Flannel Rag-Quilted Baby Quilt

This rag quilt was so easy and fun to make. I cut out the squares one night…

I thought I would do a sort of “mini tutorial” for making these.  I didn’t take photos of all the steps, but if you are at all familiar with sewing, you probably would be able to work with these basic instructions.

Supplies:

To use a cutting mat, quilting ruler and rotary cutter:  fold the fabric in half, with the selvedges at the top, then fold again.  Cut every 8 inches.  Take each 8 inch strip you just cut, and cut again into 8 inch squares.  Do this with all your fabric.  Or, just take a ruler and scissors and cut your fabric into 8″ squares (cut however many squares you want, or  until you run out of fabric!).  I think I did something like 20 squares out of each fabric (I don’t have the quilt in front of me to be exact), so then I would have a total of 40 squares.  This made a nice baby-sized quilt.  I don’t think it is even a full crib size, but it’s perfect size for wrapping a baby in.

Pin two squares together (if you used contrasting fabrics, you’d pin one of each of these together), and draw a straight line diagonally through the center of the square (using chalk or a quilter’s marker or something that will wash out).  Or, you can just sew diagonally through each square like I did, without taking the time to mark through the center.  You want to sew from corner to corner to make an x through each square.  You can magnify the photos above to get a better idea how this looks.

After you have sewn “x’s” through each pair of squares, lay your squares out and see how you want to put them together.

Now pick up two squares and use a 1/2″ seam allowance to sew them together, with the seams facing up toward you.  Sew all of the rows and columns together, being careful to keep the seams facing upward rather than sewing right sides together as in most sewing.

After you have all the squares sewn together, use a 1/2″ seam to sew a straight stitch all the way around the whole perimeter of the quilt.

Next comes the fun part.  Take your scissors and clip about 3/4 of the way down on all the seams, including the outside seams, being very careful not to clip into the seams. Make the clips about 1/4″ apart.

After all of the seams have been clipped, wash the quilt and then dry it.  Give it several good shakes to shake off all the loose threads.

That’s all there is to it!

*It may be helpful to view my Easy Homespun Table Runner tutorial, which is basically the same technique.