National Sew a Jelly Roll Day 2024 / Beauties Pageant 265

Attention fans of precuts! Tomorrow is the third Saturday of September, and you know what that means: It’s National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. (For real. Check out Moda’s post about the yearly event, including free patterns, here!)

I consider myself a jelly roll ninja. As a stash curator, jelly rolls are my sweet spot, giving me a cross-section of a fabric collection at a great price point. As a pattern designer, jelly rolls can do things that layer cakes and fat quarter bundles can’t. I love the challenge of working with those 2.5-inch strips to come up with new and innovative quilt designs. In fact, I enjoy working with jelly rolls so much that I designed 14 patterns to include in my first book—Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts—which will be published by C&T next year.

But my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern is one that you can get your hands on today for satisfying jelly roll sewing tomorrow. Plus, it’s one of my Almost Free for Charity patterns, which means I will donate part of the proceeds from each $3 pattern to an organization that supports the Down syndrome community. (I talk about my own kiddo with DS in this post.)

So, are you game to bust open a lovely roll of strips and get going? Here are a few things to know about the Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt:

* This pattern requires just 32 jelly roll strips and 1.75 yards of background fabric to make a 56.5" x 64.5" throw-size project.

* The 16 elongated log cabin blocks you’ll make can be configured in a bunch of different ways. As you can see from the accompanying pictures, I’ve arranged mine to be large arrows, a huge X, and a big star. (Other suggestions are illustrated here.)

* I can’t say this about all jelly roll patterns, but you can use strips cut from fat quarters to sew this design. Two 2.5" x 20" strips cut from a fat quarter equal one jelly roll strip. You’ll need 32 pairs of strips—that is, 64 in total—to sew this pattern.

Need your own copy of the pattern? Pick it up for $3 in my pattern shop!

I am always (always!) on the lookout for clever and creative jelly roll patterns. Even if you’re not celebrating National Sew a Jelly Roll Day with a project this year, I would love to hear your suggestions. : )

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Zip It Good Pattern Release / Beauties Pageant 262

A few years ago I had this idea to create a line of patterns that would make everyone happy ...

People who love a free PDF pattern could sign up for my newsletter to get their copy without charge. Sewists who appreciate a deal could pay just a few dollars to receive their copy. And makers who want their purchases to make a difference would be happy to hear that I would send a portion of the profits to a worthwhile organization.

Up until now, I have released two Almost Free for Charity patterns. Today I am unveiling my latest: Zip It Good!

Do you have larger cuts aging in your stash? Let those prints shine in Zip It Good! Strip sets and nesting seams will make quick work of your yardage, creating an awe-worthy quilt in one of four different sizes:

Small Throw: 53" x 55 1/2"
Medium Throw: 53" x 65 1/2"
Large Throw: 67" x 75 1/2"
Twin: 67" x 90 1/2"

Newsletter subscribers already received their link to download the pattern (a reminder will go out in the September 6 issue). For everyone else, the pattern is available here in my pattern shop.

I thought that would be a fun way to wrap up the summer. : )

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A Finally Finished Jelly Roll Quilt / Beauties Pageant 227

** The Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern is one of my Almost Free for Charity PDF patterns. One dollar from each $3 pattern is donated to a nonprofit that supports the Down syndrome community. **

Last fall, I broke into my black and white fabrics to make this project. I call it Big Star, but it’s really a version of my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt. The pattern makes 16 log cabin blocks, and one of its four possible layouts is this star configuration. 

The Fabrics

I went all-out super-scrappy for this project. If you look closely, you’ll spot selections from many different manufacturers. Perhaps most noteworthy is the OG Cotton and Steel fabrics (those little birds, pictured below, are my favorite!). I won the Cotton and Steel prints through a guild event, and they have been aging nicely in my stash, just waiting for the perfect project. 

I had never sewn a black and white quilt before, and it was fun—and satisfying—to cut up those fabrics and put them to good use.

The Quilting

Although I fell in love with Big Star early in the making process, the black and white palette seemed stark to me as I considered the finished flimsy. Sure, there are some subtle hints of color in the low-volume prints, but I thought the quilting could provide some much-needed pizzazz. Eschewing my usual off-white quilting thread, I opted for a mustardy yellow. It’s such a departure for me that the friend who longarmed the project double-checked whether that was really my selection before she got started. (What can I say? My people know me!)

The Binding 

Now that the quilt is done, I think the binding alone gives the project the necessary infusion of personality; I could have stuck with my usual off-white thread and been satisfied with the results. And the nice thing about matching the quilting thread to the lowest volume in a project—which for me is almost always white—is that it is visible in parts of the finished quilt and nearly invisible elsewhere. The yellow here stands out uniformly throughout this project. 

That’s not to say I regret the yellow thread—I just forgot the power of a fabulous binding fabric and the beauty of watching quilt lines advance and recede over the expanse of a quilt top!

The First Washing

This past June, I posted about an unfortunate quilt-washing experience. I made a project with many of the same fabrics I used in Big Star, did not prewash anything, and had to deal with subsequent bleeding. At this time, Big Star was just a flimsy, and I knew it would likely bleed in the wash, too. Some of you suggested I try to wash it before quilting it. Others thought I should finish it and wash it as usual or wash it with a product called Synthrapol. It was helpful to hear how everyone would handle the situation—thank you for chiming in!

In the end, I decided to wash it in the washing machine with plenty of cold water and mild detergent, and hope for the best. After all, the Still Really Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern is an easy one, and I can always make another. The most precious aspect of the quilt at hand is the OG Cotton and Steel stash used in it, and I still have a bit left.

When I took Big Star out of the washer, I noticed some color transfer. It was minor—so minor, in fact, that I couldn’t photograph the problematic spots clearly. I wasn’t sure whether to try to fix the issue (and run the risk of making it worse) or to throw the quilt in the dryer, so I can up with a third option: I hung it up outside, hoping the sun would lightened the spots in question. 

I am not sure whether that accomplished anything, but air-drying Big Star did not worsen the situation. I’ll take that as a win.

For kicks, I measured this project before and after the machine wash and air dry. It started out at 63.5 inches by 55.75 inches and ended up 62 inches by 54 inches. I was surprised by the amount it shrank, especially since I opted for the air dry.

The Happy Ending

The ending to this story? I am going to keep Big Star for myself. I don’t like the idea of gifting a quilt that could bleed further, and I am unwilling to invest any more time in it—there are more quilts to make! Plus, because it’s not a pristine quilt, it will likely get used more than others at my house. In other words, furry family members will be allowed to nap on Big Star unsupervised. Ha!

** The Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern is one of my Almost Free for Charity PDF patterns. One dollar from each $3 pattern is donated to a nonprofit that supports the Down syndrome community. **

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The Perils of Not Prewashing / Beauties Pageant 218

When I first started quilting I was a diligent prewasher. Eventually, though, I came to see prewashing fabric as a waste of water and time, and let it fall by the wayside. And honestly, I prefer sewing with fabric right off the bolt—I like the feel of quilting cotton with the sizing from the manufacturer still in it. 

In general, my no-prewashing policy works well for me, but there have been some significant hiccups. One story, from 2016, is documented here. Another happened last fall, when I was washing the Extra X, pictured below.

It’s hard to see in the photographs, but the Extra X quilt, bled substantially. This wasn’t terribly shocking: The fabrics are all creams and blacks, but I was too excited to start sewing and couldn’t be bothered to wash the fabric first. And because I intended to submit the project to QuiltCon, I wanted to block it before binding it. I put it in a bathtub with mild soap, plenty of cool water, and some Shout Color Catchers, agitating it with my hands and rinsing it in the bathroom before I put it in the washer for a spin.

Alas, color catchers were no match for this quilt.

I quickly discovered that some of the blacks had bled. Additional bathtub washings in hot water (the seemingly antithetical solution to bad bleeding) improved the issues with the black dyes but caused red fabric on the back to bleed. Friends, it was a hot mess and one that likely could have been avoided if I had prewashed.

Since this experience, I’ve returned to prewashing the fabrics that are most likely to bleed. And instead of simply submerging them in soapy water, rinsing them, and running them through my dryer, I dug out an old bottle of Retayne, a color fixative, to address the issue of bleeding before it begins.

All of this brings me to the story of Big Star, the flimsy at the top of this post. It and the Extra X contain many of the same black fabrics, so the likelihood that it will bleed are high. So what should I do? Do I treat it with Retayne now? Do I quilt it and then treat it with Retayne? Do I quilt it and then try to wash it with a different method? (I could follow Vicki Welsh’s advice and submerge the finished quilt in a tub of hot water for hours and hours. Read her process here.)

The Extra X was always going to live with me. It is about my younger son and, despite its flaws, is special to me. I do want to gift this second quilt, however, and I can’t in good faith give away a quilt that will cause someone problems like those I experienced with the Extra X. Any advice on how to proceed?

Related links:

• Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, the PDF pattern of mine used for Big Star (proceeds go to charity)
  
• The story behind the Extra X 
• My first bleeding catastrophe
• Save My Bleeding Quilt, an interesting article by Vicki Welsh
  

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The Extra X / Beauties Pageant 209

 

As many of you know, I have the privilege of raising a son with Down syndrome. This past week, on March 21, my family and I celebrated our special guy, along with the rest of the DS community, for World Down Syndrome Day.

I introduced the quilting community to my personal experience raising a child with special needs back in 2018, when I shared my 47XY+21 project. And, really, I thought that was the only quilt I would make on the subject. When I was designing the PDF pattern for my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, however, I realized that the blocks could be arranged to form an X, and that sparked an idea for a second quilt.

Down syndrome is caused by a genetic anomaly at conception (or very soon thereafter) that causes an extra chromosome on the 21st pair of a person’s chromosomes. Chromosomes are often depicted as Xs because they take on that shape during mitosis, so this quilt and the large X on it pay tribute to my son’s bonus chromosome.

I suspect that’s what many people who meet him first see: his disability and how that plays out in his life. But the message of this project is found in the quilting. In a process detailed here, I FMQed 20 different words and phrases over this 62-inch by 70-inch quilt:

• Son
• Brother
• Grandson
• Nephew
• Friend
• Neighbor
• Student
• Classmate
• Reader
  
• Explorer
• Comedian
• Animal lover
• Music lover
• Dancer
• Basketball player
• Bowler
• Mini-golfer
• Train aficionado
• Trick-show enthusiast
• Child of God
  

The quilting was my way of telling the world that you don’t have to look too hard to see that there’s much more to my son than his diagnosis. He’s a son, a brother, a friend, a student, and many other things that enrich both his life and the lives of those around him.

It’s important to me to shed light on what it’s like raising a child with special needs. I never would have self-selected for this challenge, but my son’s birth and diagnosis have been some of the best things to happen to me. Raising this child has changed me as a wife, a mother, and a person. And the world is a better place with my son in it. 

Related links:

• 47XY+21 (my first project about DS)
• Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern (a $3 almost-free-for-charity pattern with proceeds to support DS)
• A Free-Motion Quilting Success! (on how I FMQed the words on this quilt)

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A Free-Motion Quilting Success! / Beauties Pageant 190

Longtime readers know my heart belongs to straight-line quilting. I particularly like parallel lines on a diagonal, but I also love a good cross-hatch or something slightly fancier a la Jacquie Gering (see the list of links at the bottom of the post for examples of past projects). When a project warrants a quilting design with soft curves or something intricate, I usually opt to “quilt by check” and send the project to a longarmer.

Free-motion quilting appeals to me in theory, but up until now, I haven’t free-motion quilted frequently enough to master anything more than a simple stipple, which makes my current project noteworthy.

I’m not ready reveal anything more than a peek or two of this quilt. It’s slated to be submitted to QuiltCon, and if it’s accepted, I like the idea of withholding it from blog readers and social media until after the show. But the gist of the project is this: I pieced large-scale blocks using my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern and then free-motion quilted a series of words horizontally across it. To practice quilting the words, I composed them in a Word document and printed them out on newspaper. Then I experimented using small quilt sandwiches. Doing so improved my muscle memory and helped me get better at stopping and starting midword. In fact, the paper worked so well that I decided to quilt the entire 62-inch by 70-inch project with the technique.

As you can imagine, it’s been slow going. I’ve been pinning a word to the sandwich, quilting it, and then pinning the next one. The picture above shows me a few lines from the bottom of the project (I started at the top and worked left to right). At this point, there is so much bulk. I have to pivot the quilt to be able to smooth it out and pin the next word, and then I pivot it back under the arm of the machine to do the actual quilting. It’s been quite the wrestling match.

I think the results are worth the hassle, though, and honestly I don’t know if I’d be able to get this caliber of quilting text any other way. Ripping out the paper, however, has proved to be a headache. Tiny fibers of newsprint are getting caught underneath the stitches, and I’ve resorted to using a seam ripper and tweezers to tease them out. : /

Slow and steady will win this race! Wish me luck!

Examples of quilting designs I’ve used to date:

• Parallel lines: Thimbleblossoms’ Norway Quilt
  
• Fancy-for-me straight-line quilting: She’s No Angel
  
• Straight-line quilting a la Jaquie Gering: Elizabeth Hartman’s Neighborhood Quilt
  
• Stippling: For a Special Little Dude
  

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Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt / Beauties Pageant 187

When I was designing my latest PDF, the Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt, I photographed the quilt I originally made from the design for the cover and was really pleased with how it turned out. The bright colors of that quilt make for an eye-catching cover. But this pattern includes five different layout options—four of which I had never sewn before!—so I couldn’t help but embark on a new project from the instructions.

And here is the final flimsy: a super-scrappy, two-color Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt. This layout creates a huge star with what looks to me like four photo corners. (And if anyone is going to sew a 56-inch by 64-inch star, it’s going to be me!)

The nexus for the fabric pull was a set of black and white fat eighths that I won through my guild. There was everything from OG Cotton and Steel to Zen Chic to Sarah Jane fabric in it. One of our board members cut the pieces from her rather extensive personal stash. It was an awesome prize, and because I used only the prints that read as all white or all black, supplementing them with my own stash and scraps, I still have a good chunk of the bundle left over. 

It’s going to be a while before I have the bandwidth to quilt this flimsy, but I want to pick the binding and piece the backing before I fold everything up and put it aside for a few months. This black and white quilt needs a little something for the binding—specifically, something that’s not black or white. There are infrequent bits of aqua, orange, avocado, and pink in the scrappy low-volume background, so they’re logical candidates for the binding. My current plan of attack is to go with a bold pink binding and coordinate the backing appropriately.

This is only my second two-color quilt project. (See my first one, a QuiltCon challenge reject, here.) It was fun to sew with these fabrics, and even though I homed in on two colors, there were plenty of fabric decisions to make. Have you made a two-color quilt? I’d love to see the ones you have. Post one or two of them to this week’s linky, even if they are finishes from way back when. : )

The Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt PDF is available exclusively through my pattern shop. It’s priced at just $3, with proceeds going to support a Down syndrome organization in my area.

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