Better Late Than Never?

Every time I tried to deliver this baby present it just didn't work out.  Finally gave it to him tonight at our ward Christmas party.  Luckily he'll still get some use from it even though he's six months old!  He likes it already!

Rag Edge Receiving Blankets & Burp Cloths

Although I’ve made lots of receiving blankets and burp cloths over the last year I’ve never been a fan of making them.  I just don’t like the sew, turn right side out and then topstitch procedure.  A month or so ago I spied my friend sporting a rag edge burp cloth and loved the idea of making those instead.  So for this last batch I tried it out and thought they turned out great.  For the receiving blankets I cut the front and back about 42” square.  With wrong sides together I sewed a 1” seam all the way around and then used the rag quilt scissors to snip all around and then took them to the laundry mat to wash them.  For the burp cloths I used my regular pattern and used a 1/2” seam.  (Although for a few I accidentally used a 1” seam and I think I like those better.)  I also noticed that when I used a different fabric for the front and back they didn’t end up shrinking the same so they don’t lay flat.  The couple that I made using the same front and back worked out much better.  So from now on I’ll have to use the same fabric front and back or prewash the fabric so I can use two different fabrics which is much cuter!

So if you are in need of making baby presents this is a great project!

The one on the left uses the same fabric on both sides.  On the right there’s a different fabric on the back that ended up shrinking a lot and bunching up the fabric.

Bowling Ball Rag Quilt Tote Bag

I have a friend that loves bowling so I made her a rag quilt bag for her upcoming wedding.  Can you believe that you can make this bag with just one yard of fabric?  I really need to write out the directions for it.  If you know someone who loves to bowl that might want this bag let me know.

When you end up with scraps...

make a scrap bag!

hmmm... what can I make out of these leftover rag quilt blocks and a few strips of leftover fabric?

This cute totebag! I'm such a hoarder that I hate throwing out perfectly usuable materials and am thrilled when I come across good ideas for using up supplies that I already have. It's been a lot of fun the last 24 hours figuring out how to use the fabric I already have to make bags esp. since some of the fabric has been precut and even sewn together. A good challenge!

rag quilt tote bags

I absolutely adore making rag quilts. I've made lots and lots of them over the last couple of years. The are great because they are so forgiving. You don't have to be perfect to have them look good. Saturday at the Boutique in the Barn one booth was selling the cutest rag quilt bags. They were quite the steal. Customers snatched them up so fast. I really wanted one but couldn't decide which one I liked best and then they were gone... I wish I knew if they had a website so I could link to it because they were super cute and very well made.
Well, I couldn't stop thinking about them and then lastnight I remembered that my mom had given me some leftover squares from a rag quilt she made for herself and also some odd strips of flannel leftover from anothe rag quilt that I think we gave away.

From these random leftover 10" squares...

I made this giant butterfly bag for my mom.

From these 7 strips of leftover flannel...

I made this awesome bag that I can't wait to start carrying.

Of course now comes the time consuming part of sniping the edges to make them fray. I figure I can work on that later watching a movie or something. Right now I'm still in sewing mode and have leftovers from another quilt calling to me so I think I'll make another bag!

Pine Trees and Stars

I have no idea why this picture insists on being loaded sideways but there it is and I can't get it to change. These squares are leftover from a quilt I made Josh for his b'day a couple years ago when we were dating. The goldish squares have snowflakes and the green squares have pine trees and yellow stars. I actually had to piece together the bottom left pine tree rectangle and the bottom right pine tree rectangle is on its side. The squares were cut 10". The finished size of the quilt is approximately 33" square.

Bears & Brown Plaid Rag Quilt

Here's another rag quilt I made recently from some leftover squares my mom gave me. Here are all the blocks layed out. Some of them were already sewn together in an "X" so I stayed with that. The squares are 8".

And here's the quilt sewed together and clipped. Finished size: approx. 44" square.

Shades of Brown Rag Quilt

I actually made this quilt a few years ago and was holding onto it to find the right person to give it to. On a trip home in January I was visiting a friend who just bought gorgeous brown couches. As soon as I saw them I knew this quilt belonged on those couches so I packed it up and sent it off. On my last trip home I once again visited my friend and there was the quilt on the couch - a perfect match!
The quilt is made from 10" squares of flannel that are the same on both sides. I stitched them together in a + sign with zigzag stitches. The overall finished size is approximately 50" wide by 66" long.

Baby Duck Rag Quilt

These are the blocks we had leftover from another baby rag quilt we made a while back. I thought it would be a weird shape to have it so skinny and long so...

I cut some of the squares in half to make a square quilt. That left me being short for the corners so I found a yellow and white striped leftover square from another quilt and cut it up for the corner blocks.

Here's the quilt all sewed together and snipped. I found these great Fiskars scissors on sale at Joanns a few weeks ago that worked great. They are even called Rag Quilt Scissors. Made all that clipping a breeze.

Here's a close up of one corner. Instead of the traditional stitched "X" with straight lines I like to do a + with zig zag stitches. I think it turns out really cute that way.