Jelly Roll Race Quilt - Now THIS is fun and easy!!

Thanks to a friend, I wandered over to take a look at the Youtube videos from Missouri Quilt Company.  What fun!  First, I just have to say that I love Jenny!  She's fun to listen to and is filled with great ideas!

While I was sorting through fabrics for my eBay listings and Etsy shop, I watched one after another of her videos.  Here's the one I just HAD to try first:  The Jelly Roll Race!  Take a look and see what I did with it!

Jenny starts out with a neat and tidy jelly roll in the video.  Jelly Rolls are sets of 2 1/2" X 44" strips usually within a fabric line.  As you can see by the pile, I didn't have a nice, neat set.  I was scrounging through my fabrics for all the black and whites I could find.  My plan: use the Pink Lemonade Tonga Treats to see what you can do with them.  I figured you can't POP more than pink with black, right?

So I took a handful of the triangles from the Treat, unfolded them, ironed them and then cut them in half and in half again to make 4 squares from each block.

I was left with a sweet little pile of colorful, eye popping squares!  Next, I attacked the black and whites - ironing, trimming and cutting them into 2 1/2" strips.  Some of them were scraps, so they weren't 44" long - that made for some tweaking in the design as I sewed.

 

It was time to start sewing.  I placed the pile of pinks on my right and the pile of strips on my left.  I started with a pink and a strip and sewed the ends together.

Again... and again... and again...

And again... and again.. and again... (I would imagine you are getting the picture now.)

Once I had my mountainous strip (it was one single row at this point), I found the two ends and sewed them side by side.

All the way till the very end, which were, as Jenny suggested, twisted.

Here's the pile behind my machine as it was coming off.

The next step requires you to REPEAT the same thing: take the two ends, place them side by side and sew them together.  Each time you do this, it gets 1/2 again as short!  Whoo hooo - you are flying!

You go from the strip, to two rows, to four rows (above) and eight rows (below).

Then, it's time to go crazy and sew those ends together, too.

What you get, is THIS:

Thanks so Mr W - he's my quilt rack! 

A patchy-mix and match of fun colors!  Don't the batiks just MAKE the quilt?  I LOVE it!!  Next... a binding and then it's ready to finish and send to it's new home!

Here is Jenny, from Missouri Quilt Co.'s video.  She does a GREAT job of explaining how to do this.  Can't wait to finish mine!

Who wants to try this next?
Carrie