Flannel Rag Quilt

I found an image of a flannel baby rag quilt on http://pinterest.com/ and found the original author with tutorial from the blog- Do It Yourself Divas, http://doityourselfdivas.blogspot.com/2011/05/diy-baby-rag-quilt.html. I've been wanting to try it but flannel or material of any kind can be expensive to purchase especially if you want to use multiple colors/patterns. However; a wonderful co-worker hooked me up with a local unique shop call Craft Bits and Pieces, http://www.craftbitsandpieces.com/, which is a unique craft supply store. It takes donations from anyone of art and craft materials and resells the supplies for a very low cost. The proceeds go to a local community center for the elderly and the store is run by volunteers. I found some flannel there and purchased 4 different kinds almost 2 yards each for $1.50 each remnant. I figured with this kind of deal I could afford to try out this quilt project.

The instructions from the Do It Yourself Divas was fairly good, but here's some issues I found that I ran into. First of all I should tell you I'm a mediocre self taught quilter. One of the worst parts of this project was sitting on the floor and trying to accurately cut 3" and 6" strips of the flannel. It was physically painful and I'm in shape! This is why the next time I find some table pads on craigslist or at a yard sale I'm going to be all over purchasing them! The putting together of the quilt was easy, relaxing and fun. The binding was easy just time consuming. So, the second worst part of this project was all of the excess loose threads that come off from the time you cut the material, put it together and bind it. I had to sweep a lot! This was compounded when I took the suggestion from the tutorial to put it through the washer and dryer to help get rid of the excess thread and make it shaggier. However; this was problematic because my washer and dryer needed to be cleaned out afterwards AND the quilt still had a ton of lint/excess thread all over it and it took 20 min. with a lint roller to get most of it off. I'm sure this was because I didn't do something the correct way.

Other than those couple of problem areas this was a fun project and turned out really well. You could do a lot with this idea as far as making larger quilts or using cotton instead of flannel. Also lots of different pattern options. I have enough material to make an entire second quilt if I want to and all for the price of $6.00 total! Not bad!