Rag Quilting Information

Rag quilts are the hot on the market and they are the latest trend in quilting. You can make them quick, they are fun and there are so many different types of quilts that really offer a refreshing break from traditional quilting.

If you can sew a straight line then you can easily learn how to make your own beautiful rag quilt. These wonderful rag quilts can be great for your baby, taking to a picnic, keeping in the car, to snuggle up in front of TV with, over the back of a couch or chair, as a throw over the bottom of the bed and they make great gifts for family and friends.

The rag quilting style combines all the traditional concepts of a patchwork quilt with unusual materials often over-looked for traditional quilting, such as denim, flannel and polar fleece.

Once you choose all your materials and assembled a rag quilt you can put it together in as little as a weekend. Many rag quilters are giving them as gifts and even selling at craft fairs.

To make a rag quilt you will need materials that are likely to fray and unravel when you washed vigorously. Anything with a really loose weave is good, flannel is the most popular or you can even squares made up from old blue jeans.

As with all quilts you are always better off buying really good quality fabrics, even though you will be destroying the edges and purposely making them fray.


Rag Quilt Batting


With rag quilts you don't necessarily have to have batting in the middle of the quilt sandwich. If you do use a really heavy material such as denim, you might even opt out of have batting because will be heavy with it and it will be plenty warm without it.

If you decide to use batting with a denim quilt then make sure it is really thin or low loft batting because it will be pretty hard to sew the whole quilt sandwich if you use really thick or high loft batting which will be very heavy and take a long time for each individual stitch.

You can create a denim rag quilt with denim on the front, flannel of the back and with no batting in the middle. This is a great consistency because it's not too thick but it will still be warm enough and you'll still get the ragged frayed edge effect.

If you still want to use batting then there are two really great options:

* First is the traditional batting. You can buy this in different thicknesses and weights depending on how warm you need your quilt to be. Batting will make a fair amount of a lint mess when fraying because it's not designed to be frayed.

* The second batting option is flannel. Cotton flannel is not usually associated with quilting but it is really warm, it frays great, there are a million different fabric styles available and you can buy it anywhere.


Fraying Rag Quilts


When cutting the edges of a rag quilt you will want to use a heavy duty or spring loaded scissor. Cut lines in the seam allowances around 1/4" apart. Try to cut pretty close to the seam but without cutting it. Remember as it freys it will unravel a bit. So it is better to leave a bit or room between the cut and the stitches or your quilt will unravel over time.

Once you have cut all the seams then you will throw the quilt in the washing machine and run it through a normal wash cycle. If you don't have a good lint filter in your machine then it might be a good idea to take it to a local laundromat and put it through a cycle on their machine.

Once the cycle finisheds then you can give the quilt a good shaking and remove any large threads you find. Then you can put your quilt into the dryer. This helps the quilt seams fray more and become really soft and fluffy. If you don't have a lint trap, it might be better to do this part at a local laundromat as well.

Once the quilt is dry shake it outside - lots of the lint and fluff will come off. Use a lint brush to remove any excess lint and loose threads. If this is not working to well then use a vacuum cleaner, this will easily suck up all the loose threads.

The best part about rag quilts is that the more your quilt is washed and dried the fluffier and more frayed the seams will become. If you want more or less frayed edges on your rag quilt then you change the seam allowance.

A 1" seam will give you a pretty good frayed edge. If you want a finer or thinner frayed seam then you could try a 1/2" or 3/4" seam.

I found this wonderful tutorial on how to make rag quilts. If it's your first one, check it out. I love how it's all layed out and there's a wonderful description to show you all the steps of making a rag quilt.

If you don't want to make your own, you can always buy one that's already handmade. There are some shown on the Rag Quilts link above and here are also some for you to check out..

 
 
 
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