Love Snake Quilt

This is my second quilt. It was a really easy quilt to make. All you have to do is cut out the appliqué pieces and sew them on each block without turning the seams. This is called raw edge appliqué.

This quilt is known as a rag quilt. To sew it, follow the instructions given in the Rag Quilt Tutorial.

In the file below you will find the templates for the heart, star, and snake, along with a layout guide for the quilt. But you can make your quilt any size you want. For my quilt I used 10" blocks (cut at 11"), but you can change that.

Here is a picture sequence of how to make this quilt. It only took us two days to finish this quilt!

  Cut the appliqué designs.

Cut the background and backing (flannel) blocks.

  Cut squares of batting 1 inch smaller than the background blocks.

Spray baste square of batting. Center on backing block.

  Spray baste background block. Center on backing/batting.

Spray baste appliqué design and center on block.

Appliqué the piece onto the sandwiched block (this quilts it at the same time). Don't worry about turning the edges under - just stitch 1/4" away from the edge of the piece. After washing, this will fray gently and it looks pretty cool.

Join the blocks wrong sides together, using a 1/2" seam. Clip the seams (on the front side) - intervals of about  1/2". Make sure not to cut through the seam.

Backing sides together, join all the blocks in rows, and then join the rows to form the quilt. You will need a snake "sashing" strip between each row of blocks and at the top and bottom of the quilt.

After you finish sewing the rows, clip the seams again. Wash and dry the quilt to fray the edges. Don't you think ours turned out nice? You can't see the heads of the snakes in this photo, but they are pretty funny.

This quilt is a birthday present for my brother Julian. I sure hope he likes it!