Update - October Finish

          I just finished the Methodist Cross and Flame rag quilt.  I really dragged my feet getting to this one because I just didn't want to do it.  You can read how hard the first one was for me here. 

This one had it's own challenges.  First I had to find colorfast red and black fabric.  I washed all the fabric beforehand which is something I never do when I usually make a rag quilt since you wash the entire quilt when it's done.

I re-made the pattern pieces using stiffer manila file folders.  They worked very well.  All the pieces were cut and fused just right but I realized it was much smaller than the original Methodist quilt.  Then I remembered that to make the first one work I had to layer the top 9" squares to 10" squares on the middle and the bottom.  So okay, the design would be smaller...I wasn't about to take everything apart and start over. (You can see the 5x5 design in the previous post).

When I was all done with the 5 square by 5 square design I realized 2 things:

1.  This was way too small for an adult size throw rag quilt - - I had to add more squares.

2.  I had measured in the cross' vertical line into the measurement of the cross' horizontal line so the cross looked lopsided - - I had to add more black to one side of the cross.

I actually made this quilt from the insides out.

I had to add one more square of white and one half square of stained glass to each horizontal row making the rows all 7 squares each.  This meant I had to open all the seams, sew the 1 1/2 squares and then resew everything back together 10 separate times...  Ugh!

Then I made the top and bottom all white rows with the 1/2 size squares of stained glass fabric plus add a 1/2 of a half square to make it all fit.  

So far so good doing it basackwards.

Then I had to wash the whole thing.  I must have pause that machine 6 different times to see if anything was bleeding.  Nothing was.  When it was all done I did notice a grayishness over the whole quilt. My heart sank.   I was hoping it was just lint and sure enough that's what it was.  

I put it in the dryer and gradually almost all the gray came off.  I spent the rest of my day today vacuuming and picking the leftover black fluffs off and out of the white fluffy seams.  Every time I walk by the quilt I see one or two more that I need to get off. 

 All in all, I think this quilt turned out gorgeous! 

 (The lady I made it for thinks her friends might also want one of these Methodist rag quilts but I may think twice or three times about doing this again.)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZeedleBeez

October WIP's and Finishes - 15 Custom Quilts

Here is my list of 15 custom quilts that I have been working on everyday since early September.

1. Granny's Rag Quilt:  I made this quilt using the housecoats of a grandmother for her granddaughter.  I thought this was such a sweet, beautiful keepsake but this was a very challenging quilt.  It's an optical illusion really.  It looks easy but it was spatially-a real headache.

2. & 3. Black and White Baby Rag Quilts:  (with red embroidered square).  These were made pretty fast.  I wasn't sure how the red middle square would look but I loved how they turned out.

4.  Black and White Throw-size Rag Quilt:  Even though I've done a dozen of these black and whites, I made this one a little different on the back.  I made black on black and white on white wihich resulted in stripes on the back.

5. 6. & 7.  Three  20-square T-shirt Quilts:  Still in the fusing stage

 

 

8.  Foxes Baby Rag Quilt:   I made this for a very nice young mama in KY.

 I liked the fabrics so much I sent her these too:

9.  The Methodist Cross and Flame Rag Quilt:  I did not want to do another quilt like this because the first was very hard to do but I finally relented.   The hard part is done but it still needs one more row of white and a stained glass fabric border.

10. 11. &      12.  Small, Medium and Large Handkerchief Rag Quilts:  The only one I have finished is the Large Hanky Quilt, the others are works in progress.  I was given 184 gorgeous vintage hankies in beautiful condition to make these quilts.  I fell in love with the first one but I'm really looking forward to the medium hanky quilt.

14.  Polo T-shirt Quilt 30 squares:  What a great idea this t-shirt quilt is!  It's made with all Ralph Lauren Polo shirts and bordered by plain simple navy strips.  This quilt looks very high end classy.  I finished the top so far and I'm thinking about putting a plaid flannel on the back.  (That's a pair of cat eyes in the bottom right.  He's always trying to get into pictures.)

15. Rock and Roll T-shirt Quilt 16 squares:  I will be finishing  the quilting on this one today.  I think the black and white check borders really set these shirts off in a very cool way.

What are you doing this month?

The Most Challenging Rag Quilt

I have loved the challenges people present to me with their rag quilt ideas.  I've done a baby clothes rag quilt, a baby receiving blanket rag quilt adding hand painted kid prints to the back, a Charlie Brown rag quilt, a quilt made from a panel of fabric where I had to keep the pattern intact and a rag quilt with a stripe running through the perimeter.  However, the most challenging, (frustrating), rewarding rag quilt I've made was one for a friend who works at the Methodist church.

She asked if I could make a rag quilt with the Methodist cross and flame symbol on it and without thinking I said "of course."

I took a few days to just think about how I would do this. 

I started actually working on the quilt in July.

I knew I wanted to make it a lap size 5 squares by 5 squares.  I knew that white would be the color surrounding the cross and flame.  My friend picked out the fabrics she wanted, the most important being the cross and flame fabric.

She also wanted a black polka dot border around the entire quilt to frame the cross and flame.

I started constructing the cross and flame by sketching it out on a little square of paper.

Then on a roll of thin brown wrapping paper.   I cut the drawing into 9" squares, my usual size for rag quilt squares. The thin paper proved to be too flimsy a choice for using as a pattern so I transferred these drawings to heavy grocery bag brown paper.  A great way to reuse those bags.

(I saved those pattern pieces for a long time but a recently tossed them when I considered making another one of these quilts).

  Some of the things I tried didn't really work for one reason of another. The red fabric of the flame in some parts was too thin and delicate to simply sew down.  I used a double sided fusible material and fused the smaller pieces onto the white background then sewed around them. I had wanted the cross and flame to actually be ragged but found that was not working so a made it more of a fray edge.  The cross at one point was looking too big as well. 

And where the cross crossed the flame just didn't look right.
I took the whole thing apart twice and started all over.







I would put the quilt away and bring it back out and just stare at it trying to figure a better way to do it.  I mostly didn't want to break up the flame and cross but finally I realized that was the only way it would work as a true rag quilt.

I resorted to praying about it for divine inspiration because I knew my friend would be keeping it in her church office.   I decided to break up the picture which gave the quilt a window pane look.  I was very happy with the  way the quilt was turning out now and I believe my hands were being guided.   Thank God!

I wanted to stop at this point but it was not my quilt so I added the final black fabric with multi-colored polka dots and in December I finally gave my friend her quilt.

The most challenging rag quilt I've ever made.