Rag Quilt Duty

Yesterday morning as I was posting, my husband came up to me and asked what I was doing….I really dreaded to tell him because I knew he would tease me and I also know how skeptical he is of things on the internet – he doesn’t believe ANYTHING and even thinks Pioneer Woman isn't a real person!
Nevertheless, I don’t want to hide anything from him so I swallowed and said….”blogging”.
“Blogging?….You’re blogging?”
“Yes, dear – and I even have 4 followers!”
“Followers? You mean like this?”
Immediately he struck a pose like someone worshipping Pharoah….arms raised, bending at the waist over and over again. I chuckle every time I picture him doing that.
“Well, what do you blog about? I hope you don’t blog about sex!”
“No, honey, I don’t blog about sex…no one I know blogs about sex!”
(unless you count yesterday’s post – oops!)
After I told him what I DO blog about and how I just wanted to reach out and share my life in the hopes it would perhaps make someone else smile or touch them in a special way as I have been touched by others’ blogs, I got his blessing in the form of:
“Well, that’s good!”
So, I guess I can now post my blogs without dreading his discovery….I’m sure I’ll still get some ribbing out of it, though....but, that's OK - I've since put him to work...how? you ask...read on!

I started on a customer order yesterday for a purple and pink rag quilt. I prefer to consider the ones I make more like "blankets" because I don't insert any batting in the center of each square and stich an "X" thru the middle, making it a puffier quilt....guess I'm too lazy in that respect. This one's heavy enough as it is since it's made with 3 layers of mostly 100% cotton flannel. I even left two rows of squares off to keep the weight down.

It took me about 2 hours to cut all the squares lay them out and then put them together in a 8 x 8 block pattern. I added a small pillow, too.

The final sewing step is to stitch around the outer edge of the entire quilt to secure the fraying there.

I like to use a decorative stitch and I just happened to have a purple and pink variegated thread to do it with - Perfect!

Then comes all the snipping. The first rag quilt I made I did all the snipping with my regular cutting scissors and boy, was I sorry I did! I then did some research on pricing and quality and decided to purchase the Fiskars' brand snippers and I absolutely LOVE them!

So, I snipped the pillow as a demonstration and then handed the quilt over to you-know-who with a sweet smile and syruppy little "Sweetie, do you think you could snip this for me tonight?"

One hour and 45 minutes later it was done! I've washed it and it's in the dryer now being fluffed so I'll have final pictures posted later on.

All that flannel cutting left my mat "crusted" with bits of fluff - embedded in the little cuts and all.

That's why I purchased this:

Lovely! Works like a charm! Although I know I will have to replace this mat soon as it has some very deep permanent cuts in all the common places - 2½", 5", 18", etc...
I believe I got it at a yard sale several years ago.

I've entered my first swap! It's an "I SPY" quilt square swap with Karen of Sew Many Ways. I was thinking it might be fun to make a rag quilt/blanket out of my squares. I think she still needs a couple more participants so, if you're interested, stop by her blog and sign up.

Have a great weekend!


>^..^<~
Jenn