spidey spring break

After classes ended last Friday, I decided to swing by JoAnn's to waste time and obviously tempt myself with buying more fabric. I'd been thinking of the blue Spiderman flannel I bought my nephew a year ago and realized his birthday was coming up in a few weeks. He's turning 7, so I figured I need to actually make something out of the fabric before he grows out of Spiderman. (As if anyone ever gets too old for Spiderman!) I got solid blue and red flannel fabrics for $2.50/yard and found a coordinating red Spiderman print! And then I splurged on a fuzzy solid red fabric for the back. I don't even want to disclose the cost of that fabric, but I think it was well worth it.

When I got home, I immediately went to YouTube to find a rag quilt tutorial. They seemed easy enough to make, just a matter of sewing a bunch of squares together, but I was unsure about how to make the quilt "raggedy." Here's the video I watched before I made my own:



Though the music is terrible and I didn't follow the directions word for word, I did gain a clear understanding about how to proceed. So Iwith the help of my dog, I cut all of my squares (120!) and then layed them out to arrange some sort of pattern.

After laying out all the squares, it was simply a matter of sewing them all together, flattening the quilt top onto the back fabric, and sewing that together as well. I won't bore you with the details, but the cutting and sewing took just one day, while messing with the back took another two.

The fun part about rag quilts is cutting up the flannel, washing it, and seeing how the agitation of the washer and dryer creates the "ragged" edges. When the weather finally got nicer, I took the finished quilt outside for a better photo shoot. (I also found my good camera this week, yay!)

It measures about 5' x 7', large enough for my nephew's twin-sized bed. I wasn't expecting it to be a hit at his birthday party yesterday, but he went absolutely crazy over it. He and his friends used it first as a "tent" to play under at the park. Later that night, after playing on it with baby brother, he decided to fold up the green Hulk comforter on his bed, put it in the closet, and replace it with the Spiderman rag quilt. I guess it's nice to have a change in superheroes once in a while! Definitely a successful sewing spring break.