The Quilt

Ok - I waited til today to post pics of the quilt - so it would have it's own "day" :). I started this baby about 3 years ago. My friend Terry's sister knew I wanted to attempt one. She gave me a photo copy of a pattern, shhhh, and brought me to a fabric store. (To do this again - I would totally shop with coupons and sales - do you know how expensive flannel can be???) Anyway - I carefully chose rich reds, yellows, and blues to match Lonny and Jaime's (at the time) living room. It was fall. Must have been fall of '03. I worked at Terry's sister's house. She had a rotary trimmer and cutting mat. I cut squares for hours and hours. After that night, I didn't pull this stuff out until this past spring. I opened my cutting mat and trimmer that I had purchased just DAYS after that first night - for the first time here in MPLS - Spring '06. (ya - I know).



I finished cutting squares. Cut more squares out of the batting material - and then the fun started. I started making the little "sandwiches" by pinning flannel, batting, flannel and then sewing an "X" over it with gold thread. The sandwiches were by FAR the best part of the project. Then, I put the sandwiches together to make 9 stips of quilt. Then, I sewed the 9 strips together. At this point, I was so proud, only to find out that the most time consuming part of the quilt was ahead of me - the cutting. So I had to now take scissors to all the unfinished edges - and cut them - so as to cause fraying when washed.

This is what brought me to Christmas - and I was able to present this cut quilt to them -but I wasn't done. Finally, yesterday, I brought it to a laundromat (for the industrial sized machines - and so as not to clog my lint catcher). Another friend suggested I wash it with a product called "color catcher" - which I did - and so far, none of the colors have bled into each other. I was very happy with the laundromat results - and my first "Rag Quilt" turned out exactly as I had hoped!



I hope Lonny and Jaime enjoy it - but it's already proven to be a hit with Alice, Icky, and Nipsy - so that works for me too!

:)