My Fav Quilt Designs & How to do Them

Rag Quilts

A Rag Quilt is a quilt made with exposed seams that fray when laundered. A Rag Quilt is generally made with squares or strips and the seams are clipped at regular intervals to encourage fraying. Flannel is great for Rag Quilts as it will fray nicely. ... A rag quilt is a type of Quilt As You Go.

Pictured, is a rag quilt on etsy.com & it's super cute. I think she used a larger seam allowance, than 1/2 inch, to cut and fray because the fluffiness is abundant; nonetheless, it's a winner for me. I loved making them, so easy, except I have such a hard time choosing colors and fabrics.

A wonderful tutorial to use: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/learn-how-to-make-rag-quilt-2821902

Quillow aka Foot Pocket Quilt

Quillows are a rather unique combination of the concepts of a quilt and a sleeping bag. Just as quilts are designed to offer warmth and protection from the cold, the quillow is also lined and filled to keep out the cooler weather. What makes the quillow a little different is that it can also be used as a pillow. By folding up the quillow and placing it into the handy carrying bag that comes with the pocket quilt, the unit becomes a perfectly comfortable pillow that is ideal for camping trips or even as a head rest while watching television.

I made one each, for the kids, and they loved, loved, loved Mack use to use his while watching tv. One year, I made about 10 for a neighbor, got paid a bundle that I spent on the kids. You can make these longer or shorter. I made one for Mack's friend when he graduated middle school. I used baseball fabric for the body of the quilt and for the pillow part, I used a baseball from a matching fabric then I detailed it, so when folded into a pillow, the baseball really stood out. And ....

I purchased most of my fabric from Ebay, because I could take my time choosing from a large and unique selection. The baseball fabric came from a gal in Wisconsin. We got to talking, I even sent her a photo of the finished quilt. Turns out she, too, was an ancestry.com fanatic, so we started chatting about that ad it turns out that she had been searching for relatives, here in Burbank, on Rose street. Small world.

Easy tutorial: https://phoebemoon.com/tutorials/quillow.htm

Basic Log Cabin Quilt Square

This is just one example of the log cabin quilt square. Pretty fun and easy, because you can use fabric scraps. The cool thing is, is all the designs you can make, just with:

the fabric colors
the arrangement of the fabric strips
how you arrange the squares
the top quilt stitch design

Just a note, that your cutting skills and sewing skills will yield the quality of strips and application result; oh and making sure you iron the seams every time carefully and consistently. Since I am a perfectionist and enjoy working with my hands, the log cabin design is fun for me. I also think if you're a beginner, this design is a good one to learn and hone your skills with, because if you mess up in cutting, choosing colors, sewing, and ironing your mistakes will immediately show. Additionally, since you're using scraps, it's not going to cost you to learn.

Recap: fabric choice, color choice, cutting skills, sewing skills, ironing skills.

Just look!

This design, drives me nuts, because of the skewed strips lol, still super fun.

Placing the squares together

You can join quilting groups, log cabin square of the month club [oh yea], enroll in a class, use a book, or an online tutorial & go to quilt shows, quite often in Burbank. Since Mack went in and purchased my fabrics, he too, always wanted to attend a show. But we never got to.

Displaying a still

The designs are endless. Make a pillow, using larger strips. Make the strips smaller for coasters or pet quilts.

Square attachment design

This is the perfect example of how color choice and how you attach the squares creates another design. Ha, great design for a cop quilt.

Clothes, oh my

My favorite and the best quilting tools:

Cutting Board

You have to have this for cutting. I used it for all projects because it protected the table and could be wiped clean. I taught the kids to use it as well for cutting poster board into smaller pieces. Yep, it was hell on my rotary cutter blade; blades can be changed, though. lol

Rulers, 3 sizees

You need all three sizes for different projects and cutting steps. The kids were taught how to use these, as well. I would also use it if I needed to lengthen a top I was making.

Rotary Cutter

The kids called ir my Pizza cutter. The blades are replaceable and can be purchased on Ebay. There are people that take resharpen blades for a fraction of a cost. I never, ever had problems. The kids used it on poster board and paper.

Walking foot

This was always on my machine. I feeds the fabric evenly so t-shirt fabric won't stretch and can handle going over thick surfaces. Trust, you'll divorce hubby and marry this. It is my all-time favorite tool.

Seam Ripper

A must for any seamstress or quilter. Better to practice though when using a serger, once though seams are cut and finished, that's it. Look how easy it is? Seams and finishing in one pass.

Quilt shows, Enjoy!!

https://www.flying-geese.org/calendar.html

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My stuff

Rag quilt

I made this for Mike, the kids gave it to him for his b'day. He used it all the time while watching tv. The middle square is made from a Rolling Stones t-shirt. Really amazing in person.