Post #10: Dogs & Flannel Ragg Quilts

 

     This is the very first Ragg Quilt I ever made. Many years ago I took a mystery quilt class taught by Anthony Jones at the Bernina Sewing Center in Tampa and it was fun and easy to do. Anyone, even people who have no sewing experience can successfully complete a Ragg Quilt. Mystery classes are fun because you are told what supplies to bring to class, but do not know what project you are making until the project reveals itself as you complete it.

     When I took this picture recently, Alice, our miniature pinscher, had taken it over (or should I say under)? Yes, she is under there somewhere. Only three of us live in this house: Alice, dear hubby, and me, and at any given time there are at least three flannel Ragg Quilts on the sofa; yet, for some reason, dear hubby and I cannot always get a hold of them for ourselves. I leave it up to you to figure out why. 

 

     While we were living in Tennessee I made a Ragg Quilt for our friends up there. Now most of the time these quilts have all of the fringe on one side of the quilt, which leaves the back of the quilt smooth, but that makes it difficult to cut the fringe, as you are hand cutting through four layers of flannel all at once. I had seen an epispode of a TV show on PBS, I think it was "Sewing with Nancy", where the pieces were put together overlapping in a different way, and the effect was to have half of the fringe on the front of the quilt and half of it on the back. This made it much easier to cut the fringe, having to cut through only two layers at a time, but I did have to cut through the entire quilt twice, front and back. I really liked the result.

     Here is the completed project: I used different, but similar colors on the front and back, and you can see that both sides have the fringe. The dog that you see in the 2nd photo was Fido, our prior miniature pinscher. As I recall, after many attempts to get her to stay off the quilt and out of the picture, I finally gave up.

 

 

I made a label for the quilt using my embroidery machine: 

 

     My friend Joyce sent me some flannel fabric while I was in Tennessee which included the vegetable fabric and some of the others you see in the quilt below. I added a few more fabrics and voila: another Ragg Quilt. They are the absolute best for lying on the sofa and snuggling under while reading or watching TV. The more they are washed the softer they are and the fuzzier the fringe becomes.
     One day I threw this quilt up on the sofa and it landed pretty neatly. Alice decided to climb under there and since then we always have to have one set up in tent-like fashion for her. If we don't, she has a fit and digs around looking for a way to get under! Here is a video: [iPad users, please note: if the video doesn't show up for you, then please view this on your computer - sorry for any inconvenience, I couldn't get it to come up on my iPad either.]

 

 

Finding peace in creativity,

 

Meryl