By the time I'd completed my Ringo Lake quilt top (minus the borders), I was ready for something simple. Not a wholecloth quilt -- I'm not a good enough quilter for that. And not a panel -- just doesn't appeal to me. When I spotted a free pattern called "Playing the Scales" by Melissa Corey, I thought it would fill the bill and let me use up a jelly roll. I have a drawer full of them, none of which were purchased with a plan in mind. I chose a Kaffe Fassett roll called "Spring."
The pattern is so simple -- rectangles and a few squares, sewn together in strips. Not a single seam match in the whole thing. Perfect! The original pattern called for fat quarters separated into low-volume (light) and high-volume (colored), but the result seemed awfully busy to me. I used the jelly roll as a high-volume and very pale gray yardage as a low-volume background instead.
I cut the background fabric into 2-1/2" strips and then rotary subcut both fabrics into the requisite number of varying lengths (most are 8-1/2"). I used a few more jelly roll strips and added few additional sizes of background in order to create the bargello effect to get a total of 31 strips. From there, you just sew alternating print and background strips.
To make the background strips, I used my Sizzix cutter. Unlike an Accuquilt, it isn't intended specifically for quilting. But it does have dies for common quilt sizes. and they are much less expensive than Accuquilt.
The model that I have is small -- you only get 2 strips at 2-1/2" wide -- and it's hand-crank, not electric, though larger electric models are available. But it is easy to use, it's accurate, and is easier than rotary cutting if you have arthitis in your hands. It fits right on the side of my sewing table, and I can just pop it into the closet when I'm done; it weighs next to nothing.
Some people comment that cutters like this waste fabric. I don't think so. Here is the "waste" from one pass through the cutter (2 strips), with a 2-1/2" strip for comparison. If I had to do a lot of cutting with a rotary cutter, I'd likely have more waste from straightening the edge of the fabric, slipping rulers, and or mis-measuring.
I had a little trouble understanding how Melissa put the pieces together (though I later understood why she did it that way), so I figured out my own way to do it. And no, I don't usually make a recipe as directed the first time, either! I sewed the ends of the units with the pinked edges of the jelly roll fabric in place. In retrospect, I wouldn't do this again, as the pieces with a pinked edge on the end tended to be a bit wonky, as pre-cuts often are. I did need to go back and re-sew a few of these seams, and ended up trimming off the pinked sides when it came time to sew the strips together.
Sewing the strips was a breeze. You can just blow down that seam as fast as you dare, not worrying about nesting any seams. I had pressed the horizontal seams toward the colored rectangles, so I did try to be careful not to flip any of the seams on the underside that faced toward the machine. The vertical seams you can press in either direction.
The quilt is a little longer than you see here; I cropped out the mess on the side of my sewing table. There won't be any borders, so this is pretty much what it will look like when it's done. I forgot to notice how many jelly roll strips I used, but I still have nearly 400" lengthwise of leftover strips, roughly 10 jelly roll strips. I plan to sew them together end-to-end with a regular 1/4" seam to make the binding. If I make this pattern again (and I think I will), I'll take the time to do the math and see if I can get a twin-size quilt out of one jelly roll.
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