Lovequilting22

I love the convenience of jelly rolls, but the price? Not so much....LOL.....I, too, have decided cutting my own fabric is best. If I'm in a pinch, I will use one but I love cutting the fabric myself. It adds to the "art". Maybe that's just me, but call me crazy. I've been called worse. LOL. However your decide will be the right way. There is no quilt police so dive in. You will love it!

Sewnoma

Jelly rolls are a nice splurge for me but yeah, most of the time I cut my own strips too. I also don't like the pinked edges that true Jelly Rolls (Moda name brand) and so many other precuts have.

Although I'll admit I'm hooked on Hoffman Bali pops and probably spend more on them than I should. It's just so nice to quickly and easily get a whole pile of batik strips that all go together! (40 strips, straight edges, and no repeats!) Beverlys.com usually has them for $30...I buy them every time I decide I deserve a treat. (Which is pretty often, I like to treat me to nice things. LOL)

Oh, or Connecting Threads! Theirs are straight-edge cut and they charge you for straight yardage, no extra charge for cutting into strips. I have bought a few of their strip "samplers" and they've been nicely cut so far.

But my true love are those Hoffman batiks, lol.

Retired Fire Chief

As a "newer" quilter one word of advice, I would start my first quilt with larger pieces of fabric rather than a jelly roll if I were you. I have made clothes for my sons when they were little and some tops and dresses for me before and knew I could ease pieces together around arms, necks, etc. What I didn't know is that when quilting, fabric can move enough to make your work wonky really fast. I've learned HERE on this wonderful, helpful site, that sewing strips together can make them bow and how careful you must be with letting the fabric feed itself through the machine so it doesn't, plus sewing one strip together one way and then turning and sewing the next strip down the opposite was can really help keep your fabric from bowing and becoming wonky. And, as someone who has always had to iron uniforms, I discovered the very important difference of pressing seams and not ironing them to prevent stretching and distorting your pieces. Keep reading everything you can here, watch a lot of tutorials, there is so many ways to achieve a beautiful end result in simple, easy ways, lots of helpful tips, hints, shortcuts to make your quilting fun and very less stressful. Good luck!

quilttiger

Welcome to the wonderful world of quilting! As mentioned earlier, there are many quilting books which will show the basics making a quilt. Also, a lot of quilt books with patterns have basic quilting information. If you can, sign up for a basic quilting class in a quilt store or a sewing machine store that offers several classes. You will get to meet some nice ladies and have fun, too. I took my first class when I was 58 and I am still enjoying myself to the hilt. Just remember there are really no hard and fast rules, and there is no quilting police, smile. You have gotten to a fine start by researching and asking questions. Congratulations and enjoy!!

cjaneky

You have come to the right place and people for help... another good source is Missouri Star Quilt Company, you can see Jenny teach different patterns and she is so easy to understand. Just go to you tube and put in Missouri Star Quilt Company and you will see all the ''tutes'' she has there..between her and this group of wonderful women, you will be turning out some beautiful quilts...good luck and visit us here and in chat.

Lavada

welcome to the board from Iowa happing quilting

lclang

For your first quilt you might want to do a pattern that does not require matching seams very much. There are a lot of quick and easy patterns on the Missouri Star Quilt Company website and you can watch what she does and decide what you can handle for a first quilt. If you make a very involved quilt you may not want to make any more and we want to encourage and not discourage you in your first venture.

orangeroom

Mama, where in upstate NY do you live? There are many LQS (local quilt shops) that have classes you can take to learn a lot about the whole quilting process. If you live near Victor, there's Ivy Thimble. If near East Rochester, there's Patricia's. That's where I took my first class; Quilting 101. I learned a lot. That class was/is perfect for beginners.

chiaraquilts

This blog has a very nice set of basic quilting lessons: http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/p/beg...ng-series.html designed for beginners.

quilter68

The first thing to learn about this Board is....Allow yourself several hours per day to read all that interests you!

I love this Board.