Make the Pieced Rag Blocks
- Gather the medium scale and small scale rectangles and bars. Keep the fabrics in separate groups: quilt front, batting and backing.
- Place a 5-1/2" x 10" backing right side down on the table. Center a batting piece of the same size on top of it, and then finish with a quilt top piece positioned right side up. Secure with straight pins. Repeat with all 5-1/2" x 10" pieces.
- Place a 3-1/4" x 10" backing bar right side down on the table. Center a batting piece of the same size on top of it, and then finish with a quilt top piece placed right side up. Secure with straight pins. Repeat with all 3-1/4" x 10" bar pieces.
- Use a 1/2" seam allowance to sew the long side of a bar stack to the long side of a rectangle stack, placing wrong (backing) sides together. If fabrics are directional, take care to align them as planned.
- Use chain piecing to speed up assembly by sewing a second bar stack to another rectangle stack without taking the first unit out of the machine. Keep sewing until each rectangle stack has a bar stack attached to one side of it. Remember to align backing sides together!
- Clip threads between units chain piecing a bar stack to the opposite side of each rectangle stack.
- Arrange your pieced blocks and 10" floral squares into seven rows, each row with five blocks. Alternate block placement in adjacent rows as shown.
- Sew the blocks in each row together, again placing backing sides together. Sew rows together.
- Make sandwiches for border pieces using the same stacking method. Sew ten border pieces together along their long sides, backing sides together for sewing. Repeat. Sew one border to the top and another to the bottom of the quilt.
- Make two more borders, each containing fifteen bar stacks. Sew to the sides of the quilt.
- Use my general rag quilt instructions to finish the quilt.
