"Rag" edges

Anne -

I'm an experienced sew-er, but never made a rag quilt. Here' my "best guess":

The spring-loaded scissor suggestion (I've never heard of such a thing, to be honest) is probably a matter of your comfort. You'd be amazed at how tired your hand gets from lots of repeated small jab cutting! So you probably won't need to spend the money if you just don't try to do all the cutting in one day - space it out over several days, a bit at a time. You will know yourself well enough to know whether you can be patient enough, vs. getting "into" it so much that you don't stop, and wake the next day with tendinitis/sore hands! (And make sure you have very sharp scissors to make the job easier.)

As far as the fabric used, I would make the quilt out of washable fabrics, wash it several times to fringe the cut seams, *then* stitch the "fancy" squares onto the finished quilt. I could see it with, say,

Hope that helps!

Sue

anne wrote:

Being of curious mind, I looked up "spring-loaded scissors" and found they were a fairly new product designed with arthritis sufferers in mind because they spring open, reducing the mechanics/motion of cutting.

Why not fray by hand? This is how I have made some placemats and napkins.

Dianne

SPRING SCISSORS - these are great. I have a friend who gave a pair to everyone in our stitching circle and we all love them! I use them when I have to get into a very delicate area and make a quick snip or even just to grab them from my scissor block. These are a less expensive version of surgical tissue scissors which for dental surgery cost about $150.00. If your hands get even a tinny bit tired of snipping threads go ahead and get a pair. I think you will enjoy them.

Alice in Utah

That's what I was thinking. FWIW, I have a pair of Fiskars soft handled dressmaker shears - that are probably the spring loaded type - they're awesome. After getting those as some great bargain, I got the pinking shears - which are much more comfortable to use than the standard ones. Although, honestly, I tend to finish seams in some way other than pinking.

But, honestly - I did think that just fraying the patches by hand if you did them one at a time wouldn't be that hard to do. Some clipping, and then you can use a comb or stilletto or something to pull threads and fray.

ellice

anne wrote:

OK -- I quilt -- I quilt A LOT! I have made at least four rag quilts and I have never used the fancy-schmancy spring loaded scissors

-- don't even own a pair of the ones made specifically for cutting rag quilts. Sure, they are nice and it would be a lot easier to cut the seam allowance to make the raggedy edges but they are totally unnecessary! With just 12 blocks, you won't have much trouble at all, honest! To get the raggedy edges, you DO need to machine wash and machine dry the finished piece -- at least three times. You also need to do this at the laundromat because all those little clipped threads that come off the seam allowances can nest in your machine filters and they are trouble with a capital "T"!!! Since washing & drying is not possible, you COULD do it by hand but it won't be much fun! There's one guy quilter (I think it's John Flynn [sp?]) who sews up the rag quilt, tosses it out on his lawn and has a go at it with his weed whacker -- I kid you not -- as a quick way to get the cut seam allowance edges to fray! Now for a few "do it this way" suggestions. The backing fabric should be muslin and I'm pretty sure that's what you have planned. It's what I use to back almost all of my quilts and is inexpensive and available at any place that sells fabric. Plan on having minimum half inch seam allowances! This is just about mandatory to get a nice raggedy edge. Some folks make the seam allowances even larger and that's OK, just do not make them any smaller than one half inch!!! You have to decide if you want the batting to be enclosed within the the sandwich made of the backing and the needlework fabric OR if you want the batting to be part of the raggedy edges. I have done it both ways and I prefer having the batting a big as the rest of the fabric so that it is part of the raggedy edge. Either way is OK so don't sweat your decision :-). You're going to begin to wonder what to do when you get to the area where four of your blocks come together. I usually cut all of the seam allowances in the longest direction first. Then I go back and cut the edges in the shorter direction. It gets a bit tricky when you get to cutting the seam allowance where the row stitching crosses the column stitching. There's no right or wrong way. Just decide what look you prefer and go with it. This is probably confusing right now but it will make sense once you have the stuff in front of you :-)! I'm sure you will have tons of additional ideas from others and then even more questions as time goes by. I 'm also sure that your round robin will turn out great :-)! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Thanks all. I've saved the messages for study at a later time.

Don't stop now. More help and suggestions are always welcome!