Sunday, March 25, 2012

A Homemade Jelly Roll Strip Quilt With Two Borders

You probably recognize this quilt as one of those 1600 jelly roll challenge quilts. I made it a year ago after  I saw a group of ladies in a You Tube video in a race making these quilts.  The ladies in the video used pre-cut rolls of coordinating fabric strips. I didn't have a jelly roll at the time, so I cut strips from my stash. This is the You Tube video I watched before I made this quilt.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EomX7t7to_o
I'll summarize how I made my quilt in the picture. 
I cut 40 strips from my fabric stash. Each width of fabric strip was cut 2 1/2” wide. I sewed the strips end to end into one long strip. The ladies in the video sewed their strips together with diagonal seams. 
From one end of this long strip, I cut off 18″ and tossed it away. This helped  randomize the location of the seams throughout the quilt. If you make this quilt, it is important that you don't leave out this part.
I found the beginning and the end of the long strip, placed each of the ends right sides together and sewed and sewed and sewed. It was a long seam. Right before I reached the end, I cut the newly formed wider strip apart and then finished sewing the seam. I didn't press any of my seams until I finished so they would all be pressed in the same direction.
Again I found the beginning and the end of the strip, placed the right sides together, and sewed. Like before, just before I reached the end, I cut the newly formed wider strip apart and then finished sewing the seam.I did this five times. Each time the seam was shorter by half.  After I finished the fifth seam, I pressed all seams in the same direction, trimmed the sides to make them even and added two borders. Borders are optional.
I used fabrics from my stash to piece together a back for the quilt.  I used thin Warm and Natural cotton batting. After some free motion quilting on my domestic sewing machine, a binding made from 2 1/2" strips from my stash, a wash in the washing machine to remove the spray basting, and drying in the clothes dryer to make it soft ,,, the 67"x59" quilt was finished
This is another You Tube video showing someone making a jelly roll quilt. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU 


I found the 2 You Tube video links in this blog entry on You Tube during a '1600 jelly roll quilt' search. There are probably others. I wasn't paid or compensated in any way to mention these videos. I found them helpful to watch. 
On a personal note, the quilt took me a lot longer to make than the quilts made in the videos.
I've seen quilts made from some pre-cut jelly rolls that look VERY nice. I used very bright, bold, colorful fabrics for my strips, bright yellow for a skinny inner border and a bright lime green for a larger border. It looks really nice!

12 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

You should consider putting this and some of your other quilts in the Scrap Attack Challenge - I will pass the link when they get it up today.

Impera Magna said...

Very bright and cheerful... the borders just make it!

BlueRidge Boomer said...

This jelly roll quilt is on my "to do" list...looks like fun!!
Enjoy

Terri said...

Looking great. I love your color combos - you know. So cheery! I know it's fun, too, because I enjoyed the one you sent to me.
Hugs!

Marina said...

I love jelly rolls: they are so easy and fun to sew!

Deb G. said...

Beautiful!

BunkHouseQuilts said...

This is one of the best jelly roll quilts I have seen! Nice explanation of how you did it from your scraps. You have inspired me!

Cyn said...

I agree with "BunkHouseQuilts", this is one of the best 1600 quilts I've seen. Yours is vibrant and wonderful. I also like how you connected the strips - straight across, not diagonal. I think this adds to your design. Besides, yours is different and not like the many others. Unique is good!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Beautiful quilt and perfect for Spring!!

Michelle said...

What a fun quilt & colors!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous! Love the bright colours :)

Dorthy of Texas said...

I like this! Our quilt guild is planning a project day in August and they are going to do these. I'm not going to participate because I've made a couple of these tops already! One from strips I cut from my stash; and one from a moda Texas print jelly roll. I haven't sandwiched them yet, but have the backing ready and the batting purchased. I just need to find a place big enough to do the sandwiching!

Like your blog. Come visit me at mine some time: Dorthyscoatofmanycolors.blogspot.com

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