Jelly Roll Blues and Pinks

It occurred to me, moving aside a bundle of jelly-roll cuts of fabric out of the way yet again, that I should just make something with the darned things and get them out of my stash box.  I had bought this roll to use for miniature quilts, as it contained a number of smallish prints and colors that already go well together, but the fabric frayed so easily that it was more frustrating than anything else trying to make 1-inch squares, that I gave up, and to be honest, the fabric is too rough anyway.  But I had seen somewhere, can't remember now, a quilt of strips sewn end-to-end, then cut to a fixed length and shuffled up in a random order, and so I thought, "right, time for a 'Stay-at-Home Jelly Roll'!" -- the requirement being that I not buy a single thing. 

I had just enough pre-made binding in a relatively-coordinating color, and a package of polyester batting that I'd bought when I didn't know any better, still in a box in the garage that I'd forgotten about.  The back is a pleasant Robert Kaufman polka dot that I had bought online for a dress a year or so ago but decided wasn't quite right when I saw it in person, but is now doing sterling service as a backing material for various projects.  (The bonus bloom is Salvia mellifera that is enjoying the warmer weather we've been having for the past few weeks -- the flowers are a bit unremarkable, but the leaves have a heavenly scent that actually wafts on the breeze, so I'm quite happy with it!)

A number of the jelly-roll strips were now half their original length -- the ones I used for the failed miniature quilt -- so I just laid them out to make sure the polka-dotted ones were distributed fairly evenly throughout, but otherwise I didn't do much "arranging".  I chain-stitched them end-to-end, which went wonderfully quickly, and ended up with just a little over 70 inches/178 cm in one long strip.  After some puzzling sums and divisions, I decided that 30 in./76 cm would be a generous-but-not-profligate length, so I cut a random bit from the beginning to help re-align the changes between the original strips, and cut the whole thing into 30-in. strips (adding in the bit I'd taken off the beginning somewhere in the middle, and rearranging another section so that one of the seams wouldn't be too close to the edge).  Then I tossed them all up in the air, and laid them out in a random order -- this time I did tweak the layout a bit, so as not to have two strips with the same fabric next to each other, or too much of one color in a section -- then sewed them up.  I've been making an effort to appreciate and enjoy the process and not feel that I need to speed-sew/knit/stitch, but I have to admit that this came together gratifyingly quickly!

After I sewed and pressed the whole top, I put it in the sink and swished it rather violently in hot water, partly to get it to shrink if it would, and partly in hopes that it would soften up a bit once the sizing was washed out.  I don't really get the don't-prewash method -- maybe it's easier to get edges lined up when they are still a little stiff with the sizing, but it just seems utterly wrong to me not to pre-shrink, especially considering that some fabrics behave more erratically than others in the first wash!  I don't think these softened up much, though, as it happens -- oh well.

I was debating with myself whether to attach the back of the binding by hand (which I prefer for the softness of the thing afterwards) or stitch-in-the-ditch from the front, when I noticed this zigzag variation on my old Kenmore.  I don't think I had ever used it before!  Since the whole point of this  was to be done and out of the way as quickly as possible, I seized the inspiration and sewed both sides of the binding at once with the zigzag.  The effect is actually rather handsome, as long as the fabric travels at an even rate under the sewing foot -- you can see that it went a bit awkwardly along the top here, then smoothed out after turning the corner.  And I ran completely out of the blue thread about two-thirds along, first the bobbin and then the spool, so finished with a pale pink, just going with the improv vibe, as Julia would say.

So there it is, a bit on the small side, being 28x36 in./71x92 cm, but it's a lock-down project, needs must.  "What are you going to do with it?" David asked.  I said I'd probably just give it to the local Assistance League thrift shop, and David said, "Or you could give it to the Bs!" a co-worker of his that he's become good friends with in the past few years, who with his wife had their first baby in the early spring, a little girl.  "That's a good idea!  And it's pink-but-not-too-pink."

And a bit of the other Jelly Roll! --

Comments

[dawninnl]

The quilt is great. Perfect for that baby, I would say. Nice colours and I love the zigzag binding stitch. In that last photo, it looks nicely puffy, too.
It also ticks some boxes, stash busting, creativity, new technique and gifting

[Sarina]

You have a pretty quilt and they have a baby so it all works out beautifully.