Two Pixelated Quilts / Beauties Pageant 288

Hello! And welcome back to my look at all 14 projects in Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts ...

A few weeks ago, I shared two quilts that I designed to use one of my favorite time-saving techniques: strip sets. By sewing jelly roll strips together along the long edges, cutting those blocks of fabric into smaller units, and sewing those units in different configurations, I made both butterflies and a set of stars in a striped-hexagon sky. The two projects I’m sharing today take that technique one step further, into the realm of pixelated projects.

Pod Patrol

I love the look of pixelated quilts. In fact, I had made some in the past, including a pixelated fire truck and pixelated hearts. Once I set my mind to designing a whale quilt for my book, I saw an interesting opportunity to incorporate pixelation: In Pod Patrol, pictured below, I sewed 2.5-inch squares together to create bands of waves. 

I could have randomized the placement of the fabrics in the waves here (and the instructions provide advice on that front), but I really love the diagonal color gradient of these waves. It optimizes the jelly roll I had to work with and creates a fun sense of movement.

When I finished this sample, though, it seemed so very blue. To up the cuteness factor—and provide a splash of color—I gave one of my white whales an appliqued spray of red hearts. I have to admit, I love this last-minute addition so much that I’m tempted to give the second white whale his own heart spray, too!

Jelly roll: Water from Ruby Star Society 

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Smoke

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 56.5" x 66.5"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang

Pixelated Herringbone 

Pixelated Herringbone takes strip-pieced pixelation to the extreme. Almost all of this quilt’s 1,280 squares are strip pieced, allowing me to assemble the top in a fraction of the time.

And this design is so versatile. I recently sewed a version by using two blue-grays as the solids that corral the herringbone segments and by pulling the necessary prints from my scrap bin. With all those individual 2.5-inch squares, this approach required more fiddly sewing, but I still managed to strip-piece the solid-color units. I’m sending that project to a longarmer soon and will follow up with a blog post as soon as it’s bound. : )

Because my stash can easily fulfill Pixelated Herringbone’s fabric requirements, and because I can always dive into my bin of 2.5-inch scraps for a fabric pull, I foresee making this project many times in the future.

Jelly roll: Stay Gold by Melody Miller for Ruby Star Society

Accent fabrics: Moda Bella Solids in Mediterranean and Blue Raspberry

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in White

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 64.5" x 80.5"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang

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Scrappy Rainbows / Beauties Pageant 287

I’m interrupting my deep dive into all things jelly rolls and the upcoming book release to report on some squirrel chasing. Early in the process of writing patterns and sewing samples for Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts, I made a quilt for my older son because, I figured, what’s one more quilt when I had already committed to completing 14 of them?! But one more quilt is one more quilt, and I quickly resolved to focus solely on the book projects. There was simply no time for squirrels. 

All of that changed once the book was put to bed at the end of last year. I found some big, rainbow-colored squirrels to chase. What you see here is the result: one of the four rainbow colored-pencil rolls I made in the past few months.

I’m convinced that everyone loves a good rainbow* and that anything rainbow is a worthwhile sew. These projects supported that theory! 

Finding 24 fabrics that match perfectly with the 24 colors in a box of Crayola colored pencils, however, is no small feat, so I never sew just one roll—I always make multiple.

I originally made a set of these pencil rolls over 10 years ago, keeping one for myself. I suspect I’ll return to this pattern again, so Future Michelle, these notes are for you: 

• Use a little spray baste to keep all the layers stacked up nicely
• Remember to sew a scant quarter-inch seam, especially if you plan to press seams to one side
• Give yourself some extra wiggle room on the two end colors

The pattern can be found in Joelle Hoverson’s Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, one of the first quilting books I ever bought and one that’s now out of print. The standalone pattern is available from the designer, Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studios, here.

* Back in February, and on a lark, I made a reel of my disembodied hands putting the colored pencils in the slots of a completed roll, and it went viral. 

Last I checked, it had been viewed more than 600K times. See? People really are crazy about rainbows!

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

Strip Sets for the Win! / Beauties Pageant 286

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

You’ve heard me waxing on about jelly rolls, and you may be wondering why I’m not compelled to work with a different precut, like layer cakes. I love a good layer cake, and a few of the patterns in my book can probably even be made with a layer cake’s 10-inch squares instead of a jelly roll’s 2.5-inch strips. But there’s one thing a jelly roll can do that no layer cake can, and that is produce big, time-saving strip sets.

You’ve likely made strips sets for other patterns. It’s the process of sewing jelly roll strips together along the long edges and then cutting the resulting set into smaller units to resew in different configurations. When I’m working with jelly rolls, I leverage the power of strip sets whenever I can—it’s simply a more efficient way to sew. 

Two quilts from my book that employ this technique are Butterfly Season and Myriad ...

Butterfly Season

Quilts take a long time to make, so I take advantage of every shortcut I can. In Butterfly Season, that means strip piecing the wings of each butterfly and strip-piecing the butterflies’ bodies. 

Plus, setting the time-saving benefits aside, there’s something super satisfying about sewing together these strips and then cutting crisp, pristine units from them.

Butterfly Season requires a full jelly roll and produces a twin-size quilt.

Jelly roll: Beautiful Day by Corey Yoder for Moda

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in Off-White

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 77.5" x 90.5"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang 

Myriad

Strip sets are the foundation of Myriad, a generously sized throw quilt that I sewed with a line of Kate Spain batiks. 

Again, relying on the strip-set technique here makes the quilt-making process go faster. It also produces less waste than if the pieces were sewn into rectangles and then cut into the necessary half-hexagons.

Myriad may look difficult, but in the end, it requires sewing columns of equilateral triangles together. Easy peasy!

Jelly roll: Confection Batiks by Kate Spain for Moda

Background fabric: Moda Bella Solids in White

Batting: Warm and White

Finished size: 64.5" x 83.75"

Pieced by Michelle Cain; quilted by Ophelia Chang 

You can preorder my book here!

 

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.