Rag Quilt Tutorial

This is my very first quilting tutorial, so please bear with me. I chose the Rag Quilt as it's a great Beginner tutorial and you can make a small baby quilt to start out with. I'm using 5 inch squares of some flannel fabric I had in my stash. You can use 5 x 5 inch charm pieces which will save you some time in cutting.

What you need:
* Flannel fabric or 2 charm packs. One pack for the front and another for the back.
* Batting (optional) Some quilters say if you use batting in your 5 inch squares, the quilt becomes very heavy and can be too warm to use on your bed. Other quilters say just using the flannel itself will keep the quilt warm enough to use. For the sake of this tutorial, I won't be using any batting, but I will show you how to cut and place the batting in between your 5 x 5 inch squares.
* Your favorite scissors
* Sewing machine

1. First, lets see how many charm pieces you are going to need. Let's make it easy on ourselves. We're going to make a seven 5 x 5 charm pieces across and seven 5 x 5 charm pieces down. In total you're going to need 49 squares for the front and 49 squares for the back. Of course, if you wish to, you can make a smaller Rag Quilt.  (Figure 1)


2. Lay out your selection of charm squares, wrong side up. I lay them out in rows, so as not to have 2 squares of the same color next to each other.

To Add Batting to your Rag Quilt squares:  If you aren't adding batting to your Rag Quilt, move to #3.

Cut batting into  4" x 4" squares into the number of squares you are making your Rag Quilt. (In this project, that will be 49. I know it sounds like a lot, but rotary cutting the batting will make it a lot less tedious.) If you have low loft batting available, that would work out great. If not, use whatever you have in your stash. Place the 4" x 4 " batting onto the center of your 5" x 5" squares. 

3. Lay your second set of squares right side up onto the top of the batting or if you've skipped that step, onto the wrong side of the 5" x 5" fabric. If you are adding batting to your Rag Quilt, place the 5" x 5" fabric on top of the batting, right side of the fabric up.  You now have a 'sandwich'.  You can  make sure to keep different colors aligned in the rows, or if you are only using 2 colors, keep them opposite each other (Figure 1).

4. Take your paired up squares and making sure they are aligned, stitch an X crosswise onto each of your 49 squares. (figure 2 & 3).
Fig 2 & 3

5. Now we are going to attach your squares to make a row. Take two squares, making sure to keep the side you want to 'rag' upwards, place the sides together that are going to make the back of rag quilt and stitch a 1 inch seam. Do this to all of the squares in your row.

Fig 4

6. This step is optional: I don't like waiting until the entire Rag Quilt is finished to snip the seams into a 'rag' look. Talk about tedious!!! Besides, it takes forever and my hand hurts after a while. So when I've finished each row, I snip the seams for the rag look. Space your snips about a ¼" apart. (fig. 5)

Fig 5

7. You're going to add all of your rows together. Try and keep an eye on the colors when you attach them, or if you are using only two color choices, you just need to keep them seperate. You can snip your rows as you add them, or wait until they are all attached. It's your choice.

8. Now you need to wash and dry your Rag Quilt. The more you wash and dry it, the fluffier it will get!!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.