I have a hard enough time sitting still for an hour, let alone parked in front of a sewing machine feeding fabric for what feels like infinity, so that ain't gonna happen. Here's what I am thinking I might do:
Since I want my quilt to be about 60 x 80 inches, I MIGHT measure out 84 inches from the starting end of the strip. I'll mark it with a pin. Then I'll fold the strip from that point and sew two layers together. When I get to the fold, I'll cut it apart, open it up, and THEN....
I'll decide which side I want to add the strip to, and sew that edge! I am pretty sure when I get to the end, I'll cut the strip, and then move to the other side and keep going. In other words, I'll go around as if I were in a circle. I might zig zag and go back the way I just came if I like the way the fabrics work better. I'll see when I get there.
Remember, the only reason Jelly Rolls exist is to get you to BUY THEM. Jelly Roll Races exist to get you to USE THEM. Then you can BUY MORE.
Jelly Roll Race quilts ALSO get quilters to LIVE DANGEROUSLY by TAKING CHANCES and letting the chips fall where they may, because we all know quilters like making things PERFECT, and they are loath to TAKE RISKS.
Allow me a wide streak of EGO here when I tell you I have no such fears or inhibitions. Heck, if you've been following my blog for any length of time you know how I start a quilt without a clear idea of what I'm doing, and have absolutely no trouble making the same element two or three times until I get it the way I want it. I love to see what happens by ACCIDENT (made fabric).
HOWEVER, I draw the line at STUPID. I draw the line at BORING, PREDICTABLE and UGLY. One visitor to my house once asked why I would MAKE a chessboard when I could BUY one at a store. My reply? "Why would I pay money for something UGLY when I can make something BEAUTIFUL?"
So when I tell you I am going to break the rules for the Jelly Roll Race, you can be damn sure that if I don't like the way the colors line up, I am NOT going to sew them together. I will tinker with them to get it to look BEAUTIFUL.
Because it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. So to speak.
And yes, I've ALWAYS had this I-gotta-be-different streak. All my life. All. My. Life.
16 comments:
Wonderful! I love your outlook and choice to do things the way you want. You come up with some beautiful and unique creations!
You echo my sentiments exactly! All of the Jelly Roll Race quilts I've seen are ugly. Why would anyone want to end up with an ugly quilt? And they look incredibly boring to sew as well. Why even bother?
I'm enjoying watching your process!
It's a good thing your mom is an artist. If she were say, an accountant, raising you would have driver her crazy.
Dear Selvage Fairy, There were four of us. All noisy, all creative, all unique.
I own a quilt shop and I don't stock Jelly rolls. I am trying to educate the quilters that by buying fabric this way, they can be spending as much as $20-$25 a yard. It was a brilliant marketing idea by which ever company thought it up to get rid of their ends and scraps - some people will buy ANYTHING wrapped up with a pretty ribbon! I hate, hate, hate the jelly roll quilts by any of their many names. They look like backgrounds at best. But I know a couple of quilters who may never make anything else for the rest of their lives. Thanks for letting me vent .... I think I'll go cut out a triangle now.
I agree with you about the jelly roll quilts. I've been at retreats where quilters ooh and ahh over the effects of them, when I think they're not so great. but when I do controlled scrappy, they say nothing. I've done a few of the plank quilts with my scraps and they were lovely, because they were unexpected, but I made sure that I didn't have blobs of colour touching, like I see in the JRQ. I've never bought a JR and don't plan to, because it seems like an expensive way to buy scraps.
Damn girl...I love the way you think!!
Susan
You ROCK!!!!!
My hero!
Weird. Just the other day I sewed a long strip together using the left over pieces from a quilt. It will be the bag for the butterfly to be on. It was on a whim I did that. I have no idea how long it is or how I will sew it all together yet....and then I pop in here and you are doing the same thing only bigger. I know yours will be beautiful!!
Carry On! You are on the track I would take if I were doing a random plank. Thank goodness there are rebel quilters in the world who make things so interesting.
Yay for you!
I never really "got" the jelly roll thing, and now I know why. i am a rebel at heart, too.
Vicky F
Sweet!!
i have similar reasoning - only i have to remind myself how my Mom began patching.......
so i prefer the scrappy look to what i do, and i don't buy the latest and greatest fabric; i'm quite ok with fabric that isn't "hot off the press" so to speak!!
xo
smooches to millie
eva
Well said Lynne, I find those Jelly Roll quilt UGLY too!
My "Jelly Roll Race" quilt wasn't made from a purchased jelly roll. I grabbed 40 random strips from my stash of strips and put them in a paper bag. Then I got a bunch of yellow squares and some red ones to put between the strips, which were randomly taken from the bag. Sometimes I mistakenly sewed the end of the strip to the wrong side of the beginning strip and sometimes the strip got twisted. It didn't really matter because I had no preconceived notion of the end result! It made a great couch potato quilt for my daughter and her family and it was all made with what I had on hand.
I can't find a good reason to buy a group (or strips) of fabrics that have been pre-packaged. I'm quite able to make my own fabric choices!
I have never made a jelly roll race quilt either, for the same reasons you mentioned above. In fact my husband bought me this quilt kit for my birthday (I think) and I asked him why he picked that kit. He said because it had dragonflies on it, and you like dragonflies ( I do) I asked him if he liked the quilt, he replied " Not really" I told him Good neither do I, but I will use the "jelly rolls" for something else, and put the dragonflies on that instead, but it was an ugly quilt. Looked like a jelly roll race quilt done on the diagonal. Not my style either.
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