I bought a Comma collection (by moda) jelly roll last summer, and started hand sewing some of the strips together, only to stuff them into a bag for a long time. I needed something easy to sew on the machine this past long weekend, so I unpicked the handsewn seams and worked the strips up into a Jelly Roll Race Quilt!
Dale caught some good photos of me basting. I decided not to use all the colours in the jelly roll – I took out the pinks and greens, and added in some other fabrics for an overall palette of black, grey, white, blue, and yellow. I followed the excellent instructions from Blair of wise craft, sewing the strips together end to end, then folding the strip in half and sewing an edge together, folding that in half and sewing an edge together, etc. It’s kind of difficult to explain in words, but really easy to do!
My strips are shorter than they were originally – I cut the strips in half so that it would be easier to blend in other strips cut from fat quarters. I didn’t really calculate what size it would come out to, so it while it was wide enough, it wasn’t long enough for the bed! I decided to add grey borders to the ends, which look similar but were done a strip at a time to make sure I got the right dimensions.
I made a backing from some larger pieces and scraps, and sandwiched it all up. I actually had a piece of batting the right size (60″x80″) without checking before I made the quilt top, though I do think I might lose an inch or two from the width when it comes time to trim it. I’m planning to hand quilt it, and have quilted few simple lines on it so far. It’s fun!
Unrelatedly, I bought these buttons at the Purple Purl yesterday. They’re made by Debra Barnes, aren’t they lovely?
