http://www.swimbikequilt.com/2012/06/dc-baltimore-mqgs-are-jelly-roll-racing.html
What's your opinion on the Jelly Roll Race quilts? I love the idea of sewing a bunch of random strips together and then sew, sew, sew until you have a quilt top. But, I cannot see myself spending $40 on a jelly roll to do this. I also only love about half the jelly roll quilts I've seen. The other half are 'ugly'. Can you say that about a quilt? Or is that blasphemy?
Well, check out this link and take a look at these pictures. Someone (or a couple of someones) got the great idea to put little black squares in between the strips. Brilliant! It just makes the strips pop. To me, it looks like Morse code. I have a whole bunch of leftover binding strips that are overflowing my 2 1/2 inch strip basket and I've been wanting to do something with them. They have now found their purpose in life. Time to cut some 2 1/2 inch squares and get busy.
Of course, I still have that wedding quilt to bind today. Ugh. No migraine today please. I can feel it coming on already :( Yesterday's was a doozie! The wedding is at 6pm. I don't want to miss it. I will be so sad.
I agree- they're an expensive way to make an often ugly quilt. Some turn out ok, but then it's an expensive way to make a mundane quilt. I like the idea of simple strips, but I'd have to have much more intention with placement, color, etc than simply sewing strips.
ReplyDeleteI always love the colors in jelly rolls, but those strips are just so limiting! I have never made a jelly roll quilt yet. I would rather buy the fabrics from a jelly roll set in a FQ bundle or something so I had more leeway.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that many look bad. I think the problem is a lack of one sort of uniform background color to tie it all together; there;s no space for your eye to rest with all those crazy tiny pieces.
As for the jelly roll race, I am not a fan of how it looks. But I do think those black squares are a huge improvement in appearance. With the squares added it looks a lot more interesting and gives the eye somewhere to look.