Plaid Flannel Rag Quilt

  I finished the rag quilt today and just finished washing it to rag the edges.  I made the quilt 6 blocks by 7 rows with 126 - 10" blocks.  I made three layer blocks with the plaid on top and the blue flannel in the middle and on the bottom.

   I love the way the blue flannel comes through in the seams.  This was a lot of fun to make and I can't wait to put it out at Christmas.

Birthday Gifts

    I finally get to share the birthday gifts I gave my daughter.  She turned 39 years old yesterday and we got to spend some time together yesterday so she could open her gifts.  I bought her a shop vacuum in July that was part of her birthday gift, but I wanted to make her a few things for her new house.  So here are the homemade birthday gifts I gave her yesterday.

    I made her a rag quilt with a sale priced flannel that I found at Hancock Fabrics.  I posted about it  here.  This project took me about 4 days to finish.  She loves the cats on the fabric and the gray matches her new couch.  I bought 9 yards of this flannel fabric.  I cut it up into 108 - 10" squares.  I layered 3 squares together and sewed an X in each 3 layer block.    I sewed 6 blocks in a row and made 6 rows sewing them together so the seam is exposed on one side.   And this crazy fabric was directional so I had to be careful to get the cats all going in the same direction.  Fun.  After I sewed the entire quilt together, I snipped all the exposed seam allowances about 1/2" apart being careful not to snip the actual seams, then I threw the quilt in the washer and dryer to get the seams to ravel and become "raggy".

    The next project I made for her was an embroidery done on the embroidery machine she bought for my birthday last year.  I spent 3 hours getting this sewing machine embroidered because it had so many thread color changes.  It was very time consuming but it turned out pretty good.  I embroidered the picture on a piece of white muslin and framed it with a wooden frame that I painted.  It was really easy to do and the whole thing cost me about $12.00 including the cost of the embroidery design.  She loved this one as well.  Something she can hang on the wall of her craft room.

   

   And the last homemade gift I made were some linen napkins.  When I was shopping for fabric, I couldn't decided which color I liked more so I bought 1 yard of each and made four napkins from each yard.  I cut the fabric into fat quarters, hemmed them and then embroidered them with her last name initial on them.  The white is a linen blend and it was easier to work with than the blue or the brown fabric which were 100% linen.  If I were to make more linen napkins, I would definitely use a linen blend.  She loves her new napkins for her new house.  The fabric for these napkins was about $35.00.

      I didn't make the next gift.  I wanted her to have a wind chime for her yard so I found a reasonably priced wind chime on etsy and it's super cute made with recycled kitchen items.  We took the time to hang this in the tree in her front yard yesterday.

    I also gave her a home made sour cream pound cake and then we spent the afternoon at the North Florida Fair looking at the farm animals, eating junk food and enjoying the warm November weather.

Rag Quilts Are So Much Fun To Make.

  I finished my rag quilt this morning after snipping all the seams to help them fray.  It was awesome!  I washed the quilt this evening (cleaning out the dryer vent every 12 minutes).

 Snipped but not washed.

Washed and officially ragged.

I also made these two blocks into wall hangings.  They came in a panel of 4.  They measure 17 3/4" x 17 3/4" before binding.  I've had them stashed for a few months.  I wanted something feline for the wall in the hall by the cat's room, one will go there, the other hang on the inside of the front door.  These were fun to quilt and bind in one afternoon.

My Introduction To Rag Quilts

    I bought some flannel.  Check out this cute, cute print.  It's called "Arctic Antics" by Debbie Mumm.  It wasn't on sale but I bought 9 yards to make myself a cozy rag quilt. This will be my first rag quilt.  I cut it up into 126 - 10" squares to make a 6 x 7 block rag quilt.  The cutting is done and now I just have sew an X in 42 - 3 layer blocks to secure the middle layer then I'll put them in 6 blocks rows, then sew the rows together all with 1/2" seams.

 

   I'll be back in a few days with the final quilt.  I should be done by Friday.  

Teddy Bears and Rag Dolls

       I have a teddy bear making supply stash.  Here is mohair to make 4 bears and also disks for joints for those bears.

I bought this mohair about 13 years ago and every time I see it I think about making bears and then I move on to something else.  I like making teddy bears, it's fun.  These mohair fat quarters are just enough material to make this bear:

    Thinking about bears got me to thinking about rag dolls.  I was looking at rag doll patterns on etsy the other day and I found a couple of indie patterns that I liked, but then I found this McCalls pattern that I loved because it includes a doll, a cat, a bear, a bunny, Uncle Sam, and clothes to cover them.  This is perfect for me.   I also found a cool YouTube video series that shows how to sew a rag doll, paint the face and make the hair from yarn.  I probably won't be painting the face, but I will try my hand at embroidering the face.  Rag dolls will be fun.

   I