Skip to main content

Jelly roll race Quilt for my Niece

Jelly roll race Quilt for my Niece
Whatabout ye folks?!!! I should have shared this years ago....but I'm a disaster, teehee.  3 years ago, I shared the little tiny rag quilt that I frantically threw together to give to my niece as her "proper" quilt hadn't been finished yet.  It only took me 2 1/2 years (yes you read that correctly...two and a half years!) but I FINALLY finish the long promised quilt for my little niece, Lexi.  The poor child didn't get it until Christmas 2017, lol....and here I am only sharing it now!

I am new to anything involving a sewing machine.  I mean, I'm so new to it that I haven't even made the simple beginner projects yet like table runners and placemats.  I still have to consult my users manual every time I thread my machine.....that's how new to all this sewing stuff I am.  So goodness knows where the confidence to make an almost King Sized Quilt came from.  I even quilted the monstrosity myself.  Ok, it was a simple, sew up this end, turn and sew up the other end, kind of quilting.....but I did it.  I found a tutorial on YouTube of the "Jelly Roll Race Quilt" by Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company  along with another tutorial from Angie at ChicNScratch YouTube Channel.  They are fantastic tutorials.  Granted.....it took me 2 and a half years to make and not the "1 hour" that Jenny made hers in....but hey, whats a few years between friends, eh?  Admittedly the actual quilt top does go together incredibly quickly, it was just the rest of it that took me a long time, teehee.

Anyway, here it is.  The finished quilt in all its glory....and mistakes galore, lol.
This jelly roll was so lovely to work with and the fabric is so pretty. Details of where to buy are below. This was the topper section of the jelly roll.  I hadn't cut it all even at this stage.  This was literally just completed at this stage.
Here's a closer look at the fabric and how it all came together.  I was so chuffed when it all came together so easily.  I highly recommend the Jelly Roll Race quilt for any newbie sewers and quilters.  If I can do it, anyone can, teehee.  Check out the link to Jenny's video, above.  You basically just sew each 2" strip of fabric together is a massively long strip.  Match your 2 ends and sew those lines together, and so on.
 The Downtown Abbey label (purchase link below) was simply cut from a selection that was printed onto the fat quarter.  I hand sewed the message onto it....ok its not straight but I don't do hand sewing lol.  I (badly) hand sewed it onto the quilt, once I had everything else complete.  I made my own bias binding with a plain pink cotton fabric.  I used a zig-zag stitch to attach it, using my sewing machine instead of hand stitching it on like a lot of people do.  I did not have time (or patience) for hand sewing the binding on and the zig-zag stitching actually looks very pretty on the quilt.  It added an extra element of texture to the quilt.  That isn't a hole in the fabric by the way.  I edited the photo to obscure Lexi's surname.  
When it came to quilting, I just did simple vertical and horizontal lines.  I didn't worry about marking the quilt with evenly spaced lines as I wanted the quilting to look "handmade".  So although I did try to keep the space between each line of quilting even, I wasn't being too particular if a line of sewing was a few mm wider or narrower than its neighbour. 
Ok, this is where my lack of experience in sewing was ultimately obvious.  There are a few little (ahem...rather large, teehee) wrinkles in the fabric where I mistakenly pulled in folded fabric under the presser foot.  Realistically, if I had have noticed it sooner, I should have hand picked the bottom right third section of the quilt and resewed it, but of course I had the quilt turned the other way up so I didn't see it until I had completely quilted the vertical lines.  Of course I still could have unpicked all that sewing but honestly...I would have cried if I had to do that. So I hoped it would be hidden in the quilting and my mistakes would be forgiven, lol.  But for a newbie, I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  And the quilting did hide most of my faux pas, teehee.  I'll just know for the next time to keep checking the back of the quilt as I go along.
PRODUCT LIST AND WHERE TO BUY IT

My sewing machine is a Janome QXL605 sewing machine and I purchased it from Sewing Machines Direct in the UK (fantastic company by the way.  If you visit them and make a purchase...tell them I sent you.).
The fabric I used for the main "Jelly roll" section of the quilt was a Jelly Roll I bought on Ebay from cottonsquares on Ebay.  It didn't have a specific name, it was just called "pink/lilac".
The fabric for the borders, backing and binding was bought from fyvie.star.fabrics.ltd from Ebay also. (sadly, they no longer seem to be open).
The fabric quilt label was bought from eddiecw from Ebay and it was a fat quarter called Downtown Abbey.
The quilt batting was again bought from Ebay but I can't seem to find the seller for it, sorry.  But it is readily available on Ebay.  It was a cotton batting that is flame retardant and can be washed at 40 degrees in your washing machine.  If you are buying batting for a quilt, particularly one for a baby or child, please pay a bit more money for a flame retardant batting.  I'd rather spend a few extra pennies per metre for the safety benefit, knowing the quilt is safe for my niece to use, than not.  Plus it's always a bonus to be able to throw it into your washing machine too.

That's it from me folks.  I'll be back soon with goodness knows what.

Toodles Noodles....Lee aka Crafty Loops xx

Would you like to buy me a Coffee?  Every coffee bought goes towards helping me maintain this blog.  There is no pressure, of course.  But if you do buy me a KoFi, a massive THANK YOU so much.  You have no idea just how much I appreciate it.
Here is the link to my Ko-Fi page or click the image above.  It uses Paypal, just so you know xx


Comments

  1. This is so pretty for your first quilt and I am sure it was received and used with much love, we all have to start somewhere with whatever our hobby and I think you did very well, nice to see you around again Tilly xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Leeeeee! Helloooooo stranger! I’m Dee from ElegantEmbellishments on YouTube. I love your quilt. I love the colors you picked. Bravo for completing it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Helloooooo! Anybody out there??!! Hey....there you are! Thanks for leaving a comment and stopping by my Blog. Lee x