Guest Post: Katie shows how she made her rag quilt…
Hello everyone! I am so excited that I was asked to guest post on Sew Can She!
My name is Katie and I blog over at The Crafty Blog Stalker. I love all sorts of crafting from paper, to wood and of course fabric!
I decided to tackle a strip quilt that I found in the Sew Can She Archives, but the webpage for that tutorial isn’t working anymore. Caroline posted a great Rag Quilt Tutorial that you could use instead here.
I had done a Minky Rag Quilt before and I love how it turned out so I wanted to try one with strips of fabric instead.
For the strip quilt I picked up a couple Jelly Rolls. For this type of quilt they really are a very easy way to go. They have lots of variation and the fabric is pre-cut into 2 1.5 inch strips – Perfect!
For the lining I went with flannel. Flannel gives the blanket some nice warmth and frays really nice when washed. I cut the strips of flannel to the same 2 1/2 inches becuase I wanted it to peak out between the pieces.
Layer each strip with a piece of cotton fabric facing down, flannel, cotton fabric facing up and sew down the center of the strip.
When all of the strips were sewn I laid them out so I could make sure that none of the same fabrics would be touching
Sew the strips together using a 1/2 inch seam
As you can see the one end was a little uneven so I Squared up the blanket and cut the uneven part off.
Sew around all 4 edges of the quilt using the same 1/2 seam
Isn’t it cute? And it is just about done! All that is left is to wash and dry a couple times so you can get the nice frayed seams.
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Very cute! And easier that I thought! Thanks…. Now off to chec your blog
Do you pre wash the fabric before you sew them? I have my fabrics and and am ready to start 🙂
Hi Donna,
For this quilt I don’t think it matters whether you pre-wash or not. If they are already cut into strips – don’t! (I can only imagine one tangled mess in the washer.)
Make sure you post a picture in our flickr pool!
Caroline
I made snips every 1/4" along all seams on the rag quilts I’ve made. I’d love to skip that step, very painful on the hands! Does it still fray nicely without the snps?
I have snipped edges before too and it takes FOREVER! But on this one I decided not too, just left them and I thought that still frayed nicely and were still soft not too rough.
Do you not snip the ragged edges? Does it still fray nicely?
I have snipped edges before too and it takes FOREVER! But on this one I decided not too, just left them and I thought that still frayed nicely and were still soft not too rough.
What was the final size of your quilt using 2 jelly rolls?
Thank you so much for this. Most tutorials for rag quilts say you MUST use flannel, denim or homespun cotton…not regular ol’ cotton. I thought using regular ol’ cotton would work if using flannel in one of the layers. And it looks like I was right. THat quilt looks AWESOME!. I plan to make my sister-in-law, the STEELER fan, a rag quilt purse with some of the fabric having teh Steeler logo on. The only Steeler fabric I could find was regular ol’ cotton. Now I know it will work fine. Thanks again!
How many yards of flannel did you use, and what were the finished dimensions?
super cute and great tutorial! Thank You.
This is beautiful! I am confused about one thing. In the picture of the strips laid down, it appears on the right hand side that there is a short piece of yellow and then more cotton on the end? Did you add cotton to the ends and if so what seam allowance did you use? Thank you!
As someone new to sewing, is it easier to sew a rag quilt with strips like this from a jelly roll, or the traditional squares? Thanks!
The Jelly rolls you bought are lovely, pitty we can’t find such nice things is South Africa..
So cute! I love the way that turned out! A rag quilt was the first project I did when I learned to sew. I did it for my four year old daughter and she loved it so then I did another one for my 10 month old son! They are so cozy! Just when I thought I was finished making rag quilts, you come along and make me want to try one in strips!
What is the finished size of this when you use two jelly rolls?
I’m really new to sewing and I know that what is called flannel in the U.S. is totally different here in the U.K. Do you know what the equivalent is please?
Thank you
One thing everyone should know is that when sewing your strips together, do not to keep sewing one after the next in the same direction or you will end up with a crooked quilt. I know because it happened to me and I had to take apart the whole thing. It’s been told to sew 3-4 stripes together at a time. Then another group of 3-4. If anyone has a better way to describe this, please feel free to chime in. Also, I wanted mine to be longer so I just added to the length with more fabric that I cut on my own.
Love this… so very cute! would love to know the name of this jelly roll fabric… it’s just what i been looking for… would love to make this tutorial for my 10 yr old grand daughter… if i can find out name of jelly roll then i can do a search for it… thank you!
is there any reason that this strip rag quilt can’t be made larger?
Nope! Make it as big as you want. 🙂