I just started my 1st Raggy Quilt using quilt shop quality flannels. Instead of just quilting an X across the squares I decided to have fun with some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine, and am using different stitches for each square (still stitching an X) . But then I got to thinking...since the directons say to NOT prewash the fabric, when the blocks are sewn together and I then wash the finished quilt to get the fraying, are the blocks liable to shrink differently depending on the stitches? I will probably test it out with some scrap pieces before I continue with the rest, but if anyone else has tried this would you let me know how it turned out?

I saw a snow man rag quilt the other day at a quilt shop. It had snow man faces on it with a hat. The clerk said the pattern was in a magazine and the pattern is our of print. Does this ring a bell to anyone? I would like to try and get the back issue of the magazine. Hope this makes some sort of sense. Thanks.

The different decorative stitches in an X should not make any difference in how the blocks shrink.

I would think that the worst that would happen is it may distort the decorative stitichin if it is a looser design...but that could look nice too!!!

I usually never wash my fabric but for flanel I wash it once before I start....it will shrink more no matter where u get it unless it isn't 100% cotton :D

For a rag quilt if you are using the flannel in the middle layer and your blocks aren't real large you don't have to put an X at all.

And for rag quilts you never pre-wash your material. You want it to ravel really full at the seam clippings.

Hope this helps out.