Jelly rolls in the baking world are wonderful things. In the quilting world, I find them a strange phenomenon. Moda fabrics make jelly rolls which are 2 /12” strips (WOF is about 42”) of 40 fabrics from a collection. I have never really bought into the concept. A collection of fabrics has a sameness about it …a good quilt needs contrast….so how can this work out? And even when there are some light and some dark, the split is not usually 50-50, so jelly roll quilts can often look like they have washed out spots or black holes.
I look at patterns for jelly rolls and while I have seen some I like, all collections of 40 2.5” strips won’t work in them…and the way jelly rolls are packaged, you really can’t even see what the fabrics are going to look like. You see an outside strip that seems like you'll like the fabrics and the top edge looks attractive. Then you unroll it and find what you are really stuck with. So how can you know if your quilt will look right?
Ah, yes, famous last words…Then I saw a Hoffman BaliPops (the Hoffman ‘jelly roll) and, of course, ‘needed’ one. Can’t see a 50/50 contrast mix in these can you? I selected each one of them during the shopping process and ended up with Strawberry Fields. I also needed a reason to pick up one of these collections. I selected the pattern Garden Beauty for it and it clearly says Jelly roll pattern.
Since the cover said it was a jelly roll quilt, I was determined I would not go outside my ‘pop’ in making all of these blocks. I don’t really see that I have enough contrast to make it through the whole quilt….I don’t really think I have enough greens…so I started with the ‘flower’ blocks and the rest will fall out however they fall out.
My first photo for the day…a couple of blocks from the in-progress BaliPop quilt.
My second photo for the day - Hannah the cat, coming up on her 17th birthday.
Photo 14 & 15 Day 34
3 comments:
Gorgeous, although I didn't understand a word. :-)
~MRH
Ok, did your bali pops leave you wondering how Hoffman actually cuts their strips?? Some of mine were a good 1/4" different in widths. How does that happen? I love the fabrics (I got kiwiberry), and I like the pattern I'm using them in (don't remember what it's called, but it is a jelly roll pattern with an additional sashing/border fabric), but I'm at a loss as to why Hoffman didn't do a better job of cutting the strips accurately. I've never used Moda's Jelly rolls, so I'm wondering if they are the same.
Yep I have been wondering - I haven't really had width issues, but definitely strips that were cut off grain. Shoot - if I wanted them off grain, I could do it myself. I wondered if it was the batik fabric dyeing/drying process that caused difficulty in getting the 'in mass' strips on grain.
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