Rag Quilt Planning

So my super awesome SIL went on a trip to the west coast for a wedding last weekend and along the way she stopped to scout out some fabric at some fabric stores along the way.  I NEED to go on these trips with her since she comes home with the cutest, awesomest, most lovely fabric that I can never find in Calgary.  She also finds the sweetest fabric bundles - I can never find good fabric bundles for kids - so I think she and I need to head out for a girls trip to get some fabric for me and build up her yarn stash (because stash building is more fun when its done in groups!!).

Not that I need yet ANOTHER project on the go I've fallen in love with some flannel that my SIL brought back from BC and I decided to make a cute little Rag Quilt for the baby (yes I'm feeling bad that hes not even born and I've made him one blanket already, pondering another one and my oldest still doesn't have her baby blanket done yet - but I digress!!!).  I've been dying to make a rag quilt for years but I've always done other things with my fabric rather than make a rag quilt so now is the time to give it a try!

I'm going to use the green dinosaur fabric as the backing so its all the same fabric and then I'll use the 8 fat quarters as the top of the quilt. I'm thinking that I'm not going to put batting in between the fabric or should I?!  (If anyone wants to weigh in and give me some 'to add batting or not to add batting' advice it would be greatly appreciated!!!!!) to keep it a little lighter.  I still haven't figured out the dimensions of the quilt but I'd like it to be a little bit bigger than the Tumbling Dots quilt I made a few months ago so he can use this quilt a little longer.

I bought the Accuquilt 5 1/2 inch rag square die - everything I have read or when I have spoken to people they say that this die is the most fabulous thing ever since it saves so much time when assembling a rag quilt.   I was forewarned to make sure that I have my lint brush handy since the die will create a TON of lint.....maybe I'll make sure my vacuum is close by too!

I think I'll start tackling this blanket tomorrow night when the girls are in bed - I'm really looking forward to being back sewing again!  I just need to finish planning how I want the quilt top to look with the 8 fabrics - pattern or random - and how big I want it then I'm ready to go!!!