Jellyroll Joy

Hi - Kel here again and I want to know:

Do you jellyroll?

It seems that the lovely people who spend their days making quilt fabric will never tire of ways to tempt us. In the beginning there was yardage and there were scraps. Then quilting seemed to have a revival of sorts and spawned a whole industry of quiltmaking fabric, supplies and books.

Then we had fat quarters - a great way to build up a wide collection of different colours and patterns. Fat quarters are such a tempting impulse buy too as they don't cost much and you can buy one just because you love it. A quick note for non-quilters to demystify the fat quarter: picture a square yard (or metre, whatever your preference) of fabric. Now divide it into four equal strips (cutting across the width) - that's a long quarter, which is fine for cutting out little pieces or more strips. If, instead, you divide it into 4 equal blocks (cutting across the width and down the length) and you have fat quarters, a more versatile piece for getting different shapes and sizes cut out.

Then we had charm packs and fat eighths and then jelly rolls and layer cakes and I don't know what else. All so lovely to look at, but sometimes hard to use. You either need to buy everything you need for the next quilt, or you use up a selection of a bundle leaving unwieldy scraps to store forever, or you don't know how much quilt a jellyroll will make. Hence the book market that follows the introduction of each of these pretty bundles - 12 Quilts from Fat Quarters, 10 Jelly Roll Quilts for the Weekend, etc (by the way, those are made up titles, at least I hope so!)

 I am always tempted by the jellyrolls, but was never sure where to begin. I was looking at jellyroll books at the quilt show and realised that I probably knew enough strip-based patterns to work something out for myself. Then my lovely friend bought me this jellyroll (the photo is from The Quilt Room in Dorking - my one of my local fabric haunts). 

I was going to do something simple, possibly a simplified log cabin, or bordered four-patches, but then I saw this beautiful quilt on flickr. I can work out how to do it, so that is the new plan. I had hoped to have some blocks ready tonight to show you, but plans for the Mr's birthday got in the way (which is a good thing in my opinion!).

I've sorted out the strips into pairs mainly matching the colour but mixing up the scale. The quilt will blend from red to pink to blue to green to yellow. The first step is to sew together each pair of strips along their length, then cut across these to end up with little two-tone bricks - joining pairs of these will give my four-patches.

I'll make a start this week and show you when I see you next. Thanks for stopping by!

x 

Comments

[Debbie Roberts]

Beautiful fabric and love the quilt, and now I am wondering if I NEED a jelly roll lol.

Debbie x

[Eleanor]

Gorgeous scrummy jelly roll, will be a stunning quilt.
E
xx

[Carmen]

Thanks for explaining all that. I had wondered what all the terms went when I stuck my toe into sewing earlier in the year (leapt away again when I broke the machine in the first weekend!) Gorgeous colours in the one you have. Can't wait to see your quilt grow.

[Lynne V]

I keep looking at jellyrolls but never knew what to do with them.