Today I have a 30 minute rag quilt pattern tutorial to share with you!

If you can sew a straight line you can make a rag quilt with this rag quilt pattern tutorial. I’ve made a ton of these and had a lot of fun coming up with a few different rag quilt designs. All of these were made with 1 1/4 yard cuts of flannel. This gives you a 44″ square approximately to start your project with. For quick cutting I laid my 2 fabrics on top of each other with wrong sides together and then cut through both layers at the same time. If I was working with squares I would cut across the whole row rather then cutting each square individually
16 Square
Cut sixteen 11″ squares
Cut sixteen 11″ squares

9 Square
Cut nine 14″ squares
Cut nine 14″ squares

Diagonal stripes
This rag quilt pattern design was a bit tricky to sew since the fabric stretched along the bias but with a little trimming at the end to even things out it worked out fine. My stripes are approximately 6″ wide
This rag quilt pattern design was a bit tricky to sew since the fabric stretched along the bias but with a little trimming at the end to even things out it worked out fine. My stripes are approximately 6″ wide

Basic Stripes rag quilt pattern

Triangles rag quilt pattern
Cut your fabric into 4 equal squares and then cut through each square from corner to corner to create your triangles

I was able to sew each of these rag quilts in under 30 minutes. I had then had a group of women at church help me snip the fringe and we donated them to a children’s shelter. The rag quilt tutorial is a great project to work on with a group because anyone can snip fringe and it’s fun to chat while you snip 🙂 We didn’t get through the whole pile so some of the 8-12 year old girls worked on a few as well. It’s a great way to get the kids involved!

Here’s a quick look at the back. On the front you have fringe and the back is all finished seams

Rag Quilt Pattern TutorialÂ
Let’s get sewing!
1. Decide on your design and get your fabric cut. For an alternating pattern flip half of the pieces over. Each piece should still be double thickness with wrong sides together
2. Grab one piece (remember still double thickness) and sew it to the next piece in your row (also double thickness). Repeat the process across the row making sure your exposed seams are all on the top of the quilt
3. Sew your rows together
4. Trim any uneven edges and then sew around the entire quilt 1/2″ from the edge. Now snip, snip, snip! I snipped my fringe about every 1/4″. After you’re done toss it in the dryer and it will fluff up.
Enjoy!!

33 Responses
This site is very hard to use! I could not read a sentence to the end for the screen jumping around with ads. I am sure you are good at what you do, and from what I did manage to see your quilts are pretty. Thanks for trying.
Would this work with cotton also, or would it “string up” too much?
Someone asked if there were 4 pieces of flannel sewed together or. Two pieces; can someone give an answer. And she stated all you see is two pieces of flannel sewed together….
It is 4 pieces, each square is 2 pieces with wrong sides together.
I cut one or two 1″ strips of flannel to fit all around the outside of the quilt. I sewed it at 1/2″ on to each edge with edges even and flannel strips right side up, then fringed all layers like the rest before I washed it. That finished the edge very fluffy.
Auch Situationen aus dem Alltag können mit entsprechendem
Spielzeug nachgeahmt werden.
Do you wash your flannel before you start cutting the quilt squares?
Love these quilts
How do I save these directions for later use?
The easiest way is to copy the text and paste it into a document in a word processor.
If you have 2 squares on top of each other & then you sew it to the next square in the row which also has 2 squares (top & bottom), how come your pictures only show 2 raw edges of fabric in each seam? Wouldn’t you have 4? Or am I just not seeing that correctly in your pictures? And were all your fabrics in the pictures flannel? I can’t wait to make these.
04.01.2015
Never thought about doing this without batting/flannel between layers.
This is a great idea for our CA weather. I have always sewn X’s on each block.
A little more time though.
LOVE THIS!
If there is nothing between the layers, you won’t need an “X”
love this idea, I am going to try this soon!
No batting?
Nope. Rag quilts don’t generally have batting.
Did you say what size seam to take? 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch. If making 1/2 inch snips you would need at least 1/2 inch or more.
I use 1/2″ seam allowances and space my snips about 1/4-1/2″ apart. I just snip in as close as I can get to the stitching line without snipping it
Do you do the “rag” part on the edges too? Or binding?
I do rag edges but you could do a binding if you prefer
I am going to try this.
Did you attach the front to the back anywhere else besides around the edges?
I just did the edges but you could do some diagonal lines through it as well
Would love to know what size squares/rectangles you used, and the over all size of the blanket.
I made this a couple years ago and I ended up gifting it so I can’t measure but from what I remember my squares were probably around 9 or 10″. I would just decide on a good finished size (anywhere around 1 yard square is pretty normal for a baby blanket) and then divide by 3 and add seam allowances to get the dimensions for your squares
What a great idea.. my son is now almost 18 months and just thought about using his receiving blankets that are WAY to small now!
Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Loved you 30 minute rag quilt. I’m getting ready to do one.
I would say these squares are probably 13×13 so finished size 12×12 squares. That would make it 36×36. This is very cute and quick.
Beautiful work!!!!
What size squares did you cut out for this particular rag quilt?
Look forward to hearing from you.
I gifted this one and I’m not sure what size I used but Jody’s suggestion of 13×13″ squares would work well 🙂
I plan on doing this for my son’s teacher is having boy/girl twins… quick easy and still fun!
How big are the squares?
Sooo cute!! I always wondered how to make these!