Hello, quilty friends!
I hope you’re having as great of a week as I am ... I had six to eight hours of glorious alone time in my house on Tuesday and Wednesday. That is a rare occurrence, and I cherished every quiet, uninterrupted minute. And then, at last night’s guild meeting, I won a fat quarter bundle of Melody Miller’s new Carousel collection. (Insert happy dance here!)
But what has really made life fun lately is getting to share projects from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. It is a thrill to see people’s excitement about my designs and hear which one they hope to sew first.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, this collection of 14 patterns spans the spectrum of project sizes. It also spans the spectrum of my design preferences. In the pages of the book, you’ll find everything from big and bold quilts to cute and sweet ones ...
Five-Star Experience
The collection’s cover girl, Five-Star Experience, is one of my favorites. The stars finish at 34 inches because, sometimes, big blocks are best!
According to the book’s skill-level guide of one spool (for quicker, more straightforward sews) to three spools (for more fiddly sews), it comes in at one spool. I would take that assessment a step further and say that Five-Star Experience is the easiest project in the entire book.
I adore the colors in the sample I made, and that chartreuse binding is the perfect pop of color to frame those giant stars.
Jelly roll: Meadow Star by Alexia Marcelle Abegg for Ruby Star Society
Accent fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Black
Background fabric: Speckled in Sweet Cream by Rashida Coleman Hale for Ruby Star Society
Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang
All the Xs
Although Five-Star Experience features big blocks, the biggest quilt in the book is All the Xs. Here it is, below, pictured on a queen-size bed.
I consider this pattern my quilty mic drop because All the Xs requires just one jelly roll, a background fabric, and an accent fabric to produce a huge project.
All the Xs is a little trickier than Five-Star Experience because of its size and the bias edges created when cutting the setting blocks, but its over-the-top Xs make the extra effort worth your while.
Jelly roll: Strawberry Lemonade by Sherri and Chelsi for Moda
Accent fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Dark Teal
Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Gray
Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang
Buoyant Hearts
Buoyant Hearts was the first project I designed for Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. Its fabric requirements are easily met in my stash, and there’s no background fabric—just a jelly roll, an outer heart fabric, and an inner heart fabric.
I think the trick is to use a fabric line that has lots of different colors in it, and Fancy That Design House’s Songbook delivers on that front. In fact, I purchased a jelly roll of Songbook: A New Page, a follow-up to the original Songbook collection, to remake this pattern.
Jelly roll: Songbook by Fancy That Design House for Moda
Heart fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Off-White and Burgundy
Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang
I Heart Rainbows
Whereas Five-Star Experience may be the easiest pattern to sew from my collection, I Heart Rainbows was the easiest to design.
I have another version of this pattern planned, too. I think this time I’ll start with the backing fabric (for real!) and pull fabrics from my bin of solid 2.5-inch scraps. This will bust through one of my long-neglected fabric cuts for backings and chip away at those scraps.
Jelly roll: Rise and Shine by Melody Miller for Ruby Star Society Heart fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Pomegranate
Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Off-White
And if you missed my previous posts about the quilts from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts, you can read them here:
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