Saturday, October 23, 2010

how to make a jelly roll quilt in one week.

Hot off the sewing machine! Here it is a fait a compli! I am really pleased with how this moda jelly roll (origins by basic grey) combined with  the "Braided Links" pattern from the "Jelly Roll Quilts and More" by Kimberly Einmo turned out.

If you are interested in checking out the process from beginning to end, go to:
part 1: getting started
part 2: piecing the top

I decided to leave the border off to give the quilt a more modern/urban look.  I stuck to straight line/stitch in the ditch quilting (my free motion quilting needs some work).  I used a hand dyed variegated 35 wt. 3 ply 100% long staple cotton thread called "Bumble Bees" by Valdani.  I like how the traditional log cabin style pattern is made modern with the hip fabric.  You would never guess that this combination of colours and patterns would work, but it really does pop.  That's actually one of the things I love about jelly rolls (besides the reduced cutting/prep time) - the colour selection often pushes you outside of your comfort zone and keeps things interesting.

Linda (my quilting mentor at The Oakville Centre) encouraged me to go with my bold selection for the backing.  This is a flannel, which is the type of fabric I use on the majority of my quilts (comfy for the recipient of your quilt but be warned that flannel doesn't glide through your machine as well as cotton does).  I used a bright orange on the back of my crazy quilt and I smile every time I look at it.  My suggestion to quilters - be brave!! Don't go safe and boring, it's such a fun surprise for someone to flip your quilt over and see something they weren't expecting.
If you're wondering how the heck I finished this quilt in a week (on top of a full-time job and having 2 young children), I broke it down like this:

Saturday night: cutting
Sunday: piecing blocks
Monday: complete top
Tuesday: put quilt sandwich together
Wednesday & Thursday: quilt, quilt, and quilt some more
Friday: sew binding on
Saturday morning: hand stitch binding

I'm off to deliver my quilt to Linda at the Oakville Sewing Centre (she's going to put it on display - what an honour!).

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic job! Just love it...

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  2. thanks ladies - I'm thrilled with the results!

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  3. Anonymous9:22 p.m.

    Beautiful!
    mb

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  4. Great time management with spectacular results!!

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  5. thanks @nbq! I had to burn the midnight oil a few nights, but you know how it us when you are so close...it's hard to turn the sewing machine off and go to bed ;-)

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  6. GORGEOUS!!! Wow -- I'm very impressed!! You did such a great job and I loved watching your "process" as you made it. What a feeling of productivity and accomplishment!

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