Sunday, November 23, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

I did it!

Most of you know that my mother is SUPER talented and can pretty much do anything... to me she is super mom! Every time I have a project I go to her, and fortunately for me she is always willing to lend a hand. Well this last week I was just surfing the web and came across this super easy, super cute project, a "Rag Quilt." Normally my first thought would be, I should call Mom, however this time it was, "You know, I bet I could do that... by myself." So that same day I went to Joann's and picked out some fabric, unfortunately the pickin's were slim in cute flannel material but I found a few that I thought might work. I went home and cut out a million squares, to be honest that was the part I was most worried about, figuring out how many squares I would need, what size and how to cut them out and not waste fabric. Fortunately it wasn't all that hard and it was probably the biggest accomplishment in this whole project.

Here are my nicely stacked squares, the fabrics were a little tricky when it came to figuring out which side was the "right" side, flannel is pretty tricky.

Then I layed them all out on the floor. The only tricky thing with rag quilts is that you have to remember to lay out the bottom as well as the top squares, so I had to make sure the pattern was the same on the front and back without seeing the bottom before sewing the squares together. Then, row by row I sewed the squares together, and finally I sewed the rows together to make the blanket.

Afer it was all sewn I had to cut slits in all the seems, oh I forgot, also with rag quilts you have to sew all the seams the same way so one side is flat and then front is "ragged." I must say, the cutting was my least favorite part, I got a bruise on my thumb. :-(After you're done cutting all the seams, you throw the blanket in the washer and the dryer. While in the dryer the seems shed and create a "rag" like edge.
And here is the finished project! It only took me two nights from start to finish! I think the best part is that I proved to myself that I could do it!
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Saturday, November 1, 2008