Jelly Rolls... yum yum!

I decided I rather like Moda's Jelly Rolls - basically, I like the whole idea of being able to get a huge assortment of fabrics ready to use. Hancocks of Paducah had the one above in their "precut" websale and I ordered it to make another version of the ever popular new workshop quilt, "Super Strips". I wonder how I missed this range when it first came out?

However... I have another quilt sketched out on the computer that has been designed for 21/2in strips. The more I thought about it, the more this roll seemed perfect. Today I quickly worked out the cutting list and it fits the Jelly Roll with very little waste - at one point I thought I'd need to order another one, but it will work out with just one roll, although the design seems to need two strips of sixteen of the fabrics. The trick is to go through the roll and pair up as many fabrics with a different print but with the same colour background, then treat these two fabrics as if they are one. Prints that won't pair up comfortably with another can be used for another part of the design.

There is just one problem with a Jelly Roll - it simply isn't possible to see all the fabrics in one really well in a photo, as at least 60% of them are round the back of the roll. So it's great that Moda also show them like this -

When Jelly Rolls first came out, most of the fabrics weren't really my style, so it is great to see several Japanese retro ranges in the Jelly Roll format.

Grosvenor Exhibitions have chosen "A Jelly Roll Adventure" for their themed category at the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate this September. There's still time to get your entry form sent in, as the deadline for entry forms is July 7th. One of the great things about Grosvenor's quilt shows is you can deliver your quilt to the showground just 2 days before the show opens - so you have all summer to work on it. This is also the show that has the amateur wholecloth quilting category, so if you enjoy making wholecloths (and aren't a professional quilter of course) you can enter a category solely dedicated to that quilting genre. The venue, at the Great Yorkshire Showground, is my favourite out of all the quilt show venues we attend - access and parking are easy, you don't have to brave the Harrogate rush hour, everything is on one level, there are delicious ice-creams (!) and you can nip into Sainsbury's on the way out. Maybe see you there?

Summer Sunday workshops at Gresford

Two workshops are booked for Gresford Memorial Hall for July 2009. I decided to run them on Sundays, so there won't be problems for people needng to take time off work (not easy over the holiday season!) Both workshops are for rotary cutting and machine piecing patchwork. Contact me via my website if you would like to attend. Price per person per workshop is £25. The workshops run from 10 a.m. - 4p.m.

was Sunday 5th July 2009 - DATE CHANGED! This workshop will now be on Sunday 2nd August.

The first workshop is my new "Spinning Squares", for Layer Cakes or 10in square cuts. I have finished the top for this new design and it was much easier to sew than I'd anticipated, plus a piece of cake to cut out (no measuring!) Photo to follow as soon as it stops raining up here and I can take the quilt top outside for photography! Here it is - the rain stopped but not the breeze!


We will be making the centre squares in the workshop. You can finish the patchwork however you like before quilting it. I thought the New York 1930s print by Marcus Bros. from the layer cake pack was fantastic, and I tracked down the same fabric as yardage on the internet so I could use it for my border. I'm hoping to make a second patchwork sample before the workshop, using a Moda Layer Cake designed by Basic Grey, from the Urban Couture range. Dot Sherlock's Quilter's Needs has the same one (and lots of others) - she'll be at Gresford Craft Group's June exhibition (see next post).



The block works with multiples of 6 squares. Moda Layer Cakes typically have 40 squares with a handful of repeats. I bought a pack at Quilts UK with thirty squares from fifteen fabrics and have made the first workshop sample with this (in the first photo) - the pack was from The American Quilt Store (actually in the UK). I am sure they could put together a similar pack on request, if they don't have them on the website. You could make a quilt top with as few as twenty four fabrics, for a 6 x 4 block top. The finished block size is 81/2in. Of course, you don't have to use a layer cake and could precut your own set of 10in squares from fat quarters if you wish. Another nice feature of this workshop is that we don't need to use large cutting mats - an A3 size mat is quite adequate.

Suitable for near-beginners with a little experience of rotary cutting through multiple layers, you will get several sets of blocks finished on the day, with faster machinists completing a whole set of blocks and maybe even sewing them together. Like my "Japanese Circles and Squares" quilt, this one also has a neat number sequence to get the most from your block arrangement.

Sunday 12th July 2009 -

"Super Strips Quilt Top" was my most popular workshop last year at Gresford and I'm running it again. Click here and here to see the previous workshop photos. You will be able to make a dramatic quilt centre from either 1 1/2in strips (21 - 22in long) or from a Jelly Roll with 2 1/2in strips. You will need to cut your strips before the workshop. Machine sewing and rotary cutting. This quilt is based very loosely on the "Hearts and Crosses" coverlet recently exhibited at the Quilt Museum, York. You will be making the inner section on the day but going home with instructions for making the outer borders too, so it is up to you how you complete your version.


The second version of the patchwork is made using a Jelly Roll - the fabrics are Denise Schmidt's "Katy Jump Rope" range. This quilt has been made in everything from scrap selections to batiks, black & whites to vintage prints and seems to work with everything. No prizes for guessing that it is quicker to make it with a Jelly Roll than with 1 1/2in strips. Moda now have a 1 1/2in strip precut - called a Honey Bun...


I think several of the quilts made in the last two workshops will be shown at Gresford Craft Group and Wrexham Quilting Circle's summer exhibitions, in the third week in June.

Jelly Roll Challenge quilt

Finished my Jelly Roll quilt top this lunchtime and luckily the weather was good enough to photograph it in the Yamadera "natural light" studio - i.e. outside!

Jelly Rolls are a recent pre-cut fabric trend, started by Moda, who own the name. Forty 21/2in wide strips cut across the roll, rolled and tied. It is a convenient way to buy an entire fabric range, if quite a bit more expensive than buying yardage, but then you are getting just what you need, rather than having a lot left over. There was very little wastage on this quilt top.

It is a Jelly Roll version of my Super Strips quilt top, which works with any strip width between 11/2in - 21/2in.

The fabric is from the "Katie Jump Rope" range by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit. There were some repeats (27 different fabrics in all) but that doesn't matter. I got the fabric roll online from Gwenifer's Attic. Although the rolls lists only 26 strips, they kindly put together a 40 strip roll for me (that's the usual number in the Moda rolls and my quilt design is Moda-roll compatible).

Fluff supervised the shoot...