Dinosaur rag quilt completed

There is just something about a Sunday that makes it extra special for me.  Whether I have people over for lunch or having an extremely quiet day like yesterday, it just feels like the only day for regrouping my thoughts, planning my week and just getting organised in general.  

To have a completed quilt along with this makes it even more special. This is my completed Dinosaur quilt for little grandson, Logan.  I am pleased with the outcome although my pictures aren’t that good.

Again I used most of what I have in my stash.  I only bought the flannel and the dinosaur print.

Dinosaur rag quilt – 4

I had my first appointment at 10 am on Saturday morning visiting a French market held locally.  This gave me enough time to ready myself, run through the house to tidy, start the laundry and I got a little quilting done too.

Then to the another side of town for a brunch at a local art gallery/restaurant and they even exhibited a quilt from someone I know but being an art gallery I was not allowed to take any photos.  Stuffed to the brim I tackled my third appointment...… sale shopping for fleece at an annual fabric (non- quilting) vendor.  The service was poor but the prices good and I use these as backing for kids- or winters’ quilts for either extra softness and/or heat.  I think I did well.

Had a little of what was left of the late afternoon and rest of the evening to quilt and I now know why won’t ever ONLY make rag quilts.  All went by so quickly until I got to snip the seam allowances.  What a job and I ended up with a blister where the scissors repeatedly pressed down on my finger

Laid the quilt down on the table and tried to double-check that I’ve clipped all the seams.  After a while staring at these at night, you do not really see anything anymore.

Then dearest Dinosaur rag quilt went right to the washing machine.

Dinosaur rag quilt – 3

I had a lovely Friday afternoon; lunch with my daughter at a local cake & coffee shop with the weird name of Koekela.  There were several vendors set up but apart from a bib for grandson and a bottle of pure honey, we didn’t buy anything else.  The food was however amazing and I so enjoyed my salmon and avocado sandwich with fresh pineapple, apple and mandarin in the salad.

Back to quilting after lunch and this must have been the fastest I’ve ever cut and quilted 70 blocks.  I now wonder why I ever made any other quilt instead of a rag quilt.

Then the joining according to my EQ layout stated and I used a ¾” seam allowance to join the blocks.

Dinosaur rag quilt – 2

The next step was to cut my flannel in 9½” square blocks too and sometimes I amaze myself.  When I went shopping for flannel in our dearest city, with very little to offer, I bought 3 meters, not knowing how big my blocks would be or how big the quilt I plan to make would be and low and behold it turned out just enough for 70 blocks with a teeny weeny bit to throw away.

With this done, it was time to start cutting my top fabric in the amounts of each colour I would need. These then got layered with the backing and flannel

Then pinning the sides followed

Using my trusted laser light I stitched edge to edge to form an X (or giant cross) in each block through all 3 layers.

Dinosaur rag quilt – 1

I usually leave the office early on Tuesdays as our dogs are locked outside since 06:30 to allow my once-a-week cleaning crew to enter the house and do their magic.  The space the dogs are kept during this time is not the biggest and I always feel terribly sorry for them and then come home earlier to allow them in.

This Tuesday was no different and with no cleaning to do, a frozen dinner ready to use, only a tiny bit of laundry and very little errands I had plenty of time on my hands BUT (the usual) I just didn’t feel like doing any of my current WIP’s and needless to say, it lead to me starting yet another project!

I found this lovely Dinosaur fabric at our local Pfaff quilt shop and realised I haven’t done as much quilting for our grandson than I have for the granddaughter – she does however have a 4 year head start on him.  So even though I’ve never made a rag quilt, I decided to try my hand to this.  After watching several You Tube videos, reading tutorials on the internet and a couple of blogs describing their process, I did a layout in EQ, ready for action whenever I was and then Tuesday turned out to be the day.

I had to cut 70 x 9½” squares from my black for backing and with that depleting all the plainish black I had in my stash.  Major shopping to follow soon?!

Most posts suggest cutting through all 3 layers at the same time but because I used fabric with different widths, I chose to cut each layer separately and then line these up again.