Henry, I love your rag quilt! It's delightful as always. :) It looks darn good for "winging it" :D
tlr~it doesn't even make any sense that they tell you to cut your fabric a certain size when it doesn't meet the requirements to fill the space. That's just nuts!! I guess we should just cut everything a little bit bigger "just in case", or cut out a sample swatch from scrap fabric to make sure it will cover well. I dunno. Seems to me that the pattern maker should have simply included the seam allowance in the cutting instructions. I've seen template patterns that tell you to add in the seam allowances, but to actually tell you to cut it that size and then it doesn't fit? Nuts, I tell ya.