ideas to remember for rag quilts to come:

1. The seams are 1" deep seams, so the rags are longer. Additionally, the snips are very close together, so that makes for a more frilly, fluffy look than the average snip. 2. This quilt has incorporated a chenille to add texture to the top quilt appearance (white dot fabric used in upper right corner panel and diagonal from that). Because chenille has been used, there has to be a deeper seam due to the thread count of the chenille. 3. Osnaburg is what they used to use to make flour sacks and feed sacks. It is a very thick thread, loose weave linen. Most of my rag quilt books recommend this as the batting. I've been able to order it online - it comes in white, cream and black. I've only used it once and it did fray nicely. I especially liked how it was not very heavy, so the weight of the quilt was lighter. 4. To receive more fray, the trick is in the seam depth and the snip width. I honestly don't think that an extra layer of batting would make that much of a difference. I also don't think that snipping a rag quilt with 4 layers would even be possible - my thumbs would probably fall off! I've got the ultra heavy-duty Heritage Rag Quilt Snips and even with those, 4 layers would be a nightmare. 5. To answer the question about the batting squares being the same size as the quilt squares - yes, this is usually how they show it in the pattern books for rag quilts, and this is how I've always done it for my quilts. I don't even sew the X seams unless my squares are larger than 7". The flannel serves as a magnet and everything pretty much stays stuck together when sewing. I almost always use flannel as my batting (cheaper than the Osnaburg) and flannel for my backing. I use cotton print fabric for my rag quilt tops because I think 3 layers of flannel would be too hot for a quilt.