End of the Christmas stay-cation

Snow fell on Stars in Georgia (making fun of license plates which say "stars fell on Alabama").

I am probably the only quilter alive over the age of 50 who had not made a "rag" quilt.

Not any more!  I just finished one.

Here is the back story:  Mother was cleaning stuff out and came across a big box of flannel squares she'd cut to make a rag quilt, but then she lost interest (who knows how long ago), so she set the box aside for me.  I brought it home last summer and also set it aside.

Yesterday I got it out and started sorting.  Some squares were in pairs with batting between, so I began stitching those first.

The directions were for 9 inch blocks with smaller 4-patch groups alternating.  Well, that wasn't going to work, since I had 8 inch squares to start with.  Maybe she'd been working from a different pattern?

She had the soft sides of the flannel layered together, so I reversed that to put the soft side out. Marked a big old X to stitch on (note the sandpaper under the fabric helps it stay put to mark on).

I kept it simple and went with the 8 inch blocks with 5 1/2 inch batting between and 1 inch joining seams.

You make a LOT of squares.  My rag quilt is 9 blocks across by 11 down.  I think that is a nice 1 person throw size, so that is 99 x 2 squares!

These are the rows laid out. I resorted to marking the rows with a Sharpie so I wouldn't get them out of order.

This is the BACK side once they are all stitched together and stitched 1 inch in all the way around.

I still have to do all the clipping and then take it to a laundromat to wash.  I have listened to quilters talk about the shedding this quilt will do, so I know not to clip seams indoors or to wash (initially) in my own washer.

Here are the unclipped seams.  The instructions said to stitch them open.  I don't really know why.

Neither does Kitten.

Nor this silly guy (son #2)

Nor does son #1

We missed you #3.  Hope to see #3 soon.

MIL update: She was out of the hospital and back at her sister's house yesterday afternoon. Evidently these "things" happen, and they had happened to her before. She'll see a doctor in town sometime this week.