Stripey Rag Quilt Tutorial

So ever since happening upon Red Pepper Quilts blog the other day, I’ve been unhealthily obsessing over modern quilting. I found myself buried in internet sites that flaunt gorgeous designer fabric and beautiful quilt patterns that, let’s just say, aren’t your granny’s bedspread. I had already had it in my brain to make quilts for the girls bedroom for Christmas and this woman’s work gave me that extra push I needed to actually begin the process.

I’ve quilted before in the past (hello 4th grade Personal Achievement in Learning project), and I’ve sewn a bunch of random things with and without my Mom. So I wasn’t exactly starting from scratch. But this time I wanted to actually start slow, learn some basic stuff I’ve been avoiding, and do things the right way.

(This is the back of my blanket. I reversed some of the patterned strips just for a little bit of interest.)

This cheap and easy blanket came about from a few google searches that yeilded this blanket tutorial. I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here so please click on over and give it a read. It’s pretty comprehensive and easy to understand.

But just for kicks, here are a few things I’d like to add:

I first searched for fabric. This blanket requires two “Jelly Roll” packs which are basically long thin strips of fabric rolled up into a neat little bundle- ready to use, with edges that won’t (immediately) fray. The fabric I used is called “Summersville”, if you’re interested, and I found it for sale on Etsy. Just search “Jelly Roll” and you’ll be overwhelmed with choices and probably end up hemming and hawing over which fabric to use for weeks and weeks before actually making a purchase (eh hem, not that that was me or anything…).

Use a rotary cutter to cut the batting. So much easier than scissors and pretty much a quilting must.

I watched this tutorial for how to do the seam binding which for some reason terrifies me. But if you look closely, I think I did a decent job for a first timer. It will be cleaner with less of a seam allowance next time.

But anyway, as you can see, this blanket is meant to fray. That raw edge in between each stripe gets more and more “raggy” with every wash. I’ve washed my quilt twice just to give you an idea. Take care to match up all the strips as evenly as you can because there were one or two spots on my blanket that I hand to hand stitch closed because they didn’t catch through my machine… which meant I wasn’t as exact as I should have been when pinning and feeding through my machine.

To finish this blanket start to finish, I needed about 5 nights worth of work but it was easy and pleasant and Gracie kept me company most of the time. It will be a perfect little picnic blanket for my girls and throw blanket for the couch. So go ahead…make one. You’ll love it!