World Wide Quilting Page

Question of the Week

Question for the week of January 6, 2003:

Our question this week comes Jennifer S:

How does a rag quilt differ from a regular quilt? How would I go about making one?

Kay :
Linda:
The "Rag Time Quilt" is fun and easy..
The best Fabric to use is flannel..
You cut 10 or 12 inch sqs of a number of flannel fabrics...or just 2 colors if you like. You put these together wrong sides facing with batting between them the batting is cut 1" smaller than the fabric and I use high loft batting to make it fluffy, or you can use 2 pieces of low loft bat...I use the cheapest batting for this quilt. You don't have to sew an "X" in the middle, I have sewn hearts, bears,ducks and a lot of other things depending on who was receiving the quilt. What ever you put in the middle needs to cover a big portion of the middle of the square. You then sew all blocks together using 1" seam. After all is sewn together you clip with sharp scissors right up to your seam but not through it. Your clips should be no more than 1/4" apart, I like the look of this or even less. After this tedious task is done you then take it to a commercial laundry and wash it to make it "rag". This is a really wonderful cuddle quilt. And is quick to make. Good Luck

Linda :
I saw where you can use a weed eater to fray the edges.It was on Flynn Multi-Frame site. www.flynnquilt.com. I have not used this method. Has anyone else.

Veann Liby :
A rag quilt has blocks that are "quilted as you go", in effect by placing a piece of batting between two squares and stitching an X across them. You then sew the blocks together with a one-inch seam, with the seam on the top of the quilt. You cut the seem at about 1/4" increments, wash the quilt (go to a laundromat!!!), sometimes two or three times, and the seams become raggedy.. This is fun to make and mistakes can be covere easily. The cutting of the seams is tiresome. Good luck!

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