1600 Jelly Roll :]

A couple of weeks ago on my last weekend off (maybe like 3 weeks now >.<, I'm so slow at getting around to posting things) my aunt (the good quilter) ran a private workshop for me and my friend Bekah at her house. She did a quilt top in a day the jelly roll 1600! For those who don't know this is a link to how it is done ->http://blog.heirloomcreations.net/?p=1897

We started the day with the first step and it took us till lunch to just sew all the strips together! We had cut off the selvedges and ironed before we came. I was very dubious at this point that we would even finish by the end of the day - let alone have a whole quilt top with only 5 seams sewing!

All I can say is that it was amazing! I still don't understand the process and why it works - the person who came up with it must have been a genius lol. 

But by 4.30pm (we started at 9am with 1/2 hour for lunch) all 3 of us had a quilt top! I don't have any pictures of my aunt or friends quilt tops, but I had a terrain by moda jelly roll. I'm still not sold on jelly rolls as you can't fully see all the patterns. I bought it because I fell in love with the bright flower prints in it - but when I opened it, some of them I just was *not* sold on! The crosses design I loathe with a passion, but I am trying to ignore it! But most of the are growing on me, some of them are very 70's which isn't me, but the bright colours and patterns definitely are me :]

So this is the finished product, all laid out on the only space in my flat where I can get a whole quilt on the floor:

So this is it all laid out, before I basted it - it's about 45" by 55" - not quite long enough for single beds, but I think it will do me fine, I'm planning to use it on my bed in the summer. I  can't sleep without something covering me, but when it is really really hot my summer duvet is too much, and a thin sheet is too little. So I'm hoping that this will be a better compromise :]

 

Above is the backing I chose for it, you can't really see the design, but it's all pink and swirly and pretty :] I'm not usually a pink fan, but this just caught my eye in the fabric shop and I think it will go really well. I'm hoping I can get binding and a pillow case out of it too - I bought 4 1/2 yards.

 I am planning to FMQ it with a large stipple. I had a couple of practises, on how big they should be and if I can sucessfully scale it up. The first attempt was horrendous - I'm not even posting it up! This was my second attempt. I played about a bit with the machine speed and the stitch size. I'm going for stitches that are a couple of mm long and I have my machine set to the right speed for how fast I move my hands :-s Now I've got to go ahead and FMQ my first ever big project! Its only for me so it's not too bad if I mess it up. But I'd really like to at least make a half decent job of it! I think the pin removing as I'm going could be problematic, but I'm really excited to start it! :D 

So right now I'm off to have breakfast and spend a couple of hours quilting it - I've got a really pretty thread from madera called petunia :] very excited now I can't hold it in! Yayy :]

thanks again for reading :]

starrie x