Total Beginner Quilt - Rag Quilt

The rag quilt is the absolute beginner quilt!

In my opinion, the rag quilt is the best way to start learning about making quilts.  It teaches you about your machine, the basic 1/4 inch seam, and stitching several layers together, but it's very forgiving so you don't have to do anything perfect and it will still look great!  Plus making a rag quilt is pretty fast, so you won't get overwhelmed starting out with a project that is going to take months to finish! I'm going to share my techniques for making a quilt as you go rag quilt.

A quilt is made of 3 layers, the cotton fabric on the front, the fluffy batting in the middle, then more cotton fabric on the back side.  Typically a quilt is made by putting all the front pieces together first then making a sandwich of the three large layers and then quilting them all together.  But with this rag quilt we are going to put the front, middle and back together and quilt as we go for each piece, that makes it a lot easier to move things around as you learn, and since the seams are all exposed and deliberately frayed, the tiny mistakes that are often seen in a beginner quilt are hidden in the soft goodness. 

Here's what you will need to make a small kids size quilt like the pic above:

81 - 5"x5" Pre-cuts for the front
81 - 4.5"x4.5" batting
81 - 5"x5" Pre-cuts for the back (I used solids) 

Check out some great 5x5 Charm Packs pre-cut at my favorite fabric shop!
Or you can buy one 10x10 Layer Cake pre-cut and cut them down. 
Two of my favorite Creative Grid Rulers I used here are Perfect 10 & Perfect 5 

*Also: if you would like to make this a little puffy you can add a small handful of Polyfil on top of the batting inside the two pieces (and probably dont do the X in the center of each square) test it out and see what you like. 

Here is my pile for the new rag quilt I am working on with you.  I've had these cute precuts in my stash and I have a close friend that I am two babies behind on my quilt giving, so I am going to make a small one to throw over the baby car seat.  These are great gifts for kids, they can be spit up on, snotted on and curled up with and they will make it through tons of washings! 

Check out this quick video to learn more....

Ok, so if you watched the video above about adding the squares all together and you are all done and ready to add the borders here is the info for that.  First off, you can make them whatever size you'd like, or not add them at all, this is just what I decided.  My quilt is 9 blocks wide by 9 blocks high, so before borders it came out to be about 38"x38" and I did the top and bottom first, then the two side borders.  Video below explains my techniques...

Borders:  3.5" x length of your quilt (plus a couple extra inches to be safe) 

Mine still needs to be washed a few times to get the full snuggle effect going, but it is still very cute, and looks a lot like the puff quilts that have been so popular lately.  You could even stuff a little piece inside your squares as you make them to do a test and see if you like it.  Here are some finished pictures, have tons of fun!! 

I hope you will give this technique a try and let me know what you think! 

Happy Quilting!
Gina Tell 

At no extra cost to you, I earn a small profit on things you buy from my affiliate links, I promise to use it to make more fun content like this!