 squares in all directions.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOIJ33KLGDMpZLcFjskjs7xgJo_vkcr2vHRc3_hyphenhyphen5TLvtkhnOOVt8jHMupnbO3CfGl8XvaodgmO4FpxRopaSVnH1O8Eci2Xs0xw3B9b2_CAmTE1mo8_VcUF9_W-Enq5Z1GO3tu90Up75I2/s320/4.jpg)
Once I had that done, I started putting my back pattern right on top of this. I can't believe I didn't think of this last time. Everything is assembled now, and you can just pick up the parts in one go. I saved so much time on assembly this way, plus its great for smaller spaces.
This made the next part go super fast. It is going to seem like a long while for you though, because I am going to end this post here. The suspense I know!
Anyway, you should keep making your own cool stuff and try to improve on things you already make! It is a fun way to keep challenging yourself and in some cases, wind up with a ridiculously large amount of quilts.
Until next time,
JoshPrime
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