A Rag Quilt Gift and a Rag Rectangle Trick

 

Hello my friend!

Here in Ontario we had a huge dump of snow - huge, big cotton ball flakes that turned into baking snow kind of dump.  We were out at the cottage yesterday and drove back in the very start of the snow so it was nice to be tucked into our warm house to watch instead of being on the road.  In my gratitude journal that day I wrote - so grateful for our warm house amidst the snow.  Where ever you are - I wish you a cozy, warm day too.

While at the cottage I remembered I had rag quilt squares all ready to go in a bin.  Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the bin and found that they were quilted already - I thought they were just sandwiched!  This was an awesome surprise!

That night I laid out what I had in the bin and sewed it all together.  Here it is AFTER I washed it.

We took this picture right before we got on the road and BEFORE it was washed.  I think it still looks great even before it was washed the fringe really fluffs up afterwards.

What I really like about this one is that I use the rectangular die and the square die in a scrappy sort of way so there's not a lot of seams to match up - win!  It certainly makes things easier.  This quilt is going to be a Christmas gift for a friend and I hope that she loves it!

Although the rag rectangle die for the Go cutter has been discontinued, I came up with a way for you to be able to cut rag rectangles using your regular go die back in 2014, and I wrote a short tutorial on it.  This is such a great way to use those strips of flannel that are often leftover from cutting rag squares.

I've made too many rag quilts to count over the years but here are a few of my favourites:

Red and Green Sashed Rag Quilt

Blue Snowman Rag Quilt

Cog and Gear Rag Quilt

Minecraft Creeper Rag Quilt

Minecraft Skeleton Rag Quilt

I always cut my rag quilts using my AccuQuilt Studio dies - it's my favourite way to make a rag quilt because there is NO snipping!!  No hand cramps.  Sure, they need a a little more care when they're being sewn together, but, I can tell you, I never want to make a rag quilt the other way again.  I've made so many quilts using the rag dies and even have made a video (12 years ago!) about the Go! rag die.

I look like a baby in this video!  But this shows you how long I've been using the dies to cut rag quilts.  People often ask me if the dies wear out and I have to always say - no, but the mats do.  You'll know when it's time to change your mat but just keep repositioning and flipping.

Tell me - do you love the rag dies?  Or, do you prefer to snip, snip, snip?