Skip to main content

Great Ideas

A lot of quilters use jelly rolls, and I'm no exception. They became a thing when they were first introduced back in 2007, and have been a staple of the quilting industry ever since. Simply put, a jelly roll is bundle of 40 strips of 2-1/2" precut fabric (they're usually 40" to 44" long, or whatever the width of the fabric is.) Jelly rolls are made of fabrics that belong to a collection, or are of the same or complementary colors, or have a common theme, like baby or Christmas. Because they're already cut you can start piecing right away, which is the convenience factor.

I stopped using jelly rolls when I got more into quilting with thrifted fabrics. Precuts are too expensive, frankly. I still have an entire bin that includes quite a few leftover jelly rolls, and even more 2-1/2" strips in my scraps bin. I'd like to use them up, so I invested in Carolyn Forster's Jelly Roll Scraps.

This book features 15 quilts and 15 gift items you can make from leftover 2-1/2" strips (you don't need jelly roll scraps, of course, you can just cut them up from your own fabric.) The quilts in the book are small (most are under 20" X 20") but really stunning, and feature traditional patchwork patterns that I would love to try making. I think because the projects are small I'm encouraged, too -- I really don't have the energy to keep making huge quilts anymore.

The instructions are well-written, and there are plenty of photos for each project to guide you along. I really like this octopus toy, it's a clever way to use up leftover strips.

The projects have a range of difficulty, but most are pretty beginner friendly, which I also like. Stay tuned to the blog to see what I make from this project book.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
1 comment
Read more