A Jelly Roll Quilt Top

I am moving through my stack of UFOs at lightening speed these days. I have spent more time in my quilt room in the last month than I did in all of 2011. And I have had a great time playing catch up. 

At our quilt guild meeting earlier this month, one of the ladies showed a quilt that she had made from a jelly roll. I loved the look and decided that at least one of the jelly rolls in my stash needed to be made in this quick quilt method. She had taken all the strips in the jelly roll and sewn them together end to end-her "top" was now 2 1/2" long and a LOT of inches wide!! Next she folded the entire length in half, right sides together and sewed the entire strip. (When you reach the end of the seam, the fabric is folded back onto itself. You have to cut it here to open it up) The "quilt top" is now 4 1/2" long and only half the REALLY wide width it was before. Again, she folded the strip in half, right sides together and sewed, cutting the center to open the seam. Each time you do this, the quilt is twice as long as before and the width is half the size. The width of your quilt will be determined by how many strips were in your jelly roll.

When making a jelly roll quilt this way, you fold in half and sew 5 times. The first time you have two rows in your "length" and your quilt is 4 1/2" long. The second time you sew you have four rows (8 1/2") for the length. The third sewing will make your quilt 8 rows long (16 1/2"). The fourth time it is 16 rows (32 1/2") and the last time you sew, the quilt is now 64 1/2" long. 

I made a quilt top using this method the other night. It was so simple. I sewed the whole top in one sitting-it took about two and a half to three hours to complete. I also went through three bobbins!! My top is 54X64". If you wanted a larger top, a border or two would be great. The quilt that was shown at the guild meeting had 2 borders-they looked like they were 2" and 6" in width, so her quilt was probably about 70X80".

I backed my quilt in flannel and used Warm and Natural cotton batting. I did a very simple wavy stitch across each of the seams to quilt it. I used the same fabric as the backing for binding strips. 

This was a really quick and fun way to make a quilt from a jelly roll-I will be doing it again!