How to Make a Dozen Layer Frayed Quilt

Using a fabric that easily frays is a great way to add texture to a quilt along the raw edges of a piece. Heather Thomas shows you how to make a fun frayed quilt using cotton gauze and a quilt as you go technique.

Supplies

While quilts are commonly made using cotton fabric, cotton gauze looks and feels entirely different. It is a lightweight, loosely woven fabric sometimes called shot cotton. Heather explains some of the reasons why she chose to make her frayed quilt using cotton gauze, including sharing how cotton gauze is colored and why that makes it a good fabric to fray. She also shows what kind of batting to use for this project and explains why a different colored batting is the best choice.

Construction

When it comes to making the twelve layers that make up the frayed quilt in this quilting tutorial, Heather doesn’t use a rotary cutter and mat. Rather, she explains how part of the artistry behind this project is that the lines don’t have to be perfectly straight and the rectangles don’t have to have perfect corners. She demonstrates how she uses the largest rectangle piece as a guide to cut the next smallest rectangle and works her way towards the center. She then demonstrates how to stitch the rectangles in place and explains what seam allowance and stitch length should be used. By stitching through all of the layers of fabric and batting at the same time Heather is both quilting as she goes and eliminating the need for piecing her art quilt.

Finishing

Once all of the layers have been stitched down the edges can be frayed to give it more texture. Heather shows how that can be done by pulling out fibers along the raw edges of the fabric. Washing and drying the quilt can also cause the edges to fray more.