Warm Flannel Baby quilt

I love making these flannel raggy baby quilts. They are easy to make and they turn out looking so cute in a short period of time.

I made my latest one (Raggy Baby #4) using M&M's flannel for the back and a variety of blue teddy, yellow animal , solid yellow with a few solid pink blocks thrown in for good measure.  Every quilt should have a little surprise on it, so on the back, the 4 corner blocks are solid yellow instead of M&Ms.

Back of raggy Baby quilt

I made this little quilt with 5 1/2 inch squares of leftover batting in the centre of each flannel block for added warmth, unlike the first 3 raggy quilts that I had made, which had only the 2 layers of flannel. (The first ones are light and airy, the perfect little covering during warmer weather... To view them see my previous blogs- 'Rag Teddy Bear Quilt' 9/14/11, and 'Rag Baby Quilt' 8/4/11).

 Each of these new blocks is  made up of two 7 inch squares of flannel sewn together with right sides out with a 1/2 seam around the outside.

Because they have batting in the centre, there flannel blocks had to be quilted with an 'X' ( or any design) through the centre to keep the batting from shifting in the wash. I used a self-fading fabric pen and a ruler to draw the Xs on each block.

Once the flannel blocks are completed, I arranged them on the floor in a pattern and took a photo. Then I switched some blocks around to get a more pleasing pattern (too many pink blocks together ... needed to be changed), took another photo and wrote out the block design on a grid so I would remember it when it was time to sew the  blocks in rows.

 The blocks are sewn together with the seams pointing towards the outside, and joined with a 1/2 " seam.
 Then each row is sewn together, again with the seams outwards, making sure at each block corner to have the top seam going in one direction and the bottom corner seam going the opposite direction so there is not too many thick flannel layers to try and sew together.  Remember to adjust the tension on your machine.

There are 5 blocks in each row with 6 blocks in total, making it a rectangular shape. Finished size 30" X 36".  I was quite pleased with the finished results. It will be a nice thick, warm quilt for a new baby! :)

Completed quilt blocks waiting for their quilted "X" in the centre

This one is not for my own grandbabies-to-be. They already each have a raggy baby quilt, as well as 2 regular baby quilts each that I made recently; (two for at home and one to keep at Grandma's house. :)

This latest little padded raggy quilt is for another friend/ family member who is expecting, or I just might put it up on our newly created ESTY site to sell it....  More about that later! :)