Care Package

Ever since I saw this rag quilt, I've been hanging on to the idea of using leftover flannel to make one.  It seemed like just the right thing to use up leftover PJ pants material.  In this blanket, I see pants for the monkey, from when he was about 8 or 9, pants for my nephews, pants for El and La, receiving blankets for a couple of different babies, bib/smocks for some neighbor friends.  It's neat. 

It turns out, though, that I may not have the temperment for rag quilts.  And my family may have known this about me.  I showed them the test block and La asked if I was going to cover up the raw edge.  And my husband was perplexed, too, that it had an unfinished edge on top.  They knew something I didn't.  Once the finished quilt got washed, man, did I ever trim the strings all up. 

It was really fun to put together.  They are 5" squares.  The back is the same fabric as the front.  It was odd to get used to sewing wrong sides together.  There is no batting or middle layer of flannel.  I stitched it together using zig-zag stitch and I just went around the outside edge with zig zag also.  There's something nice about when you finish putting the top together the whole thing is done. 

The rest of the story is that when I had about half of the blocks assembled, I found out a friend of ours was having surgery.  So, it turned out to be a quilt for him.  This is a family we've known since the monkey joined Cub Scouts at age 7 (10 years ago).  He could probably use your prayers and good thoughts - we do not yet know how the story ends.  But he's back home from the hospital.  They texted me a picture of him in the hospital with the blanket (smiling).