Here’s this week’s work in progress: a baby-sized rag quilt made from extra triangle blocks I made to put in the larger rag quilt I made a couple of weeks ago. I had some wonderful owl-themed flannel fabric that I decided to use for the borders. It had already been washed once, but I washed and…
19th-century American Amish women made their quilts simple and “plain,” typically from the same wool and cotton fabrics they used to make shirts, dresses, pants, and coats for their own families. The bold colors and abstract, geometric designs of these early Amish quilts prefigured trends in twentieth-century abstract painting, yet they were created by women who lived far…
I have tried several different ways to create the outer edges of my rag quilts. First Try: Fringe the Outer Squares It isn’t strictly necessary to include any border at all on a rag quilt. You can use your rag snips to clip the outer edges of the quilt in exactly the same way you…
Rag quilts have several unique features that set them apart from traditional quilts: Rag quilt blocks are layered with batting and backing and quilted one at a time, before you sew all the blocks together. This quilt-as-you-go method is a lot easier than forcing a bulky quilt through the throat of your sewing machine. You…
I’ve been making a real effort to reduce the size of my fabric collection so that it all fits into the bookshelves where I store it in my sewing room. Right now I’m concentrating on the fat quarters. Over the years I’ve bought a lot of them because they’re just too cute to resist. Now…
These are some of my brother-in-law Charlie’s favorite old t-shirts. My sister gave them to me so I can turn them into a quilt. Do you have a stack of mismatched old shirts like these and dreams of transforming them into something spectacular? That’s the challenge: how to make a beautiful quilt design out of…
I love t-shirts, but I’ve never been a big fan of t-shirt quilts. That’s because the typical t-shirt quilt pattern looks like this–worthy, but dull. It’s easy to see why so many t-shirt quilters go with a basic grid design. It helps unify a group of images that don’t necessarily have a lot in common….
One reason we all love wearing t-shirts is because they are made from such soft, stretchy knit fabric. When it comes to making t-shirt quilts, though, their stretchiness poses a problem. The same give that makes t-shirts so comfortable also makes them get distorted and wonky if you sew them without preparing them in advance….
There are at least four ways to make Flying Geese Quilt Blocks. This post gives you step by step instructions for one of them: making the block from one rectangle and two contrasting squares. How to Sew a Flying Geese Quilt Block from Squares and Rectangles You will need a rectangle for the “goose” and…
Where would we quilters be without Flying Geese quilt blocks? Those handy geese play an essential role in making so many other blocks, from North Star: to Dutchman’s Puzzle: They also really dress up a quilt border. Here’s a nifty little quilt that uses them for both the center and one of the borders. A…
The more rag quilts I make, the more I believe that rag quilts really are the lazy busy and stingy frugal quilter’s best friend! The center of this snowflake quilt sat on my “Unfinished” pile for a very long time while I held an inward debate on how to enlarge it to a comfortable lap quilt…
I am determined to use up my stash of four-inch purple squares, once and for all. So I’m in the process of laying out yet another purple quilt: Once this quilt is done I think I really will be at the bottom of the pile. Check out the other things people are working on at…