Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Use All the Jelly Rolls!

Buy the Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll pattern here.

I’ve succumbed to the allure of precuts on many occasions. Who can blame me? They’re a cost-effective way to get a cross-section of an entire line, and because they are precut, there is less work for me.

Jelly rolls are not as versatile as other precuts, though, so they tend to linger in my stash. I have four of them right now, and it’s time to put them into service as quilts. Two of the four feature Christmas fabrics, so I decided to use them up first by making quilts for Christmas giving. The holiday deadline was the kick in the pants I needed to get going!

First up: my Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt. Most of the fabrics are from a jelly roll of Basic Grey’s Evergreen, but I supplemented that lot with some Evergreen fat quarters and some strips from a jelly roll of Basic Grey’s 25th and Pine. My goal was to cull the lighter, airier fabrics and sew them with a few well-placed color-saturated selections. I omitted all the super-Christmassy fabrics, striving for a more wintry quilt that could be used throughout the cold months here in New England.


I love the results. The Scandinavian feel of the Evergreen line is going to be perfect for the recipients I have in mind.



This is a happy accident. I miscut the background fabric and had to make
do with a neutral pattern in its place.

Christmas quilt #2 is in the works. It’s going to feel great to trim my jelly roll stash down by two!

Do you have a go-to pattern or two for your jelly rolls? If so, I would love to hear about it. And if you’re able to resist jelly rolls in general, can you teach me how to do that, too?

Buy the Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll pattern here.

Follow on Bloglovin

30 comments:

  1. This is a great jelly roll pattern. I rarely buy that precut but layer cakes and fat quarter bundles are a whole different story!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have never bought a jelly roll. But fat quarters are an addiction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's a very pretty fun quilt! I am off to check out your tutorial :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. This looks wonderful, really wintry. I have never used pre-cuts but have one jelly roll that I bought last week to make up a quilt for my daughter for Christmas. Now I wish I had some Christmassy ones too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing the tutorial! I love an easy project sometimes. Precuts are hard for me to figure out what to do with...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've never worked with a jelly roll before because I'm never certain if the pattern that I have in my head can be made up with a jelly roll size... I'm always afraid that I'll want to make a certain pattern and end up needing a layer cake or some other pre-cut size. This looks like this is a really good go to pattern... you had me a Basic Grey! Thanks for the tutorial link. Love your WIP!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love your happy accident - the print really adds a something to it! I have two jelly rolls sitting looking at me - love this idea for using them up!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great Christmas quilt! Way to use up those jelly rolls!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Precuts are great for scrappy designs like yours. I tend to go more for fat quarters and layer cakes so I can get bigger pieces to make HSTs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Love the look. Christmasy but light and airy. nice job! Micki@2dogsstudio.us

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very cute pattern - and I love the little accident. It gives it a bit of charm and the wintery print works so well with those other fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This is a fabulous quilt! I really like the fabric lines you used. It has such a fresh, clean feel to it. Thanks for the tutorial. I am definitely going to use it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love the pretty colours here. I often use my jelly rolls as scrappy binding as it saves me doing the cutting. x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jelly rolls look so cool on the shelf but I totally agree that they are harder to use. Your pattern looks like an awesome way to use them!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love the little oops with using the neutral instead of background - I actually wish you'd done that more with this quilt cause it would have been such a great little surprise throughout it!

    But seriously, I have at least 2 jelly rolls in my craft room that I look at and go, what am I going to do with you? Maybe I'll just sneak over to your house and leave them in your mailbox :P but seriously I think my go-to for jelly rolls would be the only jelly roll quilt I've done twice, my Jellied Lonestar on the Moda Bake Shop. It does a great job of making that classic pattern look modern with those fun jelly roll prints that I'm drawn to!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks for the tutorial, I love the basic grey fabrics, so pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh it looks fantastic! I know what you mean about jelly rolls lingering in the stash; I think I've used all of mine for now but they are irresistible when you find a line that you really love aren't they :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is really beautiful - someone is going to be very happy with their gift!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ooh, love your quilt! Will be checking out that tutorial -- I have a jelly roll or two to use.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wunderschön,da bekommt man gleich Lust auch so ein schönen quilt zu nähen .
    Viele Grüße aus Deutschland Karo

    ReplyDelete
  21. I don't buy too many jelly rolls -- usually layer cakes are the ones I can't resist. I often cut my own "jelly roll strips" though. I have made quite a few variations of the jelly roll race quilt, usually making it in sections (or cutting it into sections) and adding things to it. My flickr page shows a bunch of them. One of my favorites is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/quilts_by_lisa
    Also, Jo's Country Junction has a free pattern called Meet in the Middle that works with jelly rolls. I've made it once and want to make more versions of it. I really like your quilt, will have to give this pattern a try! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Your quilt is lovely - I have a Canyon Jelly roll here that I would like to use for this pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Very pretty, my favorite Christmas quilts are those that are toned down a bit so they can be used all winter.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Definitely a great submission for le challenge! What an amazing quilt, thanks for linking up to le challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Oooh... I love this quilt! I've made so many Jelly Roll Races I can't even begin to count but my stash of jelly rolls only seems to grow... LOL! So I can't wait to try this beauty out! Thanks for the inspiration & the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Why is it advertised as a free pattern?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Back in 2015, when I first posted a tutorial for Ridiculously Easy, it was a free pattern. In 2020, due to demand from quilters and quilt shops, it was overhauled as a complete PDF pattern, with illustrations and four additional sizes. I'm sure there are mentions of the free pattern in places online and on social media, but they're years old.

      Delete
    2. P.S. It shouldn't be referred to anywhere on my blog as a free pattern. If you find an instance, please contact me about it: frombolttobeauty [at] gmail [dot] com.

      Delete

Thank you for commenting! I almost always respond to comments by email. If my response might interest others or if you're a no-reply blogger, I'll post it here.