- Jelly Roll: Forty 2.5 inches by 44 inches strips of various fabrics from a collection. These can be found already bundled at fabric or quilt shops.
- 1600 Quilt: a quilt made using a jelly roll; it starts as 1600 inches because the strips from the jelly roll are sewn end to end to begin with.
Here is the 1600 Quilt I made using the Enchanted Pond jelly roll. I am excited to say someone will be receiving this quilt as a Christmas gift!
Instructions for Making Quilt Top:
1. Cut salvages off of both ends of every strip.
2. Sew strips end to end right sides together until all strips are sewn together making one long strip. The sewing of strips can be done in any pattern you wish. I did my randomly, but I would suggest that you have an idea of how many of each color you have so that you can get colors evenly distributed.
3. Iron seams; this make your next seams flatter.
4. Cut off 22 inches from one end of the long strip; this allows for various lengths of strips to appear in your quilt top.
5. Now you will be taking the ends right side together and sewing your long strip into half of its length. Essentially, you are folding this long strip in half. Folding this much fabric in half is tough unless you have acres of space. So all I did was find my ends and sew. Yes there was some twisting, but I kept pushing them back until the end.
6. When you are almost to the end, cut the loop that has been created. Finish sewing the seam. Remember to back stitch when starting and finishing seams. When you open up your fabric after this seam, your strip will be two strips wide.
7. Fold your new strip in half right sides together and sew. Again, near the end, cut the loop. Now your quilt is four strips wide. When doing this step, there is less fabric to be managed. Therefore, it is possible to organize fabric into neat piles so that twisting is avoided.
8. Repeat step seven until your quilt is about a nice lap size rectangle with horizontal strips. It takes folding the strips in half five times to get a finished top.
9. Press seams.
10. Follow Heirloom Creations 1600 Quilt Tutorial if my instructions do not make sense to you or if you need to read it another way.
Left: The various colors and prints that make up the Enchanted Pond jelly roll. Middle: The pile the long strip makes. Right: The top of the quilt.
Backing and Quilting the Top:
1. Lay backing down with right side against the floor. Smooth out. (Some cutting and sewing may need to be done so that you have a wide enough and long enough piece of backing.)
2. Lay batting out on the wrong side of the backing fabric. Smooth out.
3. Lay the top of the quilt on the batting with right side up. Smooth out.
4. Keeping layers smooth and flat, use safety pins to pin all the layers together. Start in the middle and work your way out.
5. To make quilting the top easier roll up one end of the quilt about half way.
6. Using seams as guidance and beginning near the half way point of the quilt, sew along the top and bottom of the strips. You will be sewing long straight lines that go from one edge of the quilt to the other. Look below to see this and see what part of the foot of my machine I lined up with the seam. With my foot lined up where it is, I was sewing about 1/8" off of each side of the seams. Keep repeating this over the whole quilt.
Make Bias Tape and Bind:
1. Remind yourself that I do not like cheating on this step by reading my opinion in my Chevron Wedding Quilt post!
2. Follow Perfect Binding Tutorial for how to cut strips for the bias tape, sew the strips together, iron the bias tape, and attach the bias tape to the quilt front. I started with strips of fabric that were 2.5 inches wide; this makes for binding edges that are a little over a half inch wide.
3. Hand sew the bias tape to the back side of the quilt to bind. Here is where I mean do not cheat. Machine stitching will leave the front and back looking messy. So take the time and hand sew with a Hidden Ladder Stitch (YouTube tutorial) that goes quite quickly once you get the hang of it. I realize the woman uses a little pillow to do the tutorial but you will be doing the same thing with your bias tape. You just will be folding your tape over to the back so that the edge of the quilt is in the center fold. Then you will slip your needle from the back of the quilt through the other fold. Tip...use the line of thread from sewing the binding to the front of the quilt as a line for keeping your bias tape fold, ladder stitch, and binding lined up.
Good luck with your next project! Remember, if you have questions for me, ask!
