Red, White, and Blue Chevron Quilt

I make things for The Ships Project...visit their web page http://www.theshipsproject.com/
Knit hats for the winter and Cool ties (neck-coolers) for summer, and occasionally a quilt. I call this one the Deer Quilt.

This one was a special request,

See the deer and other wild life!

Sometimes I just make one from what I have on hand, or what is donated. My friend, Susan, an experienced Quilter, gave me some squares of cloth she no longer wanted to keep.

These are some of the left over squares!
The original pile was probably enough to make 2 or 3 Twin Quilts.

Susan also introduced me to the concept of "half square triangles".  So I used her squares and tried out her technique and made this quilt.

A view of the whole quilt

Another friend, Sharon, is a professional long arm quilter.  She donated her quilting services for soldier care quilts.

Close up of one of the stars

Close up of the border detail

Corner detail

Even the back is interesting!

Sharon "fusses" at me if I do not put a label on my quilt!

I have started another quilt using Susan's squares and some white on white prints...taking photos as I sew this time!

"RAG" quilt

I think that the name "rag" quilt is mis-applied to this type of quilt... maybe "ragged" would work...
maybe "rag" is short for ragged edges.

I saw the technique here...Rag quilt basics but had not yet made one until....

my friend, Charlotte gave me a box of flannel scraps that just begged to be made into a quilt.  So I did it!

Squares were cut; top, inner and back

The blue check will be top, white is inner layer, yellow is back.

Lots and lots of squares were cut and paired up like these.

Each group of 3 layers is sewn to a neighbor group with exposed seams on the top side!

The back of the quilt will be smooth.

All the seams will be snipped.

All the snips will be frayed.

An old, clean toothbrush helps remove some of the lint BEFORE the first wash.

To do all those snips you will need the best tools... and these are not it!

 These are the best!




Spring loaded, self opening snips... borrowed from my friend, Sharon, a professional quilter were the best way to snip... but be prepared to do a lot of snipping.

My thank you gift to Sharon... a pouch for her snips.

Several squares sewn together form a row and all the rows sewn together form the quilt.

Back of quilt

Front of quilt after washing and drying once.

Remember to clean your lint screen several times while drying the quilt!

"She made me do it!"

And I am glad too!

Let me explain.... my friend, Sharon the professional quilter, was "on my case" about my bad habit of NOT putting any label on the quilts I make. I did put a "presentation label" on the Pilgrim-league-t-shirt-quilt, because it was a "Thank you" gift from lots of people. But usually.... I just give them away with a small note or card.  Isaac's birthday quilt is a little different; I hired Sharon and her long arm machine to do the quilting for me!  After seeing her machine in action, I knew this was the way to go with this special quilt. So this post is about quilt labels and the most recent quilts finished.

Sharon's awesome quilting... see the stars in the cloth and the stitching.

Close-up of a stitched star

This is how I made simple labels for 3 quilts:

Printed the text on my computer in several sizes, used the largest one!

Printer is not working well, so printing on ink-jet cloth was not an option!

There is more than one way to get ink on cloth.....

Pigma pens (.05) with permanent ink

And....

light table tracing box my AWESOME DAD made for me!

You can trace letters onto cloth using a bright window... tape the paper to the glass, tape the cloth over the paper, trace! Since ink does not flow up hill very well..... you may want to trace with pencil first, then go over the pencil lines at the table (not on the window) with your pen. You could also embroider over the pencil lines.

Blue ink on white cloth (scrap)

Dark blue ink on light blue cloth

Let the ink dry, then heat set with your iron.

The white cloth is doubled and bound with a piece of the same bias used for the quilt edge.

Stitched into a corner of the back before the binding is complete.

Binding closes the corner

But Josiah's quilt and Daniel's quilt (shh don't tell them yet!) are done, binding complete!

All 4 edges pressed under by 1/4 inch.

Hand stitched on the back (yes, the back is large blocks)

You can see more of Josiah's quilt here. 

No, you may not see more of Daniel's quilt until after Christmas!