Jelly Rolls, anyone?

I've done one top with a jelly roll and a jillion charms. As far as I could tell the jelly rolls are cut pretty straight. They're not pre-washed of course. I don't know that I'd buy them cut by anyone other than the fabric manufacturer though.

I haven't bought any jelly rolls, but I have invested in several charm packs. I always wash my fabrics and so wasn't sure about charm packs.

I washed a yard of fabric that is the binding and back for one of the charm packs, and it shifted by 2 inches after washing. So then I washed all the charm squares, 8 per lingerie bag. Most came out square, but several are now diamond shape rather than true squares. It will be OK as long as I cut them less than 5 inches I guess. But I probably will not buy any more charm packs.

Your mileage may vary.

Karen > This truly is not a good question to ask just now. I imagine that many

Hmmmmm. Well, yes, that was my concern. I'm wondering if they would turn into 'S' curves. Nobody would die but it would be a wasteful nuisance. I'm mighty reluctant to encourage such a buy without knowing it would be good. Polly

The answer would be to use them only with other unwashed fabric. Cross fingers and make appropriate sacrifices before washing the finished quilt. Not an option for people sensitive to all the gunk on new fabric though! Roberta in D

"Polly Esther" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

I've only used'em twice - once prewashed, once not (washing machine was on it's last legs and I was too impatient to have a project going to wait for the repairman to come before starting!!) ... and both turned out well. VERY minor shrinkage in the set I didn't P/W. And no curving.

But then, both were the same manufacturer and fabric collection (I'm a Moda freak!!) ... so, as they say, YMMV.

FTR, prewashing the one set of rolls really stank ... they did become more "fiddly" to fuss with afterwards ... they're saving grace was the fact that the edges were pinked (which I think is par for the course). Charm squares, though addictive (I belong to three Charm Clubs), stink to P/W, too.

But then, the prewashing stage is the stage that I HATE. Nothing stinks as bad as having glorious fabric chugging away whilst you wait to get creative!! So, if you don't mind prewashing, my issues with'em might not be the same as anyone elses!! :P

Hugs!! Connie :)

You could make a whole lot of blades for Dresden Plate and Grandma's Fan blocks, lots of fast strip or brick quilt pieces, or a mountain of HSTs out of a jelly roll. But I don't think she should buy one from an ebay dealer because the dealer may have cut strips out of various fabrics and just labeled it as a jelly roll because they are a hot selling item right now. Debra in VA See my quilts at

There are lots of patterns and books out now using the strips. Some very recent and some from earlier.... lots of ways to use the jelly rolls. One of the lectures I went to in Houston was by Sally Schneider, it was titled 'confessions of a scrap maniac" or some such. She has a new tool, soon to be available to quilt shops, which she calls the "gizmo". It is used to mark rectangles, cut one inch longer than wide, to make half square triangle units from strips. The HST units (triangle squares) will be the same size as squares cut from the same size strips so you can more easily use things like jelly rolls and make some more interesting blocks. She sold out of the considerable stock of Gizmos she had a the lecture.... at $2 each they are a good deal. . now to plan something to use the one I bought for myself.

I have looked at the pre-packaged jelly rolls..... but if you figure cost per yard they are pretty pricey. But the cutting is done....... I don't usually prewash my fabrics for quilting anyway so that isn't a concern for me.

On the other hand, I love charm packs. And have a bunch of them and plans for lots of quilts using them. Need to get the energy back to get those done.

Pati, > This truly is not a good question to ask just now. I imagine that many

True, but since the quilt shops around here sell only 1/4 yard minimum cuts it's really, really expensive to get one of every fabric in the line. The variety makes up for the mark up in my mind.

marcella

Thank you, all of you. I appreciated your sharing your thoughts. We'll have to test a few and give them a try. It sure would be fun to have a little of everything in a line. Ah, yes. Polly

Well, yeah, but you could just send me the extra portions of those quarter yard cuts. Then you wouldn't have to worry about storage, nor about the high cost per yard of those pre cut strips. Just trying to help,

PAT

Marcella Peek wrote:

I'll let you know how they are! I just bid on three.

Happy quilting,

Lenore

I've bought them.. I think I am addicted. But, the quilts for the Jelly Rolls are still all in my head. It's been way too long since I've had a chance to sew.

I found I like to piece a lot of nine-patch and HST type blocks, like friendship star and such. I love using Thangles for the HST's, as I have confused the 2 1/2 inch squares with the 2 7/8 squares for the HST's in the past. With Thangles, the width is always the same. The last few times I pieced I found I was cutting ALL my fabric into strips. So when I saw my first Jelly Roll, I was hooked, especially as you can get a lot of variety.

Of course, they are pricey if you calculate the price per yard....

(Hmmmm, maybe it is time for a 'strip' swap. You could get 7 full width 2

1/2" strips from 1/2 yard of fabric. If you pre-wash the 1/2 yard before cutting the fabric, you would have at least 6 strips pre-washed. I wonder if postage would make such a swap less or more expensive than the vendor prices?)

Why not host a strip swap and spread the cost? You could stick with one specific fabric line with each person buying certain prints. Or you could pick one of the prints with the most colors and have all swappers send strips of a coordinating print so you end up with fabrics from several fabric lines, but as long as the prints are coordinating colors and styles it would all still work together. Debra in VA See my quilts at

That's a GREAT idea!! Everyone shares in the cost, in the work AND gets to take home yummy pre-cut fabric!!

Hugs!! Connie :)

Great idea Debra! Since there are ladies who prefer prewashed fabric, that could be a requirement. I would also say make sure the strip is cut from salvege to salvege.

Count me in.

I couldn't run the swap. Heck, I couldn't even join a swap like that at the moment. Lots going on here and I'm stressed to the max. All I can do is toss out an idea ball and let someone else pick it up and run with it. It does me good to see others like the idea though. Debra in VA See my quilts at

I love the jelly rolls! Mind you they are a little limiting in terms of the patterns that can be done with them considering they are just little strips BUT the convienience you get by getting a small amount of 40 different co- ordinating fabrics without having to bother someone to cut them all, cut them all yourself, or buy a signifigant amount of yardage more than makes up for the slightly higher cost.

I used a jelly roll to make a colorado log cabin for my 4 month old daughter, the sanctuary by Moda line was combined with a solid cream and I use purples and lavenders for the stars. I also cut the 2.5" strips down to 1.25" and I actually have enough to make another quilt with it if I want and the quilt I made is in between a crib size and a twin size, so it wasn't a skimpy quilt either.

In, sort I think they are great and I just bought two more last night at our guilds merchant mall and will be making a log cabin for our king sized bed!