The Jelly Roll Race Quilt

Can you imagine having a race to finish a quilt? Well, on You Tube, they showed such a race, and the winner finished her quilt top in 35 minutes! Look at Heirloom Creations website for the 1600 Jelly Roll race video. (Tried to make a link, but I'm not good at this!)

The ladies in the race used jelly rolls, which are collections of 40 strips of fabric 2-1/2" wide that can be used to make many different types of quilt tops. I happen to have quite a few of these in my stash of fabrics.

The idea of making a quilt top in 35 minutes certainly sounded intriguing to me, so I had to try it. I've seen pictures of other quilters' jelly roll race quilts and they certainly look bright and cheerful, just right for a kid's bed. I like fast projects, so I gave up one of my less expensive jelly roll assortments to give it a go!

Needless to say, I didn't finish in 35 minutes, but here's how long it took:
1 hour to sew all the jelly roll strips into one long 1600" strip
90 minutes to sew the strips together to make a quilt top
about an hour to shop for the sashing and backing (oh, maybe to look at a few other things at the fabric store also!)
about 3 hours to sash, sandwich, quilt and bind.

And here is the finished product. This was a cheap jelly roll, only cost $15, where most cost near $40. So it had only 6 different fabrics in it, most jelly rolls have 20 different prints. I added a few plain ones from other jelly rolls to add a bit more variety. The print has little caterpillars, butterflies, dragonflies and lady bugs on it, I'm hoping it isn't percieved as being too girly, so maybe it could be used for a baby blanket for a boy or a girl. It certainly turned out larger than I thought it would. It is about 65" x 69"--pretty near twin bed size.




I used snuggly blue marble flannel for the backing. And because I used my Accufeed foot on my Janome Horizon machine (for the first time--just learned how to attach it last weekend!), the quilting went so well! I could never figure out how to install the foot, that is why I have never used it in the past. Thank you, Janome, for inventing that thing!

My church is having an auction in a month and they are looking for auction items. I wanted to commit to making a quilt to donate, but was afraid I'd not have time to do it. Now, I have something to donate, and I think it will be well receieved. I would bid on this, hope it brings in some money for the church!