My First Quilting Project

Greetings Good People,

I tried my hand at quilting and I must say I really enjoyed it! I started this process with the easiest quilt I could find and that was a rag quilt. This project is laced with a lot of hits and misses on my part, but I still really enjoyed making this quilt.

I am a new grandmother and I wanted to make my first granddaughter, something special. I watched a couple...okay a bunch of YouTube tutorials on how to make a rag quilt, and I got super pumped that I can do that...all the tutorials on YouTube said it would be super easy, quick and fun and they were right! I ran to JoAnn's, pumped up and super cocky, like I knew how much fabric I needed...oops! I forgot to bring my notes! ugh!....that's okay I will just ask a salesperson or just go off my aging memory!!! Bad idea!!!

Anyway, this is not  a tutorial as I don't think I am as good as the helpful tutorials on YouTube. Just type "rag quilt tutorials" in the search bar on YouTube or just click this link.

I made my rag quilt over one year ago and I am ashamed to say that my granddaughter does not even have it in her possession...you will find out why after reading.

I used 3 different flannels, green, purple and a floral one that coordinates with both of them that you will see in the next photo.

I believe I cut my squares 10 x 10 and the polyester batting I used was cut 8 x 8 squares. it was suggested to cut your batting smaller than the squares to reduce bulk in your seams,

After all my squares were cut, I began to sandwich all three layers together. I used my favorite straight pins (quilting) to hold through all the layers.

Per the online instructions, I stitched a straight line from one corner to the other making an "X' to hold all the layers together.

Here is my completed X; now I have to do all my squares like this one.

I really like the concept of the rag quilt considering you are completing the front and the back of the quilt at the same time.

My batting will not interfere with my seams when i stitch the quilt together.

After I sewed all X's in each square, I then began piecing it together. I "auditioned' all the squares out to see how I wanted the finished quilt to look.

I had to keep in mind the back colors also to make the quilt look more cohesive. I did not have enough fabric as I thought I would. I bought 1 yard of each color of the 3 colors of fabric. I realized I should have purchased 1 yard of 4 different fabrics to have a final rag quilt to measure a crib size blanket at 31 1/2 x 52" long at 10" per square. Somewhere in my math, I screwed up! I decided to keep going. 

I matched up the seams as best I could on the backside of the quilt.

Here I am checking my seam placement...looks good.

This is where I realized I did not have enough squares to make the pattern to do what I wanted it to do. ugh! Instead of going back to JoAnn's I kept pushing through my project! maybe just to check it off my "list of projects" I don't know what I was thinking!

This is the backside of the quilt, although the construction looks good, this is NOT how I was hoping it would turn out. This is what happens when I ignore my first mind...shouting at me..."GO BACK TO JOANN'S FOR MORE FABRIC!"

As I kept powering through my project...I used post-it notes to label the rows so I would not get the rows confused as I was putting them together.

After all the rows were sewn together, it was time to press all the seams open. I think I did an awesome job matching those seams!

At this step, the seam allowances that were left exposed, per the tutorials; these seams will get 'snipped' about 1/2 inches apart to create the ragged effect once its washed and tumbled dry.

When cutting the seams, make sure you cut to and not through the seam allowance because you can ruin the quilt. At this point, all my seams were snipped and I am complete! 

This is the back of the quilt...no rhyme or reason without additional fabric!

This is the front of my finished quilt before I washed & dried it!

Final thoughts: If I had to give myself a grade on this project, I would give myself a C. I say that because there are several things I should have done differently:

• I should have took my notes that I wrote from the YouTube videos to the store with me when I purchased my fabric
• When I realized I did not have enough fabric, I should have went back to the store to get more fabric, but I did not feel like it...😒
• I should have went back to the fabric store when I ran out of fabric because I really don't like how I laid out the final quilt to make it look "cohesive"...the only things that are 'cohesive' in this quilt is the colors and most of my seams! 😏
• And, because I choose to ignore all the warning signs and continue with this project, this quilt is too small for a crib!! ugh! I have 5 rows of 9" finished squares by 4 rows of 9" finished squares...I needed to add one more row to make it the correct size!

Would I make this quilt again?? Heck yeah! I really enjoyed the process and I am going to learn from the mistakes I made and make a better quilt, one that I will be proud to give to my granddaughter. This one is going in my "projects that died" bin! 

I hope you enjoyed! If you have any suggestions on what I should do with this epic fail of a quilt, please feel free to share!

Happy Sewing!