kakels

I would like to make a jelly roll race quilt top. But I want to make a queen sized quilt for my bed. I will cut my own strips from my stash. I just watched this video telling how to enlarge the quilt. In the tutorial she says you can widen it, but not lengthen it. I was confused on how she said to sew strips on after you have the width you want.

She figured to use 59 strips to get the with and another 18 later to use for extra length.

Why can't a person use 77 strips and make it the length you want? What am I missing from this tute?

Sorry, I forgot to include the link for the tute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgPGIB8If9I

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

You can do it any way you want. I row is 2 inches finished. How many rows do you need to get the length you want? Just plug the numbers you want into her formula. She is leaving room to add borders so keep that in mind if you want borders. Here is an example.

80 x 90
80 inches x 45 rows / 41 inches per strip
80 x 45 = 3600 inches / 41 per strip = 87 strips needed

MaryMo

I've made jelly roll quilts with strips going top to bottom just for this reason ..... one that was even 78" long for a tall guy. I don't know why you can't make them any length and width you desire, you just have to add strips together to get the length you desire. I look forward to seeing your finished quilt.

Added note: I'm not good at estimating how many strips I will need or I may change my mind while sewing so I cut a bunch and start sewing, then cut more as I need them. It works for me.

kakels

Don't you lose some inches joining strips on the diagonal?

Do the rows go side to side in the traditional jrr quilt top? I think that's how I got confused. I was envisioning it going up and down, and couldn't figure out how to add on.... duh?

charsuewilson

If the stripes are horzontal, the widths available are limited. You're sewing all the strips together, cutting them in half, sewing those two together, so the width decreases by half the length each time unless you make some adjustments, such as sewing a third (or extra) row at some point (which will require planning by reducing the number of strips you start with), which will also change the length.

Belfrybat

It has to do with the fact the strips are cut in half after each row (or rows) are sewn together. So, the way I do my calculations is this way (I'm math challenged, so there might be a better way). In this example, I want the quilt without borders to be 60" wide:
60 -- 2" long (finished) -- single strip before doubling and sewing)
120 -- 4" -- 2 strips sewn together
240 -- 8" -- 4 strips
880 -- 16" -- 8 strips
1760 -- 32" -- 16 strips
3520 -- 64" long -- 32 strips

So, you start with strips sewn together equalling 3520" -- about 83 strips, and you end up with a quilt 64" long. Probably not long enough but unless you want it to be 60 x 108, you can't just double the length of the beginning strips in the last line. So what I do is decide how much longer I want it and make the strips for that length. So, I've decided I want the size to be 60 x 72", I need a piece 8" long. So I start over with another 6 strips (240") and then sew the 8" piece I end up with to the main quilt. It won't be a perfect match -- I usually have to trim an inch or so off the width of the added piece, but it's close enough for me.

This is probably as clear as mud, but it works for me. The trick is to decide on the width you want, calculate the number of strips to gain that width (I divide by 42" since fabric is 42-44 after selvedges are removed), then do another piece to sew to the main one to get your length.

charsuewilson

If the stripes are horzontal, the widths available are limited. You're sewing all the strips together, cutting them in half, sewing those two together, so the width decreases by half the length each time unless you make some adjustments, such as sewing a third (or extra) row at some point (which will require planning by reducing the number of strips you start with), which will also change the length.

Here's a discussion of how to change the size.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...t192039-3.html

If you're using your own strips, you may not be using whole jelly rolls (40 strips).

The name 1600 quilt comes from guessing that you have 40 strips with 40" useable WOF. Someone else suggested 41" useable WOF. If you're using diagonal seams, I think you would lose about 3" per strip. If you add a square in a contrasting fabric with each strip, you will gain 2" for each WOF.

If you're using a different number of strips than multiples of 40, you'll have to calculate what the width will be by dividing by 2 until you get to a width that you want. Then you can make other adjustments such as cutting lengthwise and adding a strip of fabric adding to the width. And there are borders you can add, ...

dunster

Several people have explained this, in different ways, so let me try again in yet another way. The first (very long)strip is 2" wide (finished). After halving and sewing two together, you have one that is 4" wide. Then 8", 16", 32", 64", 128", 256", 512", etc. (now that would be a BIG quilt!) The length doubles every time you sew two halves together. So, not many lengths to choose from, if you're making the quilt in the traditional way. And the only lengths that actually make much sense are 32", 64", and possibly 128" for large kingsize. Really, I think the jelly roll race is meant to be a novelty, made-for-fun quilt. Sometimes it comes out beautiful, and other times not so much, because you don't get to choose where the fabrics meet.

kakels

hmmmmm, now I'm wondering if I want to do this.

kakels

I'm still in doubt, but I do appreciate all the help. I think I have the perfect fabric for it, but I'm in doubt. Thanks, Everyone!