The Jelly Roll Battle
 

I love jelly rolls. I love looking at their colors still bound in that cute circle, tied with that perfect knot. I know that once I open it, it will never roll back up the same. I so much want to feel that fabric, lay out all the strips and let them talk to me of what they wish to be but I battle the esthetic in me who so very much loves that precise, innocent roll with all those delicious fabrics peeking out. It's a battle I must wage within myself but battle on I must! :p

I can relate to a degree, sometimes I think I like looking at my fabric stash more than using it! Always afraid I'll use something and then come across something to use it for that would have been better.

Buy two. Use one and keep one to look at. :D

I can relate -- this is why I buy several yards of my filler fabrics and why some of my focus fabrics have not been cut. I have a favorite royal blue and a true red that I have used in several quilts -- the more I use them the more I like them. I only have scraps left and have projects in mind that need a lot more of each of the colors. Very frustrating.

I haven't used Jelly rolls that much because the excessive cost and many post on this site about how crooked the strips are. I do have my favorite fabrics that I use sparingly which are mostly Hoffman watercolors from the 90s.

I love jellyrolls. I buy them as much for decoration and inspiration for my sewing room as to use them. The last several years I buy more pre cuts then yardage. I'm partial to layer cakes. I have baskets full of layer cakes, many with jelly rolls to match. I look at them and get motivated. No wonder why quilt shops have them sitting so prettily all around the shop. They are sure hard to resist.
:)

They certainly are eye candy. I've been able to resist so far but I visit collections at the LQS often!

Those tidy little bundles are just so irresistible. I can totally relate to your issue of not wanting to disturb such an attractive package of fabric. Maybe if you can convince yourself that another just as wonderful or maybe more so will find its way to replace the opened or used fabric.

Guilty. Sometimes I'll buy a jelly roll AND a matching layer cake just to have them.

I have three rolls of batiks...I can't unroll them. I keep telling myself they'd be prettier in a quilt, but still...they sit.

I love them too but I'm too cheap to buy very many. Mostly I cut my own strips. I do love the nice easy strip quilts.

I have never worked with them but got a couple for Christmas - one a Benartex Victorian style print and the other Moda Vin Du Jour. I unrolled them both out last week and admired them, but then they wouldn't roll back up properly!!! Pending disaster!

So then I had to run around looking for jelly-roll books and patterns...and now I have a good jelly-roll book downloaded and have ordered another on-line...and I am going to need some background fabric in fat quarters...

There is something wonderful about having 40!!! different!!! fabric strips, in all the colorways... light, dark, medium tones, and large, small, and blenders....

I can only think how dangerous it might be if I selected a jelly roll myself, in a fabric line of my choosing. Whoa, Sue!

I will pick out a jelly roll (sometimes with matching layer cake or FQ bundle) and someone will admire it and ask what I'm going to do with it. I smile and say "It's going to look so pretty sitting on my shelf!" Quilters get it. All others look at me as if I'm nuts.

Oh man! I'm so happy to hear I'm not the only one. My daughter looked at me like I was nuts as I sat there and admired it. I actually did buy two of it so one is still sitting pretty. I guess art is as art does. :)

A perk of using something right away is that you figure out just how much you love it. If you use it sooner rather than later, you can buy plenty more pretty easily.

I love jelly rolls and layer cakes too. Looking at them, seeing the promise in them of colors and a quilt. I hate to unroll them, but I do. I take a deep breath, untie the knot and then lay out all the strips. It's really a wonderful thing! You have all these colors to work with. So mine don't stay tied up long. I want to see all the strips laid out. that's my fun part!

I have never bought any precuts that I can remember, oh yes once a 1/4 bundle I loved. I get the same feeling with buying fabric in larger quantities.lol

What are we saving them for??? The won't look pretty draped over our caskets. Bite the bullet and USE them. I don't buy very many as I have plenty of assorted yardage, but they are pretty, however I want to use mine so I have an excuse to buy more.

Jelly rolls decorate my sewing room. I must have a specific purpose to open one. I recently made a jelly roll race quilt and this are fun and so attractive with a narrow and a wide border. I am giving it today to a lovely young woman in my Bible study group who recently finished her doctorate and is moving back home to another state. I have purchased them on Ebay at surprisingly reasonable rates, even Moda, and have never received a crooked one!

ooo, so true.

I sew totally get it. I just love looking at them. But, I am sooo starting to like using them also. lol

They are pretty rolled up, but I don't buy them. They never have enough of the fabric that caught my eye, and I usually won't use the rest. I have a friend who likes them, otherwise I'd be tossing the remainder out. I don't do strip quilts.

For instance:
I see a rust colored fabric I like - buy the roll, and there's only 2 strips of it. There are more rust strips but some are bluer, redder, or grayer, and don't go with what I want. So I prefer yardage.

Charms and fat quarters are a different story. They seem to be better coordinated. You can also check what's in the pack easier.

I have purchased and used several jelly rolls, but I am NOT in love with them. Too often some fabric strips do not seem to work as well as the ones I have to substitute from my stash (or new purchase). They do look better rolled up though and are very decorative!

I will never buy Layer cakes again after trimming 3 packs all down to 9 1/2 squares due to none of them being 10x10. I have a few Jelly Rolls I haven't opened but let my DGD use one & I just loved all the colors & designs in it so maybe some day I'll actually open one up myself, Charm squares I've used a couple of times & they are usually pretty square.