Jellyrolls
Christmas is coming up fast and if you're like me, you're strapped for cash this year. However, there are still some people I want to give gifts to. Luckily a lot of my friends are quilters and appreciate fabric as a gift. Instead of going out and buying new yardage, I took my own advice and shopped in my stash.
Jellyrolls are popular among quilters because they give you a pre-cut assortment of fabrics in an adorable, coordinated package. But there are a couple of things I don't like about commercially available jellyrolls. For one thing, they're pinked on the edges, so it's hard to get an accurate 1/4" seam. For another, you can't wash them because they will ravel and shrink. So to avoid the problems of purchased jellyrolls and to save money, I've cut my own.
Homemade jellyrolls are superior because:
- You can wash the fabric before you cut it (preventing shrinking or bleeding).
- You can cut it with a rotary cutter (giving the recipient the full 2 1/2" of width).
- You can customize the fabrics to the recipient's tastes.
- You get to pull out and fondle dozens of your fabrics!
To make jellyrolls:
- Select forty coordinating fabrics from your stash. Make sure each piece is the full width of the fabric (selvage to selvage).
- Press the fabrics
- Fold them with selvages together and the fold hanging smoothly, then fold again matching the selvages to the fold.
- Square up the end then cut one 2 1/2" strip for each jellyroll you plan to make. Using something like the June Taylor Creative Cut makes it fast and easy.
- Open the strips so that each is folded only once (in the middle) and lay the strips out in order from darkest to lightest (or vice versa).
- Roll them up and tie with a ribbon!
In the photo you can see that I have some regular sized jellyrolls and several small ones. The small ones are each made from twenty strips cut from fat quarters. All the fabrics are batiks and so they will all blend nicely together.
Start now and in a day you can have a collection like this to give away to friends of keep for yourself!
The best part of the whole experience was pulling out my batiks (I had more than 150 to choose from!) and seeing all that gorgeous fabric finally cut up to use! (Although I have to admit some of it was just too beautiful to cut and some of it was designated for other projects, so those pieces never made it out of the cabinet.)
Happy rolling!
Kelly
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