Denim Rag Quilt

My hubby had a brother get married last May.  I decided to make them something for a wedding gift and decided on a denim/flannel rag quilt.  So I did a little inquiring and found out they planned on getting a queen sized bed.  I'd never done a rag quilt that large before, but decided it would be a good challenge.  Bring it!  Right?!


This brother has dreamed of being a pilot for the Air Force his whole life, and was pursuing that dream through the ROTC.  I decided to use blue denim and red and white flannel for this patriotic boy.  I started to make my sandwiches and played around with the layout.

About the time I had enough sandwiches made I found out they had changed their plans and were now getting a KING SIZED BED!!  Yikes!  So I calculated, and schemed, and scratched my head.  I calculated what kind of border I could add, how much extra it would cost.  Ouch -- all of the calculations and numbers were hurting my head!  I couldn't believe how much extra it was going to cost to increase the size.


So I compromised.  I made it large enough to cover the top of a king sized bed, but not hang over the edges.  I was still one HUGE beast to sew together in the end.  After I had all of my squares sewed into rows, I sewed the rows together into two big halves.  Then I called on my hubby and he helped support the weight of the two halves as I sewed them together and sewed around the edges.  It was still insane to maneuver even with his help!


I wanted it a little more personal so I had my dear friend Amy, from The Lily Pad Shop do a custom embroidered square for me.  She does great work!  You should check her out. :)

Bibs!

Our second project for the Curves class I am participating in (see Scallop Bunting post) was bibs.  I've been determined these first few projects to use materials I already had on hand.  The bibs were to be made out of flannel and as I dug through my flannel stash I realized it's all red, white, blue or Christmas.  :)  Not much variety...  And much of the red, white, blue toned flannels are already cut into squares for rag quilts and OF COURSE the squares are not big enough for the bib pattern.


Oh well!  I made due and managed to make two cute little bibs.  Rachel from Stitched in Color does some great tutorials for the class projects.  I'm excited to see what's to come in the next few weeks.

These bibs are definitely too small for my 20 month old (they're more for 0-6 months), so I plan on making a larger pattern out of a bib we already have and making a few for my little girl.  We could use some that cover more than 4 inches of her torso which is what most of her bibs seem to be accomplishing these days...  I know plenty of people having babies these days so I'm sure I'll find a home for these two.

But again, this was a fast, fulfilling project.  So nice!  Two quick projects in a row!  I did run into some trouble putting the snaps on.  I've never put snaps on, and I buggered up a bunch of the prong pieces trying to make it work.  Sheesh...I guess my blog isn't called Third Time's a Charm for nothing!  (As far as the snaps were concerned it was more like the 10th Time's a Charm.)