For the Jelly Roll-Averse Quilter / Beauties Pageant 343

What I am about to say is potentially controversial: National Sew a Jelly Roll Day isn’t just for precut lovers.

In case you aren’t familiar with this holiday, here’s the scoop: Several years ago, Moda declared the third Saturday of September as National Jelly Roll Day (also referred to as Project Jelly Roll). This year, it will happen on September 19. At face value, this event is a brilliant scheme for the fabric company to sell more jelly rolls. For those of us who have stashed more jelly rolls than we’ll ever admit to, however, it’s an opportunity to prioritize a precut project or two and put our jelly rolls to good use. 

Here’s the thing for those of you who like jelly roll patterns but don’t see yourself buying jelly rolls: You don’t need one to participate in National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. You can cut your own jelly roll from stash!

If this option intrigues you, here are some things to consider ...

The Simple Math of Cutting Jelly Roll Strips

A jelly roll strip is 2.5" by the width of fabric—so, 2.5" x 40" or so after you remove the selvages. A jelly roll contains 40 of those strips. If you’re someone who stashes half-yard or full-yard cuts, you will need to cut 40 strips 2.5" x the width of fabric to assemble your own jelly roll.

I stash more fat quarters than I do yardage, and fat quarters are about 18" x 20". If I cut 2 strips 2.5" x 20" from a fat quarter, I have the equivalent, inch for inch, of a jelly roll strip. Depending on the pattern at hand and how it cuts jelly roll strips, however, I may need a third cut from my fat quarters to substitute for full jelly roll strips. (If you can’t be bothered to review the math to see whether this is will apply to the pattern you are working with, start by cutting 2 strips from each fat quarter and keep the rest nearby in case you need additional strips 2.5" x 20".)

Pixelated Herringbone from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts

How to Start Curating Your Jelly Roll

An easy place to start is with a few fabrics—in yardage or as fat quarters—from the same collection. This way, you’re starting with a few prints that were designed to coordinate. Then, build from there. Let that handful of fabrics dictate your palette, and add to it other prints, solids, and blenders. Pay attention to genre. In other words, if your original cuts have a juvenile feel to them, any additions should have the same sense of youthfulness. If your original cuts are pretty florals, search for other feminine prints that could work well with your original fabric pull.

Keep in mind, if you’re looking to curate a full 40-strip jelly roll, you don’t need to find 40 different coordinating strips. Including duplicates—even many of them—will almost always work well.

Myriad from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts

A Quick, Modern Jelly Roll Pattern

An easy modern pattern to bust through a jelly roll you bought or curated yourself is my own Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt. 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—or curate your own—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. I’ve arranged mine to be a large arrows, but other suggestions are illustrated here.

* For this particular pattern, you can use strips cut from fat quarters to sew this design. You’ll need 32 pairs of strips 2.5" x 20"—that is, 64 in total—to sew this pattern.

A Sale for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day

If you have multiple jelly rolls stashed away, I can relate to your plight. To help you get going on some precut-busting patterns, my best-selling jelly roll pattern and my jelly roll book are on sale through September 21.

Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt (PDF version)

This column-based pattern comes in five different sizes and features two different design options. It’s a great geometric quilt pattern to have at the ready and looks equally stunning in modern fabrics, juvenile prints, or more traditional designs. The PDF is usually $13. Through September 21, you can get it for $10. Get your copy here.

Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts 

This 112-page book features 14 different jelly roll patterns, everything from quick runner projects to big bed-size quilts. The book was originally $27.95. Through September 21, you can get a signed copy for $22.50. Get your copy here.

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How to Sew and Quilt on the Cheap / Beauties Pageant 339

If there is one subject quilters can agree on it is this: Quilting is an expensive hobby. Fabric seems to cost more and more every year, and if I add longarming to my tally, the total project price takes a big leap upward.

In general, though I’m fiscally conservative—it’s just my personality. Since I started publishing patterns, my hobby has become self-sufficient. That doesn’t mean, however, that I buy quilting supplies with abandon. Too much of a good thing can be overwhelming and undermine my creativity.

If you want to get smarter about your quilty purchases, consider these points ...

Fabric

1. Start with your stash. 

When there’s a new project on the horizon, I shop my stash first. Too often I am tempted to order a new blender or buy a new background fabric only to discover that I already own a perfectly lovely substitute. 

It helps if I know what I have. Organizing my fabric in one consolidated place in my house—a project I tackled a few years ago—makes this easier.

2. Buy what you need for the project at hand. 

Buying fabrics because you like them or because you’re afraid you won’t be able to find them in the future is a sure-fire way to amass fabric quickly. I try to buy just the material needed for the next project or two. There will always be another beautiful, new fabric collection, and I can often find out-of-production lines on the secondary market after they disappear from quilt shops (and sometimes at better prices than they originally sold for).

Pro tip: Unsubscribing to quilt shop newsletters reduces the temptation to buy fabric just because I like it or because it’s on sale. 

3. Sew with solids.

Do you know what’s less expensive than the latest and greatest fabric collection? Solids. I find I can save up to $4 or $5 per yard when I sew with solids instead of printed quilting cottons. 

4. Buy smaller cuts.

Don’t buy a half-yard when a fat quarter will do the job. Say you want to sew a project with a scrappy low-volume background. Quarter yards (fat or skinny) will help you achieve that scrappy look without breaking the bank and without creating the scraps that half-yards would.

The challenge here is often finding a good source of quarter yards. I always start with my local quilt shop, because online fabric retailers usually have a minimum cutting size, but there are some online options for fat quarters. French Fry Quilt Company, for example, is a modern fabric retailer that offers its entire stock in fat quarters.

5. Buy local.

The benefit of buying in person is that I make smarter purchases, buying fabrics that are more likely to coordinate with the yardage I already have. Too often I find myself making an online purchase only to realize the fabrics aren’t quite right once I have them in hand. (And so the stash grows!)

6. Buy secondhand or trade with friends.

I’ve found great deals on older fabric lines on Instagram or FeelGood Fibers. I’ve also arranged a trade with friends. One quilty friend gave me unbridled access to her bin of 2.5-inch scraps, and I left her with a cut of fabric from my stash that I knew she would use faster than I could. It was a win-win!

7. Sell what you don’t use.

I’ve had good success selling fabric—including bundles, yardage, and scraps—on both Instagram and FeelGood Fibers.

Quilting

8. Quilt some of your own projects.

I had made a few dozen quilts before I started sending projects out for longarming services, so I’m adept at quilting my own projects with a walking foot. I’ve even ventured into free-motion quilting with good success. If quilting is new to you, start with small projects and grow from there.

I quilt all of the baby quilts I make and anything that would benefit from my expertise in straight-line quilting. Projects bigger than a 72-inch square by default go to a longarmer, as do more angular patterns that would benefit from swirly quilting designs.

9. Buy batting in bulk and use up the scraps.

I buy batting by the bolt. My top choice is the Warm Company’s Warm & White. I think it’s good value for my money, and the white (as opposed to, say, Warm & Natural) works well with my usual white or cream background fabrics.

I also save my scraps and cobble them together with a zigzag stitch to make bigger, more usable pieces.

Notions

10. Avoid buying unnecessary notions.

I don’t invest in trendy notions or gadgets. Anything that I’d use on a single project is rarely worth the cost. 

Instead of buying specialty rulers, I make sure my tried-and-true square and rectangular ones are in good working order and replace them as needed. Instead of buying expensive paper for foundation paper piecing, I buy a ream of 8.5-inch by 11-inch newsprint. I buy inexpensive irons at Target and store WIPs on coat hangers, in plastic Ziploc bags (which I use over and over again), or in plastic bins.

I’m sure you have your own tricks to make smart purchases. Share your tips in the comments below!

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Organizing My Stash: Before and After / Beauties Pageant 276

My fabrics started out years ago in a single three-drawer chest. Over time, however, additions to my stash migrated ... to the master bedroom closet, to bins under the master bed, to the nightstands in the guest room. Earlier this fall, I decided things had reached a breaking point: It wasn’t fun to root through a stash that was squirreled away in so many disparate locations. I didn’t even have a good grasp of what fabrics I had anymore. A stash reorganization was in order!

The process was not pleasant and took longer than I anticipated, but now that it’s done, my stash and I are better for it. If you’re considering a comparable overhaul of your own (perhaps as a new year’s resolution?), here is my advice ...

1. Get everything in one place. 

At my husband’s suggestion, I consolidated everything in our finished basement, where my organized stash would live. This created a new kind of mess, which was frustrating because I was aiming to create order, but it was unavoidable: I needed to get a handle of how much fabric I had.

I knew I would need to invest in some new furniture. Originally, I was set on buying cabinets—I wanted to be able to open doors and see all my fabric options at once—but decided they would look odd in my basement. I ended up buying two of the popular and versatile Kallax cubby units from Ikea. These units come in different configurations and are customizable with everything from doors to shelves. I settled on buying drawer inserts for eight of my cubbies. (Disclaimer: I did not assemble a thing. My husband and older son took on the task and did not enjoy it.)

2. Get rid of what you don’t want, won’t use, or no longer love. 

I touched every piece of fabric I own during this process, so I made the most of that time by pruning what I could. Because you know what’s easier than organizing a huge amount of fabric? Organizing a slightly smaller amount of fabric.

I recycled weird bits that I knew I wouldn’t use. I gave away some scraps that felt more burdensome than inspiring and set aside some yardage that I will donate to my guild’s annual yard sale in January. 

In the past I’ve sold bundles and yardage on Instagram and on FeelGood Fibers. Instagram isn’t an easy place to sell anything anymore, due to algorithm changes over the years. FeelGood Fibers, however, is a marketplace I would take advantage of now if the guild yard sale weren’t on the horizon.

3. Pull fabric for a project or two.

Again, wanting to make the most of the quality time with my stash, I pulled scraps and fat quarters for a scrappy pixelated project as I sorted and pruned from the piles of fabric.

4. Forget about perfection.

I watched more than one YouTube video about folding fat quarters and other cuts in neat little squares, but I had to recalibrate my expectations. This project wasn’t about perfection; it was about getting my stash in a usable state. That meant folding everything so it could be stored and easily viewed, not so that everything could be uniform and perfect. 

5. Organize in a way that make sense to you. 

At first I balked at the idea of having to open a bunch of drawers to see my stash. (My husband accompanied me to Ikea and advocated for the drawer inserts.) Once I grouped like fabrics together, though, the cubbies and drawers were easy to navigate.

I used these categories for my drawers (almost all of which required more than one):

• Collections
• Solids
  
• Low volumes
• Novelties
• Jelly rolls and charm packs

The remaining fabrics were sorted by color and stored together in other drawers. Larger cuts of yardage were folded and placed in open cubbies. Works in progress were stored in plastic bags and put in the bins that occupy other cubbies. Scraps were sorted by color and placed in a flat bin on top of the Kallax units.

During this process, my husband kept checking in with me and asking whether all the fabric would fit into the furniture and drawers we had purchased. I explained that wasn’t really my objective. I have a little more than what I can fit in this furniture, but I wasn’t interested in buying a third Kallax unit. I think, moving forward, my ideal stash size is what fits here. That will encourage me to stop purchasing fabric and whittle away at what I already have. After a few months, everything should fit just right.

Is you stash in a state of chaos or order right now? What insight can you add to the list I’ve compiled here?

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'Tis the Season for Stashing / Beauties Pageant 269

My recent book-writing experience effectively curbed my desire to buy fabric. Back in the fall of 2023, I selected all the fabric for that collection of patterns, and Moda sent me two huge boxes of jelly rolls and yardage for tops, backs, and bindings. Opening and unpacking those boxes was the most fun I had had since being a kid on Christmas morning!

For many months that followed, I couldn’t justify buying new fabric. I simply didn’t need it, and I was busy sewing my book samples. Now that the book is done (to be released in April 2025), some too-good-to-pass-up sales and an upcoming pattern release have had me online and adding selection after selection to my cart. 

First up: the Moda prints at the top of the post. Last weekend, Lamb and Loom Fabrics offered a mystery backing for $10. I love a good mystery purchase, and 4 yards for $10 was an unbelievable price. I bought half-yard cuts of various prints from Fancy That Design House and Ruby Star Society and, when I received the package, was super pleased to find a design from Aneela Hoey as my mystery backing. After admiring these new fabrics, I stashed them for a time when inspiration strikes in the future.

Then I placed an order for Rifle Paper designs at Hawthorne Supply. Rifle Paper has produced three different holiday collections over the years. I bought my favorites and will pair them with four different solids—I’m thinking dark green, light green, red, and pink—for a pattern slated to release next month. To be honest, I already had a layer cake on hand to make this particular pattern, but it’s going to be such a quick sew that I think I can bang out two of them for pattern promoting and holiday giving.

What’s the stashing scene in your sewing room? Are you chipping away at the fabric you already own or have your sights on some new additions?

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Cluck Cluck Sew's Kitty Cats / Beauties Pageant 268

Nothing brings me more satisfaction than getting a low-priority project off the WIP pile and over the finish line, and this week’s post does not disappoint. There’s no gift-giving opportunity on the horizon. I don’t have a recipient in mind. But when I find myself in need of a cat-adorned quilt, I now have this beauty at the ready ...

The design is Kitty Cats from Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew, and it was a delight to piece! I had purchased several half-yards of different Riley Blake prints a year or two ago. Kitty Cats, which calls for fat quarters, put those selections to good use, leaving me with extra fabric to put toward my Pineberry quilt (yet another WIP).

I used more stashed fabric on the back because that’s how I roll ...

My only regret (Future Michelle, please take note!) is that I didn’t have more variety in color and design in my fabrics. The repeated prints and colorways made it difficult to spread the colors evenly throughout the quilt top.

Allison Harris is one of my favorite pattern designers. Her patterns are simple without being simplistic, and they’re a joy to follow. If you’re a Cluck Cluck Sew fan as I am, I’d love to hear which patterns you’ve sewn and to see your finishes (even if they’re old ones!) in the linky below!

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Reining in My Stash and Scraps / Beauties Pageant 251

 

Years ago, I was at my parents’ house, and my mom, who also quilts, was looking for a particular cut of fabric. I remember following her around as she looked in drawers in various bedrooms. She pulled some storage bins out from under a bed or two. She consulted the stash residing in the guest room. Truly, that woman had squirreled away fabric all over the place!

I realized this past week: I have become my mother. The stash that once lived in three drawers in my guest room is now throughout my house.

There are so many problems with storing things here and there. Despite my best attempts at labeling the bins and bags I store fabric in, I don’t know what I have, and it’s easy to think that I should go buy a particular print when a perfectly acceptable substitute resides somewhere in my home already.

So I’m centralizing everything in some yet-to-be-purchased furniture in our finished basement. Eventually, once our house is free of teenage boys, I’ll take over that space entirely. For now, one wall of it will serve as the home to my fabric. 

Compiling all my stash hasn’t proved to be problematic. Organizing the scraps, however, is sucking the life force from me. 

Here are my best words of advice on that front:

1. Come up with a plan that works for you. 

I consider anything much less than a quarter yard as a scrap, and I press those pieces and organize them by color in a single drawer. I’ll be moving the contents of that drawer to the basement during this reorg.

Weirdly shapes bits get cut into 2.5- or 2-inch squares, and solid scraps get chopped into 2.5-inch strips. Storing those scraps in neat piles (as opposed to chaotic jumbles in plastic bags, as I once did) makes my heart happy and means I’m more likely to actually use them.

2. Be smart about cutting. 

If you choose to cut down your scraps, it is always easier to prevent quilting-related injuries than it is to recover from them, so set up a cutting station at a comfortable height. I recently did some trimming at my dining room table, and I paid the price. NSAIDs, rest, and ice resolved the rotator cuff discomfort, but I won’t be making that mistake again anytime soon. The kitchen island is, for me, a better place to cut.

I also make use of the strip dies with my Accuquilt Go. One pass through the machine can save my body multiple swipes with a rotary blade. Over time, that makes a difference.

3. Embrace maintenance.

It is so much easier to deal with a small pile of scraps when you’ve finished a project instead of dealing with a mountain later on, which is the predicament I am in now. I just hadn’t had the time to organize consistently as I went about my projects over the past few years. So I’m doing a lot of cutting (over the course of days, to be kind to my body). The situation is not pretty, but the time investment will be worth it in the end.

Do you have any words of wisdom about stash storage or scrap management? Please share them with the rest of us in the comments!

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Putting Free Fabric to Good Use / Beauties Pageant 213

I entered a guild meeting one month last year to find the tables covered in free fabric. A fellow guildmate was destashing boxes and boxes from her collection, and she thought it would be fun to let the guild take what it wanted.

I felt as if I were 10 years old again and walking into Christmas morning! My guildmates and I dug through the piles, discovering treasures and encouraging each other to take more and more fabric. I left with an armful of yardage, including Joel Dewberry’s Heirloom line in a beautiful citrusy palette. (Heirloom is long out of print, but I found it on Etsy, FeelGood Fibers, and Lark Cottons.)

When it came time to sew these prints into a quilt, I quickly homed in on Irish Twist, my take on a traditional Irish chain quilt. Most of the Heirloom I had was in half-yards, but I also had two larger cuts, and between the quilt top and back, I thought I could bust through almost all of it.

Irish Twist is a whole-composition design, and the larger sizes are made by cutting the pieces bigger, not by adding more blocks. This means I needed a plan for fabric placement before I started sewing, and I chose a fun way to audition the prints ...

The design requires cutting two sizes of squares. Before cutting all the fabric, I cut enough of the smaller size squares and laid them out on point to mimic what the quilt top would look like.

There is a coloring page in the pattern, but I’m not much of a coloring page girl. And this method is more effective, I think. Plus, because I cut the squares in the size I’ll use for the quilt top, I’m not wasting anything, just putting those squares to good use before I sew them up!

I made a few tweaks, cut out the remaining fabric, and started sewing. This project is at the longarmer right now. I expect to get it back soon and can’t wait to show you the finished quilt and pieced back! 

I am a fan of variations on Irish chain quilts. If you’ve encountered an interesting version, let me know!

And by the way, I am a member of the New Hampshire Modern Quilt Guild. We’re a super welcoming crowd, love fun monthly programming, and retreat together twice a year. If you’re in southern New Hampshire (or, like me, northern Massachusetts), come visit us!

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10 Ways to Quilt on a Budget / Beauties Pageant 200

This post has been updated. Read it here.

Hello and happy new year! (And happy 200th Brag About Your Beauties Pageant!) Since many of us take the start of the calendar year as a way to reflect and recalibrate, I thought a post about spending mindfully on quilting supplies was appropriate.

Truth be told, I’m fiscally conservative in general—it’s just my personality. Since I started publishing patterns, however, my hobby has become self-sufficient. That doesn’t mean that I buy quilting supplies with abandon. Too much of a good thing can be overwhelming and undermine my creativity. (If that last point resonates with you, check out this illustration and this blog post from FeelGood Fibers.)

If you resolve to get smarter about your quilty purchases, too, consider these points ...

Fabric

1. Start with your stash. 

When there’s a new project on the horizon, I shop my stash first. Too often I am tempted to order a new blender or buy a new background fabric only to discover that I already own a perfectly lovely substitute.

At times I’ve used a long-stashed cut of fabric as the inspiration for an entire project. (The best example of this is my Me-Wow! quilt; I started with the binding fabric and built the palette from there.) It may seem like a time-intensive way to use up yardage, but it can prove to be a fun exercise in creatively using what you’ve got.

2. Buy what you need for the project at hand. 

Buying fabrics because you like them or because you’re afraid you won’t be able to find them in the future is a sure-fire way to amass a lot of fabric quickly. I try to buy just the material needed for the next project or two. (I know, it’s easier said than done.) After all, there will always be another beautiful, new fabric collection, and I can often find out-of-production lines on the secondary market after they disappear from quilt shops (and sometimes at better prices than they originally sold for).

To stick to this resolution, remove unnecessary temptations. That could mean unsubscribing to newsletters or steering clear of certain hashtags on Instagram (I, for one, have fallen into the rabbit hole called #TheGreatFabricDestash many times). You can always resubscribe in the future.

3. Sew with solids.

Do you know what’s less expensive than the latest and greatest fabric collection? Solids. I find I can save up to $4 or $5 per yard when I sew with solids instead of printed quilting cottons. 

4. Buy smaller cuts.

Don’t buy a half-yard when a fat quarter will do the job. Say you want to sew a project with a scrappy low-volume background. Quarter yards (fat or skinny) will help you achieve that scrappy look without breaking the bank and without creating the scraps that half-yards would.

The challenge here is often finding a good source of quarter yards. I always start with my local quilt shop, because online fabric retailers usually have a minimum cutting size, but there are some online options for fat quarters. One of my favorites is Lark Cottons, which offers its entire stock as fats.

5. Buy local.

The benefit of buying in person is that I make smarter purchases, buying fabrics that are more likely to coordinate with the yardage I already have. Too often I find myself making an online purchase only to realize the fabrics aren’t quite right once I have them in hand. (And so the stash grows!)

6. Buy secondhand or trade with friends.

I’ve found great deals on older fabric lines on Instagram or FeelGood Fibers. I’ve also arranged a trade with friends. One quilty friend gave me unbridled access to her bin of 2.5-inch scraps, and I left her with a cut of fabric from my stash that I knew she would use faster than I could. It was a win-win!

7. Sell what you don’t use.

I’ve had good success selling fabric—including bundles, yardage, and scraps—on both Instagram and FeelGood Fibers. (Read my advice about listing on FeelGood Fibers here.) I use Instagram when I know something will sell quickly. FeelGood Fibers, on the other hand, is great because listings are searchable.

Quilting

8. Quilt some of your own projects.

I had made a few dozen quilts before I started sending projects out for longarming services, so I’m adept at quilting my own projects with a walking foot. I’ve even ventured into free-motion quilting with good success. If quilting is new to you, start with small projects and grow from there.

I quilt all of the baby quilts I make and anything that would benefit from my expertise in straight-line quilting. Projects bigger than a 72-inch square by default go to a longarmer, as do more angular patterns that would benefit from swirly quilting designs.

9. Buy batting in bulk and use up the scraps.

I buy batting by the bolt. My top choice is the Warm Company’s Warm & White. I think it’s good value for my money, and the white (as opposed to, say, Warm & Natural) works well with my usual white or cream background fabrics.

I also save my scraps and use fusible webbing to cobble them together to make bigger, more usable pieces.

Notions

10. Avoid buying unnecessary notions.

I don’t invest in trendy notions. Anything that I’d use on a single project is not worth the cost. 

Instead of buying specialty rulers, I make sure my tried-and-true square and rectangular ones are in good working order and replace them as needed. And instead of buying expensive paper for foundation paper piecing, I buy a ream of 8.5-inch by 11-inch newsprint. I buy inexpensive irons at Target and store WIPs on coat hangers, in plastic Ziploc bags, or in plastic bins (all of which I use over and over again).

I’m sure you have your own tricks to make smart purchases. Share your tips in the comments below!

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Click here to enter