Playing with Warm Fuzzies

I've had some crazy stressful days lately, so with my little bit of sewing time when I got home today I wanted to work on something easy and quick.  So I used some flannel fabrics that were donated by my web friend Rita for our Mountain Baby Blanket initiative, and cut some rag squares with my AccuQuilt Go! Cutter.  I know there are plenty of Rag Quilt tutorials out there, but I figured I'd show you how easy it was to whip mine up (And it's the first Rag Quilt I've ever made!)

For each rag square (Cut with the 8 1/2" Rag Die #55013), I layered a 6 1/2" square of batting (cut using the 6 1/2" square die #55000) ~ perfect use for leftover batting pieces by the way!  When cutting my flannel rag squares I cut two layers of flannel at a time.  Any more than that with my Rag Die was pretty difficult to run through, so I didn't push it. 

Then another rag square is layered on top (wrong sides together with the batting in between).  Then, so the batting doesn't do any shifting in there, sew two diagonal lines from corner to corner to quilt each block.  I didn't do any pinning for this, but I did find that using a walking foot was helpful with the layers.  I was able to chain stitch all of the blocks pretty quickly too.

After all of the blocks are sandwiched, sew the blocks into rows.  I made mine from 20 blocks set in 5 rows of 4 blocks.  When sewing the blocks together, use a large 1" seam allowance.  My machine had this handy line marked 25 that happens to be 1" from needle center, so I could use that as my reference.  If your machine doesn't have a marking for a 1" seam allowance, you can apply painters tape on your machine bed as your reference line. 

Press the seams between the blocks open.

Then sew the rows together in the same manner.  After all the rows are sewn together, sew all around the outside edge, again about an inch in. 

This is what the finished front looked like before I washed and dried it to fray the edges.  It measured about 28" x 34" before I washed it (I had not pre-washed any of the fabrics before sewing).  Then after laundering the final quilt measures approx. 27" x 33".  It's the perfect size for nap-time cuddling, and for traveling in the car seat or stroller.  After all, if you make it too big a toddler can't drag it around as a Lovey easily. 

I used the same fabric for the front and back of each of my block sandwiches, so this is what the back of my little quilt looks like.  I love these muted 1930's vintage prints :)

So here she is all finished.  By using the AccuQuilt Go! Rag Die, I didn't have to do any of that cutting to fringe the edges after it was assembled.  I just threw it in the washer and was all done!  Playing with the warm fuzzies, and getting the instant gratification of a quick project definitely topped off my day on a good note. 

I've listed it for sale in my Etsy store and the proceeds will go to paying for shipping for our next box full of donations to go out to the Christian Appalachian Project for the Mountain Baby Blankets Initiate...And I have enough fabrics left over to make another one to put in the box and donate :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn