Message to Charlie

July 4, 20162 Comments

This will be an unusual post. Yesterday I received an email from a lady called Charlie. She wanted to know the pattern/cutting instructions for my “jelly patchy roll” quilt. When I replied to her, the message came back as undeliverable because the email address was not recognised.

I don’t want her to think that I am the sort of person who doesn’t reply to emails so I am writing my reply here in the hope that she might see it.

For my scrappy jelly roll quilt, I used this pattern by Erica Jackman on Moda Bake Shop. This quilt requires two jelly rolls.

The off-set coin quilt used one jelly roll. There isn’t a pattern as such. I used a tutorial by Kristy @107 quilts.

Hope this gets through to Charlie and good luck with your quilt.

Checkerboard quilt – a work in progress

March 10, 20162 Comments

Strangely I seem to have a number of half-finished quilts cluttering up my workroom. I’m not sure how this happened. Best not to dwell on the how and instead focus on getting them completed.

With this in mind, over the past week I have been working on a checkerboard quilt top that had been languishing on my dining room table for (many) months. I had decided to use a jelly roll for the patterned sections and then very quickly wished that I hadn’t. Don’t get me wrong. I love using jelly rolls. Sadly this one seemed to have more than its fair share of strips not cut on the grain and many were slightly wider than 2 1/2 inches. After a bit of judicious cutting, thankfully this wasn’t too much of a problem.

Rather than cut out individual 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch squares, I used this strip piecing tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts. I selected 33 strips from my jelly roll, cut them in half on the fold line and then attached a 2 1/2 inch wide strip of plain fabric to the long side. Although not really necessary, I cut the jelly roll strips in half to reduce any potential problems if the strips were wonky. I really needed only 32 jelly roll strips for the quilt. The extra one was to allow for any cutting errors (sad to say, there was one) and also ensured I had plenty of options when putting the quilt top together so that similar/same patterns weren’t right next to each other. The sewn strips were then cut down to 10 1/2 inches long and then sewn to another pair of sewn strips. Although these strips were slightly shorter than the 11 inches recommended in the tutorial there was more than enough fabric available when cross-cutting the strips.

Checkerboard quilt strips

I worked on a quarter of the quilt at a time as I don’t have a large enough space in which to layout the full quilt design. Making up blocks of 16 squares each as per the tutorial made it much easier to nest the seams together and the reverse stayed very neat and tidy too.

Checkerboard quilt blocks

My quilt top is now complete and ready for quilting.

Checkerboard quilt top

I love the colours in this one. They are so soft and pretty. And the white squares make it look lovely and fresh. Here is a close-up so you can see all that prettiness in detail.

Checkerboard quilt top detail

It reminds me of meadow flowers strewn across a white sheet and I don’t even mind the greys in this one. Now I just need to choose the backing fabric and the quilting pattern. Decisions, decisions.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I used an Ambleside jellyroll by Moda – a very pretty, country cottage collection of rose, daisy, gingham and lace designs – and Bella Solid in Off White for the plain squares.

Back with more soon.

A Christmas quilt

December 26, 2014May 26, 20151 Comment

My sister-in-law has been going through some difficult times of late. Not eating properly and little sleep doesn’t help either. For the times you can’t be there in person, a quilt shows you care by providing comfort and warmth. When wrapped in a handmade quilt you really are surrounded by love and Christmas is the perfect time to give a gift of love.

My sister-in-law loves autumnal colours and this Honeysweet collection by Fig Tree and Co contained all the colours she loves best. The reds and greens also look suitably Christmassy.

The pattern is from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. It is an easy design to put together and I love the way the blocks create an optical illusion, appearing to float in the background fabric.

A cherry fabric from the Eden collection by Nel Whatmore was used for the backing and a stylised flower design was chosen for the long arm quilting.

The binding fabric is from the Honeysweet collection. I couldn’t source this one in the UK and ended up ordering it from the USA. I’m glad that I made the effort to find it as it tones perfectly with the Cherries fabric. Being a perfectionist has its benefits.

My sister-in-law loved her quilt. All of it. She loved the colours and the design. She loved the soft feel of it. She loved the cosiness and warmth. As soon as she pulled the quilt out of its wrapping, she curled up in the armchair, pulled the quilt over her and fell asleep for an hour. The healing has begun.

Scrappy jelly roll quilt

September 29, 2014May 26, 20152 Comments

How pretty is this fabric collection by Moda? Called Fleurologie, it is a beautiful mix of aquas, greens, pinks and yellows with just a splash of a dark, bright blue to liven it up.

I have been having a real thing with jelly rolls recently. Not satisfied with one jelly roll, I used two of them to make this scrappy style quilt.

The backing is a bird lover’s delight incorporating images of small British birds. A small stylised leaf was used for the long arm quilting; with cream thread used on the front and olive brown on the reverse.

And for the finishing touch, I used my favourite squared elements fabric in yellow for the binding.

At 173cm by 175cm this quilt is a very versatile size. It would look fabulous on a sofa or bed and is the perfect partner for snuggling up with a good book or when watching tv.

Jelly roll quilt

September 20, 2014May 26, 2015Leave a comment

I love this quilt. It’s bright. It’s colourful. It’s cheerful. Even the backing fabric, from the Happi range by Dena Designs, echoes the theme.

The pattern is a traditional one called stacked coins but traditional doesn’t have to mean old fashioned. It looks very modern when made up in these bright, bold fabrics.

I used this Honey Honey jelly roll, another Moda pre-cut, to make the quilt. Jelly rolls contain 40 or 42 fabric strips, each two and a half inches wide and cut across the width of the fabric. As with layer cakes, they are a good way to play with a full fabric collection as there is a least one strip of each design in the roll.

After cutting, the jelly roll strips were sewn into long columns and then set within a jewel purple sashing which shows the colours off beautifully. To complement the bright, cheerfulness of the quilt, it was long-arm quilted in a giant daisy pattern using a variegated pink and mauve thread.

The quilt binding, using the green checked fabric from the Honey Honey collection, is a little deeper than I generally use but I think it suits the larger size of this quilt. At 184cm by 169cm, it makes a perfect picnic blanket or would make a fabulous gift for a young woman off to university. And of course, it would look great on a bed or sofa too.