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!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Terri Drafted a Couple Paper Piecing Blocks For Me



Yes, I got Terri's drafts in the mail yesterday and made a couple blocks. My friend Terri's blog is at quiltncards.blogspot.com. 
For each pattern I cut a 5" square and cut each square diagonally. I cut a strip about 1.5" wide and sewed the halves of one of the 5" square on either side which made the center strip finish at 1" wide. I trimmed the block to about 5.25" square. 
For the second block, I cut a strip about 2" wide and sewed the two halves of the other 5" square on either side  of the strip which made the center strip finish at 1.5" wide. I trimmed the block to about 5.5" square.
I like both blocks! I want to make another block, this time with a center strip that will finish at 1.25" wide. 
It will be easy to make blocks larger or smaller. Many possibilities. Though I did not paper piece these two blocks, I may paper piece future blocks.
Thank you Terri :D 

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Tag

While reading blogs today, I came across some questions to answer on a blog post by the Empress of the Universe... It looked like fun so here goes...

1.  How long have you been quilting?
I'm been seriously quilting a few years. I've collecting fabric and pretending to quilt for years. 
2.  What quilting/sewing tool to you find most useful?
My rotary cutter, ruler and cutting board.
3.  Do you belong to a quilt guild?
No. I count on my blogging friends to be my quilting buddies.
4.  Do you have a local quilt shop?
There's a couple JoAnn's, a Hancock's Fabrics, a few nice quilting stores close by.
5.  Do you quilt your own quilts or quilt "by check"?
I quilt my own.
6.  How many finished quilts to you have in your home?
Five.
7.  How many UFOs/WIPs do you have right now?
Four or five. The reason is in the answer to question number five.
8.  What's the farthest you've been from home?
Germany on vacation. Such a beautiful country.
9.  I'm going to take you out to dinner and I'm paying... where are we going and what will we have? I like the Olive Garden. Angle hair pasta, meat sauce, never ending salad bowl, bread sticks and ice tea. Sweet tea, just like God intended.
10.  When was the last time you bought fabric?
Yesterday. Enough for a Captain America pillowcase.
11.  Thread... more than 100 spools or less? Less

I'm not going to tag 11 other bloggers HOWEVER... if you would like to join in the fun, please feel free to do so. Just answering the following questions!   Let me know so I can come visit and see your answers. 

1.  How long have you been quilting? 
2.  What quilting/sewing tool to you find most useful?
3.  Do you belong to a quilt guild?
4.  Do you have a local quilt shop?
5.  Do you quilt your own quilts or quilt "by check"?
6.  How many finished quilts to you have in your home?
7.  How many UFOs/WIPs do you have right now?
8.  What's the farthest you've been from home?
9.  I'm going to take you out to dinner and I'm paying... where are we going and what will we have? 
10.  When was the last time you bought fabric?
11.  Thread... more than 100 spools or less? 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Today I Sewed Paper


Yes. Today I tried paper piecing. I used the tutorial on Terri's blog post at.quiltncards.blogspot.com
Now isn't this block just wonderful! So much fun going on here. A most excellent tutorial, Terri. Thank you.

Please visit Terri's blog today, leave words of encouragement for her, say a prayer for her daughter. Chrissy is having surgery this morning.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I Won A Basket of Novelty Fabrics At The Quilt Show


I got a call at lunch time today saying I won one of the four baskets of fabric given away at the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters Guild quilt show I attended over the weekend! Yahoo! How lucky and timely is that! I think some of this fabric will find it's way into a child's quilt  for Hands2Help!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2012


I'd like you all to consider joining in with the Hands2Help Charity Quilt drive being organized by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Click on the side bar button to take you to her blog for all the information and the schedule. She has options to make it easy for anyone to participate. Go read her blog posts and seriously consider contributing a charity quilt. 

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Quilt Show

This weekend has been a real treat! I visited a very nice quilt show here in Winston Salem. There were vendors, a silent auction and many lovely quilts.
I took pictures of some of MY favorites. Though they were clearly not the most difficult to make ... they caught my eye and made me smile.




The last one was my favorite. So colorful and a great collection of bright, beautiful fabrics. It was a free pattern the lady found in a magazine. The squares looked like they were about the size of charms.


I bought three lovely bundles of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Each Rowan Collection bundle is sitting on a yard of matching Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I bought on sale last year. How lucky is that. I have been looking at these fabric bundles online forever, it seems.
And I bought the half yard of postcard impressionists fabric. I may frame some this fabric.
I don't think I can afford to go to any more Quilt Shows.

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