For my project I wanted to do something fairly quick but something I hadn't done before so I thought I would make a strip rag quilt. I've seen them and they look super cute and I figured they couldn't be too difficult. This is the one I did.
To start I washed, dried, and cut my fabric into 4 inch strips that were the width of the fabric because I was lazy and didn't want to cut them all to be exactly the same width, you can definitely do that :). I had 13 strips in all. 5 of pattern A, 4 of pattern B, and 4 of pattern C.
I set my machine to sew on the left hand side of the presser foot and then followed a 1/2 inch seam so I would have plenty of fabric to cut. Instead of having the excess fabric be on the back side of the quilt you want it on the quilt top, so when you line up your fabric align it so that the fabric will be on the top and that any patterned fabric is going in the same direction. Sew your strips together, alternating fabrics A, B, and C.
You can pin your fabric together, I was being lazy and it was straight lines so I just held it with my fingers and watched to make sure that it stayed where I wanted it while I sewed.
Once your top is together make your quilt sandwich. Backing if there is a pattern make sure it is facing down, batting, then the top facing up. Then smooth out any wrinkles and pin in place.
I was lazy so I used straight pins but safety pins are better so you don't stab your self while you roll and quilt your blanket.
I stitched in the ditch on my seam lines for this quilt making a striped pattern on the back. Then I did sewed around the 4 sides of the quilt to hold everything in place. I was originally going to make a rag border but then decided I wanted a nicer finished edge. So if you were planning ahead you could pin and sew your binding now instead of having to do it later.
Then I trimmed up the edges using a rotary cutter and mat, and using a pair of really sharp scissors snipped little tags in the excess seam fabric making sure not to go all the way to the thread.
When I realized I didn't want the rag border I thought about how my little ones loved different textures so I thought something silky would be great. I chose a satin binding I found at JoAnn's it was the perfect size for this quilt.
I pined one side leaving about 4-5 inches free before sewing and then sewed along mitering the corners then pined and sewed the next side.
I left about a 4 inch portion unsewed where the two pieces would join. Then I folded each piece over and placed a pin where the two met. I used a simple straight stitch and sewed where the pin was and trimmed off the excess binding. then when I sewed along that part of the border it was a single piece.
I trimmed off the excess fabric (again if you planned ahead you wouldn't need to trim twice, I just changed my mind half way through...) so that when I pulled the satin up and over it lined up the same distance from the edge as the other side. I changed to a blue matching thread and used a zig zag stitch to attach the border to the front side of the quilt.
Voila. Completed fun baby boy crib quilt.
