Kina's Rag Quilt

My almost-2-year-old friend Kina has greatly approved of my recent rag quilts. She seems to like the feel of flannel. When I showed her mom the "Puppy Love" Rag Quilt I recently made my friend Laurie for a housewarming present, she kept wanting to touch it. When I laid it out on the floor for her, she even rubbed her cheek on the fabric:

 

 

With that kind of approval, how could I not make her one of her own? I found the following fabric which seemed perfect for a little girl:

Then these coordinating fabrics (notice how the fox has pink flowers on its belly to match the pink flowers in this fabric?):

The final product:

Here we are, reading in the fort we made using her new blanket!



Construction Quilt - Block Design

 

My friend Kristen had been looking for a construction-themed quilt for her 2 year old boy, but couldn't quite find what she wanted. I suggested we design a quilt for him. We decided the focus of the quilt would be six appliqued blocks featuring construction equipment. We drew templates and chose fabrics and ended up with the following blocks. So far it is looking fantastic! Next step is the satin stitching for the applique blocks, then putting the quilt top together...

Skid Steer

 

Cement Mixer

 



Excavator

Bull Dozer

 



Dump Truck

 



Wrecking Ball

 

Laurie's Puppy Love Rag Quilt

My friend Laurie bought herself a new home this past spring. I finally made it back to Texas to visit her this fall. For a housewarming gift, I decided to make her a rag quilt. As she loves dogs, I incorporated a few canine-inspired fabrics.

 

For the front: 

 

 

For the back:

 

I cut my squares 6" and my batting 4.5". With a 0.5" seam allowance, that made for a finished size of 5" squares. The quilt was 15 x 10 squares.

 

The back, before it was sewn together:

 

Pattern for the front, before it was sewn together:

 

 

Laurie, in her new home, with her puppy and new rag quilt, wearing a big smile.

 

 

Sarah's Dreams Rag Quilt

My friend Shannen recently lost her daughter Sarah to a form of brain cancer called DIPG. She and her husband founded Sarah's Dreams (sarahsdreams.org) to increase awareness and raise money for research for this disorder. I made my first rag quilt for their next fund-raising auction.

 

First, I designed the pattern - gray and purple are the colors of the organization and the gray ribbon is the symbol for brain cancer, so I decided to go with a gray ribbon and dark purple background on the front and light purple ribbon and gray background on the back. Next, I cut my flannel fabrics in 5 inch squares (final size 4 inch squares, given a 0.5 inch seam allowance). As the pattern was 15x15 the final size of the quilt would be 5 feet x 5 feet. I cut the low loft cotton batting into 3.5 inch squares. The next step is to make the quilt sandwiches:

Here are all of my quilt sandwiches:

 

 I laid out the quilt on my bedroom floor:

 

Then sewed it together, being particularly careful of the seams along the outline of the light purple ribbon on the back. I only had to re-do one or two of them to make everything line up perfectly!

 

Next, I clipped and clipped and clipped the seams until they all were raggedy. A few runs through the washer and dryer resulted in a perfectly raggedy quilt!

 



The last step was to add a quilt label.

I'm am hoping that it will help to raise a nice sum to help fund DIPG research. Miss you Sarah.

Svetlana's Quilt

 



A few years ago, my friend Svetlana admired a tied quilt made for me by my late grandmother. I decided recently to make Svetlana her own tied quilt. As she has pink curtains in her bedroom, I wanted to incorporate pink and gray fabrics in the quilt. I started with these fabrics:

 

 

In the end, though, I didn't like the apple green or the dark gray fabrics and substituted in the following fabrics:

 

 

I laid out my 5.5 inch squares in a 20x19 grid for a queen sized quilt.

This is the top half:

This is the bottom half:

 

Next, I sewed the squares together with a quarter inch seam allowance to finish the quilt top:

 

I brought it home to Wisconsin where my mom helped me to assemble and tie the quilt:

 

 

Next, my mom and I finished the quilt by hand-sewing the edges:

 

 

Finally, I added a label:

 

 

The final quilt:

 

My first tied quilt was a success - Svetlana loves it!