We have several of these quilts made by my mom and she used flannel, which makes the quilt very soft. Flannel is a good choice because you need to choose fabrics that will ravel and fray. This project is quite easy (if you can sew a straight line and have patience) and could make a wonderful baby/child gift if made with Disney Flannel.

No batting is needed if you use flannel because the flannel thickness is sufficient to give your rag quilt a
substantial feel. You may use batting to make your quilt thicker, and these instructions will describe both with and without batting. You can also use more flannel as a filler if you want to, but this is optional.

There will be two layers for this quilt: top (frayed side) and a bottom. Cut Squares for the top and the bottom the same sizes. 8" to 10" is about right for a large quilt but you can make them larger if you want to simplify or make them smaller if you are up for more detail or are making a smaller quilt.

Determine the amount of material and squares you will need: If the quilt size you would like is 64", you will need eight 8"squares on a side, times 8 rows or 64 squares. These squares will be 10" by 10" to allow for the ragging, so you will need a total yardage of about 5 sq yards for the front and 5 sq yards for the back. For a baby size quilt (36") you will need about 1 1/2 yards for the front and 1 1/2 yards for the back (assuming 36" fabric width). For a child or baby size quilt you will probably like to use smaller squares. You could use a 9x9 pattern with 4 inch squares (6" cut square size) or a 6x6 pattern (with 8" cut square size). Experiment with square sizes to get the look you like. This is a good opportunity to use Fat quarters for a variety of patterns.

Cut 64 squares, each 10" square of your top and bottom fabrics. Use a variety of flannels combining different patterns and solids. Lay out the squares (on a floor will do) to see the overall effect and to determine how you will want to sew the pattern blocks together.

If you decide you want to use batting as a filler, cut the squares of batting 2 inches smaller than the top and bottom squares. If your quilt has 10 inch top and bottom squares, you would cut the batting at 8" or less. You will need to quilt the squares before you join them into the quilt. Create a sandwich with your top square, batting and bottom square, then sew an "X" through the sandwich before joining them together. You do not need to do this step if you are using flannel. Keep the right sides out (on both the top and bottom).

When making a rag quilt without batting, you can use your same material as your filler if you want the blanket to be heavier. In this case, the filler pieces can be cut the same size OR Smaller as your top and bottom squares, and you should join the 3 pieces of material together to form a block prior to joining all the quilt blocks together. For filling squares you can use any kind of flannel (but if you cut it the same size as the top and bottom squares you will see it when you fray edges). Inexpensive flannel from your local fabric store is fine for this purpose. If you do not want to see the filler flannel, make it smaller than the top and bottom (similar to the instructions for the batting above) and stitch it in place using an X, or a stitching pattern of your choice. You don't have to have a filler if you don't want to.

To sew a rag quilt: Use a 1 inch seam allowance so that you have extra fabric on the seams for raveling. A 10" square will be an 8" sewn square. We will use as an example a quilt with 10" squares which will be 64" x 64". Adjust for your chosen size squares.

Once your blocks are made, sew blocks together with ONE INCH seams, 8 sets of squares into a row. You will sew so that the raw edges are toward the front/top face of the squares. All blocks face front so that you can have them showing from the front of the quilt. Make 8 rows of 8 squares each.

Next, sew rows together, matching seams. Sew with raw seams toward front of quilt. Sew the seams open to reduce the bulk of sewing over seams turned to one side.

After you have joined the 8 rows, sew an inch inside the outer border all around the quilt.

Cut the seams: This will take a while. With sharp scissors snip into the one inch seams, being careful not to cut the seam. Make a cut every 1/2 inch or so. Cut the outer edge the same way. A spring loaded pair of scissors is a good investment if you are going to make more than one quilt.

Wash to Fray: Run the quilt through a regular cycle of wash and drying. You may have to run it through a few times to make the edges soft and frayed.

Most of us are familiar with what lanyards are but may not be conversant with the term. A lanyard is the cord or strap that is worn around the neck to hold an identification badge, whistle, keys or other small object. It can be worn around the neck, arm, waist or wrist.

When worn around the wrist, a lanyard is often referred to as a "wristlet." Lanyards have become increasingly popular for their ability to keep important objects close at hand while simultaneously keeping hands free.

Lanyards are used to display identification cards as also for carrying cell phones pens and eyeglasses. Neck lanyards come in different materials nylon, rope, polyester, lace, beaded lanyards, custom printed lanyards and decorative lanyards.

Lanyards are used nowadays almost everywhere by businesses, schools, hospitals, at special events, conventions, and in many recreational activities. Lanyards come in various colors and types with different hardware attached at the bottom for holding an ID badge, whistle or the like.

Lanyards are typically made of cord, cotton, nylon or polyester twill. The cord type is the least expensive. The strap-type lanyards can be made of cotton, polytwill or nylon and are often printed with a company or team name, product or logo.

There are a wide variety of lanyards to choose from depending on your preference. Let us consider the popular beaded lanyard patterns. Beaded lanyards are much like jewelry. Colorful and top quality beaded lanyards made for excellent badge holders and eyeglass holders.

TYPECAST: Beaded lanyards can be as simple as inexpensive metallic, beaded chain. They feature a variety of hardware attachments to secure small objects. These lanyards are often in several different lengths and an array of colors.

However, other beaded lanyards are quite unique. The cost of a beaded lanyard depends on the type of beads and wire used in its design. One drawback of the beaded lanyard is that they are often fragile. They may look elegant but also may not have the durability of a nylon or cotton lanyard when worn frequently.

JEWELS AHOY: Some forms of beaded lanyards are quite unique and take the form of jewelry. They are often designed by skilled artisans and can be extremely expensive depending upon the type of materials used. Beaded lanyard patterns may consist of colorful patterns of seed beads, glass beads, crystals, or even gemstones.

Beaded lanyards made of blue, black or multi-colored beads accented with silver and gold are a special kind, which are quite popular. Exquisite beaded lanyards made of Swarovski crystals or semi-precious beads are available for the discerning wearer. Whatever is your preference you can be sure to get beaded lanyards with a distinctive style to coordinate and complement your attire, and as per your preference.

ART TIME: Beaded lanyards can be artistic like creations with sparkling crystals or colored plastic, or even metallic beaded chains. The two types on beads on a wire make a beautiful impression. Some of the most spectacular types of this combination form a special form of jewel lanyard.

Many bead artisans also offer jewelry pieces to coordinate with beaded lanyards. The beaded lanyard patterns are often duplicated in a bracelet, anklet, or pair of earrings. This is an ultimate in co-ordinated fashion accessories.

PEOPLE'S CHOICE: The most popular variety of beaded lanyards are used to hang glasses around the neck. These lanyards allow the glasses to hang around the neck when not in use. Such neck lanyards are called eyeglass necklaces or eyeglass holders.

Remember that beaded lanyards are often fragile. They may look elegant, but are not durable. So, when putting your glasses on a beaded lanyard, do check its durability.

Whatever type of beaded lanyard pattern you choose, they are attractive and eye catching and make a fashion statement of a different kind. So choose that beaded lanyard you have always wanted.

Have you ever watched a metal craftsman in action such as a
Blacksmith at a country fair... most people watch in awe as the
Blacksmith carefully heats a piece of iron in a charcoal forge
before placing it on the anvil and then proceed to hammer it into all kinds of unique shapes, it all looks pretty simple doesn't it...and the Blacksmith would probably tell you that it's not that difficult to hammer & shape things from red hot metal simply because it is quite fluid.

He's right you know, generally all it takes to work with metal is
a small amount of knowledge & instruction, and some solid
practice, and before too long even a novice will be producing
good quality metal craft items.

But there is a lot more to metal craft than just blacksmith work.

While you can't deny that blacksmithing is a lot of fun, and a
skilful worker can make many practical and ornamental items.
With a little practice you could also produce beautiful iron
work, simply by using basic skills & equipment.

In the early days the blacksmith was one of the most sought
after "skilled" workers in the village.

But you know, you can take the art of blacksmithing another
step. You could use the forge to melt metals.

What if you created a small charcoal fired furnace using your
existing forge, it wouldn't take much work to build up a simple
circle of bricks on the forge hearth to form a deep bed of charcoal so that you could produce a bed of red-hot glowing coals which will produce a large amount of heat.
Enough to heat and melt aluminium... maybe even bronze.

Of course a crucible is required to place the scrap metal or ingots in for melting purposes,and the crucible needs to be buried in the bed of coals so the heat of the charcoal will do its work for you.

All you need to do now is to apply a gentle blast of air from the
forge bellows to begin building the heat in the charcoal, and the
crucible with the scrap aluminium, or home made ingots will quickly melt in the crucible.

Most hobby workers use a small electric motor attached to a blower to produce the correct amount of air blast, but for the moment, the manual operation of the forge bellows will suffice.

High quality hardwood grade charcoal will produce a high amount of heat, in fact you'll notice with the added heat the alloy ingots will soon start to melt, and once that happens the pool of metal in the bottom of the crucible rapidly promotes the total melt.

Once the metal has all melted, it is ready to pour into a sand mould. The idea is to prepare your sand moulds well before the metal has melted, so that everything is set up and ready to go.
Once the methods & techniques are learnt, the whole process is quite easy and straight forward.

Any practical minded person could do it.

We have many people visit our web site: http://www.myhomefoundry.com
looking for information about metal casting... lots of people around the globe are involved in metal casting, it can become quite addictive which is not surprising, when you realize all of the things that you can make.

For the home engineer, inventor & project builder, hobby metal casting could be just the thing, if you want to create your own special castings at almost zero cost, i.e. once your mini foundry is established.

If you take your time to build all of your equipment properly, it should last you for many years.

To find out more about hobby metal casting and how you can employ
the methods & techniques to build & create your unique projects,
visit our web site to download a free ebook to begin your understanding of this intriguing metal craft.