From Bolt to Beauty by Michelle Cain: 2025

Friday, March 7, 2025

That's a Jelly Roll Quilt? / Beauties Pageant 285

This post features projects from my upcoming book Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts!

I love jelly rolls. Those beautiful spirals of 2.5-inch strips get me every time. Bundled together, they’re just the right amount of fabric—often enough for one quilt, maybe one quilt and a small project. Plus, they’re available at a good price point, and they’re super stashable.

As I set out to design a collection of jelly roll patterns, I knew I had to do something different. I wanted to push the envelope with what I could create with 2.5-inch strips, offering quilters truly unique options for using their precuts. I think I succeeded! In fact, the collection of designs I created is so different from others on the market that I gave it the name Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts.

Over the next month and a half, I’ll show you all 14 of the samples from the book. I hope doing so will have you reaching for the jelly rolls in your own stash and inspire you to make something beautiful with them.

Some of the patterns keep those long strips as long strips in the finished quilt top. Others sew the strips together lengthwise and then cut them into smaller units, like rectangles or half-hexies, to resew. Still others strive to use as many of the square inches each 2.5-inch strip offers as possible, and those are the quilts I’ll highlight today. I think you’ll agree that they live up to the title Not-Your Typical Jelly Roll Quilts.

Tag Sale Floral

The patterns in my book span the spectrum from wall hangings and runners to bed-size quilts. I wanted people to be able to pick up the book and find something that suited the fabric they have on hand. Because sometime you might have an unopened jelly roll to sew with, and other times you may have part of a roll leftover after sewing something else.

Consider Tag Sale Floral. It’s one of those projects that doesn’t require a full roll. I’d go one step further and say you don’t need a jelly roll at all. If you enjoy assembling fabric pulls on your own, you could dive into your stash and cut the 22 width-of-fabric strips this pattern requires.

The result is a small quilt, perfect for draping over a table or hanging on the wall.

Jelly roll: Lady Bird by Crystal Manning for Moda

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Porcelain

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 43.5" x 43.5"

Pieced and quilted by Michelle Cain

Step Dance

I consider myself a modern-traditional gal, and I enjoy putting a new spin on the classics. Step Dance is my tribute to an Irish chain quilt. Like my Irish Twist, this pattern focuses on the space between the chains. I love how it plays with directionality, placing some of the jelly roll pieces horizontally and others vertically. I think it’s a pattern that can suit modern fabric collections as well as more traditional lines.

Jelly roll: Vintage by Sweetwater for Moda

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Porcelain

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 50.5" x 62.5"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang

Lucky Medallion

I don’t think anyone would look at Lucky Medallion and guess it’s a jelly roll quilt, but every bit of it can be sewn with width-of-fabric strips. The result is a generous throw. This pattern requires more than the 40 strips found in standard jelly rolls, but I go into detail how to augment your strips with selections from your stash. I also imagine going all-out scrappy with this design, raiding the greens in my stash for all those four-leaf clovers and the yellows for the stars. Maybe there’s another Lucky Medallion in my future!

Jelly roll: Country Rose by Lella Boutique for Moda

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Off-White

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 80.5" x 80.5"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang

Preorder the Book, and Get 2 Patterns Free!

Through Thursday, March 13, you can preorder my book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts, and get two PDF patterns free.

The preorder listing details how to place your order and get your free patterns.

Those patterns will be available for immediate download from an email that you’ll receive momentarily (check your spam folder if it doesn’t appear in your inbox after a few minutes). The book is slated to ship at the end of April 2025 via USPS.

Quilters outside of the US: The cost of international shipping is ridiculous! As a result, this preorder is limited to US mailing addresses. Just because you live elsewhere on this planet, however, doesn’t mean you should miss out! Drop me a note (frombolttobeauty@gmail.com) after preordering or purchasing the book locally, and I will hook you up with your free patterns. : )

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Friday, February 28, 2025

Knot and Thread's All the Things Tote / Beauties Pageant 284

The past few days have been all about re-entering life as usual after an amazing QuiltCon in Phoenix. I had the best time at the conference, looking at quilty works of art, reconnecting with faraway friends in person, enjoying so much good food, and doing my fair share of shopping.

The All the Things Tote that I talked about in my last post was with me every step of the way. The pattern, by Knot and Thread, provides instructions for three sizes. I made the large one, skipping the suggested sturdy base, which I thought might be cumbersome on the plane and in the convention center.

I can’t say enough about this pattern. The adjective that I keep using to describe it is “slick.” I was a bag maker before I was a quilter, and I’ve sewn some elaborate bags. This is not one of them. I am confident that a quilter who’s embarking on a first bag project could get great results with this pattern.

The instructions are geared toward yardage, with a workaround if you’re sewing with a directional fabric. Of course, I complicated the situation by piecing my exterior panels with blocks from my upcoming book. It was 100% worth it! The bag was a great conversation starter as I walked the show floor last week, and everyone who commented on it was rewarded with a sticker sheet featuring other blocks from the book.

The pattern calls for machine sewing every step of the bag-making process, and I did that up until I had to finish the binding on each end of the bag. I knew I wouldn’t be able to top-stitch through that bulk as neatly as I wanted to, so I used a 12 weight Aurifil thread to hand-sew a chunky stitch on that section of the binding. I’m calling this decision the “the path of least swearing”!

All of the fabric selections are from Ruby Star Society except for the Bella Solid I chose as the lining. I particularly love the black Starry featured on the binding. If you take a peek in the pockets, though, you’ll see that I also used the small-scale white Starry. I went with the white Starry here mainly because I didn’t have enough of the Bella Solid for the pocket linings. I love the juxtaposition of the two Starry fabrics, though, so let’s call it a design decision!

If you’ve made an All the Things Tote, I want to see it! Link it, along with your other finishes, in the linky below!

Book Preorders: QuiltCon Special

Even if you weren’t at conference, you can take advantage of my QuiltCon special: Preorder the book, and receive 2 PDF patterns free right now.

The preorder listing includes these instructions: To get the free patterns, add the book preorder to your cart. Then, navigating to the PDF Patterns page, add 2 PDF patterns to your cart. (You must add 2.) Upon checkout, use the discount QUILTCON.

Your patterns will be available for immediate download from an email that you’ll receive momentarily (check your spam folder if it doesn’t appear in your inbox after a few minutes). The book is slated to ship at the end of April 2025 via USPS.

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Friday, February 14, 2025

Rainbows, Butterflies, and Kitties / Beauties Pageant 283

One of the joys of attending QuiltCon is seeing the practical handmade items other conference goers are wearing or carrying and having your own garment and bag projects appreciated by other sewists.

The past few years I’ve attended QuiltCon toting my Cargo Duffel bag (pictured below in early Amy Butler fabrics) and two infinity scarves (with Anna Maria lawns). The bag is roomy enough to carry all the necessities around the show, and the scarves are a great layer to add when the convention center gets chilly.

This year is was time for something new, so I’m sewing an All the Things Tote by Knot and Thread with blocks from my upcoming book release. The instructions in my book use jelly roll strips to create sizable block. Although the All the Things Tote is a generous 18 inches long and 11 inches tall, I still had to cut all the block dimensions in half to make them fit. Here’s how things are looking so far ...

I have a rainbow and butterfly ...

The sweetest kitty and flower ...

And a horseshoe? Yes, one of the projects in the book, named Lucky Medallion, is a medallion quilt that features a variety of good luck charms. The center of that quilt is this horseshoe.

I have less than a week to wrap this up, and I’m starting to sweat it! If you’ll be at QuiltCon, be on the lookout for me and my bag—I’d love to meet you in person! In fact, I’ll be talking about my book, showing off my bag blocks, and demoing how I use PreQuilt to visualize my designs in different color palettes. Head to the PreQuilt booth (#229) on Friday, February 21 at 11 a.m. to get in on the action. : )

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Friday, February 7, 2025

Book Preorders Open! / Beauties Pageant 282

I am pleased to announce that I’ve launched book preorders in my new Shopify store! To celebrate, I’m offering a limited-time bundle: preorder the book, and receive 2 PDF patterns free right now.

The preorder listing has all the details—with a bunch of styled pictures of the sample quilts, taken by Melanie Zacek. (Even if you’re not in the market for a new quilt book, the pictures are spectacular and worth a look!)

To take advantage of the special offer, add the book preorder to your cart. Then, navigating to the PDF Patterns page, add 2 PDF patterns to your cart. (You must add 2.) Upon checkout, use the discount QUILTCON.

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I’ll be taking a deep dive into the pattern collection in the upcoming weeks, telling you more about the backstory behind each pattern. I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently to get to this point! Eep—I’m so excited to share these projects with you!

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I invested a lot of time and effort to assemble this collection of patterns in book form, and I wasn’t alone in the endeavor ... Gailen Runge, the creative director at C&T Publishing, helped me make this book-writing dream a reality. Moda fulfilled my fabric-y dreams by supplying so many jelly rolls and so much yardage—the samples are all the better for it. And the Warm Company shipped me a big old bolt of Warm & White. As a quilter who loves light backgrounds, that’s been my preferred batting for the past 10 years. : )

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Friday, January 31, 2025

My Love of Hearts / Beauties Pageant 281

I don’t know what it is about hearts, but I love them. Perhaps they remind me of being a kid and collecting heart stickers or doodling hearts on my schoolwork? Whatever the reason, decades later hearts still make me smile.

It follows, of course, that I love heart quilts. And in a household where the only other females are Golden Retrievers, I know that any heart quilt I make is specifically for my own enjoyment. (Turns out, teenage boys aren’t big fans of heart quilts. Who knew?!)

I didn’t have the bandwidth to design or sew a new heart design for Valentine’s Day this year, but when I sat down and thought about it, I’ve designed a bunch of heart quilts already ...

There’s my Love Boldly quilt pattern, which I sewed for a QuiltCon 2020 stripes challenge ...

Then there’s the Folk Heart project I wrote about in December. This is a one-time sew for me (I won’t be writing the pattern), and I’m keeping this beauty for myself.

And remember the talk of my upcoming book release, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts? When I first mentioned it last September, the April 2025 release date seemed so far away. Now that we’re almost in February, April is just around the corner. I’ll be launching a series of blog posts to talk about the 14 quilts in the book, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek of two heart quilts in the collection.

Buoyant Hearts, a project with rows of hearts that bob up and down on a background of jelly roll strips, is pictured at the top of the post, and I Heart Rainbows, seen folded up below, adorns each easy-to-sew rainbow with a heart ...

See? Those pictures have you smiling, too, right? Are you sewing any hearts for this Valentine’s Day? I’d love to see your Valentine’s projects past and present in this week’s linky!

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Friday, January 24, 2025

Sew Fresh Quilts' Giraffe Love Quilt / Beauties Pageant 280

Back in 2014 when I started From Bolt to Beauty, I discovered Sew Fresh Quilts, a blog by Lorna McMahon. Lorna started designing and selling patterns well before I did. At first, she released geometric designs but soon homed in on—and found her groove with—animal designs. Truly, she’s made quilts of any and every creature you’d encounter in your house, out in the wild, or at the zoo.

When it came time to sew something for a giraffe-loving new mom, I went to Sew Fresh Quilts and found many options. There were rainbow giraffes lined up in a row, a sweet giraffe family of three, a giraffe with his zebra buddy, and four others.

I decided on Giraffe Love, a whole-composition design of three giraffes munching on leaves. I think I fell in love with this pattern because it strays from my usual white or light-colored background, which isn’t a wise choice for a baby quilt that’s going to see its share of spills. Plus, I couldn’t resist the combination of yellow giraffes on a background of gradient blues. The foreground colors really pop!

I modified the pattern because I didn’t have the required six shades of blue in my stash and wanted to avoid horizontal seam lines that were necessary when sewing with six blues but not with the four I used. (Yes, I like to complicate projects whenever I can!) I really like how it came out.

This was the first pattern of Lorna’s that I’ve sewn. I was thankful for the many diagrams—it’s so much faster for my brain to process illustrations rather than written instructions.

Sewing this design reminded me of my own Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt, a pattern that’s assembled in columns. (Giraffe Love is sewn in rows.) As with Ridiculously Easy, Giraffe Love’s simple construction doesn’t mean you can sew on autopilot. I was using my backup sewing machine at the time and didn’t check my quarter-inch seam allowance. When it came time to sew the rows together, I found discrepancies that required some seam ripping, even quilt-top surgery at times. All of that was my issue, not the pattern’s.

Now I just need to find time to quilt this beauty! Any suggestions on a quilting design? I’m planning on quilting this myself with my walking foot on my domestic machine. Thanks in advance!

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Friday, January 10, 2025

Use It or Lose It: Cirrus Solids / Beauties Pageant 279

My love affair with Cirrus Solids started back in 2021 when I made my Quilt Buzz Bingo project. I wanted a special solid to sash my blocks, and these yarn-dyed wovens are a little heavier than—and have more personality than—regular quilting cottons.

The color and texture of Cirrus Solids in Ocean, a deep blue, transformed my blocks. Without it, my pink and green blocks looked very “modern Christmas.” The sashing erased all evidence of the holidays and replaced it with “preppy summer.” The palette makes me think of a woven button-down shirt and cutoffs, and the finished quilt is on my bed right now in an effort to inject color into my New England winter.

Ocean wasn’t the only Cirrus Solid in my stash, however: When I reorganized my stash recently, I realized I had 3-plus yards of both Limestone (a white) and Amazon (an aqua). It was time to find those beauties a purpose!

Enter Windmill Weave by Sewspicious. Although there’s something special about mixing Cirrus Solids with quilting cottons, as I did in Quilt Buzz Bingo, there’s something equally special about using solely Cirrus Solids, and I know this bold, graphic design will be striking sewn up in Limestone and Amazon.

I am two blocks into this project. Thanks to my AccuQuilt Go and strip piecing, however, the process is surprisingly fast. I have more to say about using Cirrus Solids and the pattern, but I’ll save those comments for a future update on my progress. : )

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Friday, January 3, 2025

Because People Keep Having Babies / Beauties Pageant 278

Just when I think all the babies in my life have a Michelle-made quilt, another one comes into the world!

The quilt you see here was made for the 4-month-old of a very special teacher. This project is the sixth time I’ve sewn this particular pattern. It’s Little Man, an oldie but a goodie by Camille Roskelley from her book Simplify (Stash Books, 2010).

What makes a baby quilt pattern worthy of sewing a half-dozen times? Well, Little Man is super cute, and its fabric requirements are easily fulfilled by my stash. Although I opened a layer cake for Little Man #6, I usually cut into the suggested four fat quarters. That’s an easy bill to fill for a gal who doesn’t invest in many baby-friendly prints.

Little Man is also a fast sew and measures in at about 40" x 50", so the recipient can use it well into his toddler years and beyond (and I can squeak by without piecing a back!). Gah—it’s the best baby quilt pattern!

My only regret with this quilt is that I didn’t get pictures of the quilted-and-bound finish. With my usual machine in the shop, my backup machine and I struggled to finish much of anything before Christmas. This beauty was completed the night before it was delivered, and it went straight from being bound by my humble backup machine to being wrapped up for gifting. To see my past versions of this pattern, including more than one I’ve dubbed a “Little Lady,” click here.

For those of you who fall in love with this project’s turtles and crabs and whales, they’re from Ahoy! by Gingiber. Could that have been Stacie Bloomfield’s first collection for Moda way back when? One way or another, the collection is long out of print. I can cut another (my seventh!) Little Man out of what remains from my layer cake, and then that will be the end of my fun with Ahoy!

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Pages

Friday, March 7, 2025

Tag Sale Floral

Step Dance

Lucky Medallion

Preorder the Book, and Get 2 Patterns Free!

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Friday, February 28, 2025

Book Preorders: QuiltCon Special

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Friday, February 14, 2025

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Friday, February 7, 2025

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Friday, January 31, 2025

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Friday, January 24, 2025

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Friday, January 10, 2025

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Friday, January 3, 2025

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