Rag quilts are a perfect beginner quilting project, as they are quilted as you go. As soon as you finish sewing the blocks together and add the edging, it’s done! No need to worry about getting a back, layering, or quilting it. You don’t even really have to bind it. The best part of a rag quilt, is after you wash it for the first time, and all your seams get fuzzy. So, read on, grab your supplies, and join us for a fun week of quilting.
What to Expect
There are 4 videos in this series. We will be posting one a day, starting today and ending on Saturday. The breakdown is below:
Day 1 – Supplies and Cutting
Day 2 – Making Blocks
Day 3 – Sewing Rows
Day 4 – Sewing Rows together and finishing
Sewing the Rows
Today, all your blocks are done, you have a big stack of mini quilts and are are ready to sew them together. The first thing you will want to do is decide how you want to lay your blocks out. If you did two different fabrics, you can simply alternate them. If you have 3 or more different fabrics, we recommend laying them out on the floor and deciding your design before you start sewing. If you are doing a scrap quilt, you might just let them end up wherever and just start sewing!
To sew the rows, grab the first two blocks and place them back sides together. This quilt will have all of your seams on the top of the quilt. Don’t worry, after you are all done and wash it, they will go fuzzy and look amazing. Use a 1/4″ seam, sew the blocks. If you would like, you can use a couple pins to keep the blocks lined up. Just remember to remove the pins before sewing over them! You don’t want to sew over the pins as you can break needles and mess up the sewing machine. Next, grab the third block and add it to the row in the same way. Continue until you have all 8 blocks sewn together.
Repeat the same process with the additional blocks, creating 9 rows of 8 blocks. If you are making a bigger quilt, just adjust the numbers of blocks as needed to fit the size you want.
That’s it for today! Just work on making all of your rows and tomorrow we will sew them together. Your quilt is almost done!
