How to: Quick Jelly Roll Quilts

The smaller quilt on the quilting machine

These quilts were made to accompany an article I'm writing for Popular Patchwork about group fund raising for charity, by having a race to see who can make their jelly roll quilt the fastest.  The winner gets half the entry fees, whilst the rest goes to charity.  The quilt top can easily be made in less than a day.  I heard about the ‘Jelly Roll Slam’ race when Ruth Higham held one at The Studio,Loch Lomond.  It is definitely possible to make this quilt top in a day; even I managed in under four hours and I am not known for speedy piecing.

 

The larger quilt

 To make the quilt top, you will need:

• One jelly roll and a fat quarter of fabric.

Cut the fat quarter into 21/2in squares. You will need one square for each strip.

To make the quilt:

• Stitch a square to the end of each strip.
• Join all the strips together at the short ends into one hugely long strip.
• Fold in half right sides together and stitch along the long edge.
• When you get to the end, cut the fold, fold in half again and repeat.
• Keep repeating until you have the shape of quilt top you want – that’s it!

Detail of the larger quilt

It really is amazingly simple.  If you don’t want all the squares to line up, you can offset how the strips line up when you fold in half for the first time.

The smaller quilt - I didn't realise that some jelly rolls have 30 strips not 40 - so watch out!

In keeping with the quick piecing, I ‘quick-quilted’ them at Beechwood Quilting on their long-arm machine.  They will be great for the kids to play with and to throw over the sofa. 

If you are part of a quilting group why not hold your own jelly roll slam? I’m all for finding new (and fun) ways to raise money for charity.