Thursday, January 20, 2011

Homemade Gift: Raggy Star Quilt



Since my "good" sewing machine has been in the shop, I've had to set aside my regular quilting for a few days. But I ran across this really neat quilt idea online, and I decided to try it. I don't have a walking foot for my second machine, but these layers weren't very thick so it didn't matter.

I found the instructions/pattern for this online for free. It's called Denim Rag Edge with a Twist. Unfortunately, places that I saw it had broken links. I googled it to see if I could find the instructions and came up with them here (look for "Denim Rag Quilt with a Fun Little Extra"). It is credited to "York St Quilting" and "Sugar Shack" online (two different places), but the file itself is copyright Rachelle Burleson. It is marked as "Personal Use Only," with permission needed from Rachelle for any other purposes. Unfortunately, there is no way listed to contact her, so this is stricly a "personal use" pattern until and unless anyone tracks her down. :)

That's okay, though, because it's perfect for my nephew's throws!



Using my fabrics as an example, the basic idea is to cut a star shape out of the middle of your denim (I used a thick red homespun that has a denim look and feel to it). Then you make a sandwich with your other fabric on the bottom, then a square of denim (to be the color of the star), then the red denim on top. Sew around the star-shaped cutout to create the quilt sandwich. The rest of the construction goes pretty much as you might expect.

What's really neat about this is that you can take those star cut-outs and make another quilt with them. I'm in the process of doing that for another quilted throw, so look for that within the next few days.

I was so happy to find this masculine pattern, since guys can be tricky to sew for. However, the basic idea (cutting out a shape with a peekaboo pattern underneath) could be adapted to any shape you desired - even hearts, if you weren't making it for a guy.

Since I was using pretty thick materials on this, I chose not to use any batting. It makes a nice, lightweight quilt that way.

Enjoy! (And I'd love to see any variations you might come up with.)

2 comments:

jemilyea said...

Very interesting looking quilt! I'm sure your nephew will enjoy it. What is the striped fabric? Another sheet? It reminds me of a man's cotton shirts. I've seen some masculine quilts made from lots of blue shirts.

Christa said...

Yes, the striped fabric is another sheet - one that I thought I'd never use (it was given to me), but it turned out to be perfect for this project.

 
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