Probably a dumb question, but do the strips have to be 40" long? Can you use 2.5" x ?? length (as long as the strip equals 1600" long) and then use the Jelly Roll Race technique? Hope this is clear. In other words, can you take say a 2.5" x 10" strip, then a 2.5" x 23" strip, then a 2.5" x 4" strip. etc. to make the initial 1600" strip? Just if anyone has done a JRR quilt this way.

Thanks for your answers.


Anita

I made my first one this winter. After I got all the pieces sewn end to end it was easy. But I thought it was tedious. I will do another one.

Anita, I'm sure you can make a jelly roll with strips of varying lengths. Might even be more interesting!

I recently made the back of a quilt by taking all of my 2.5 inch strips and placing them on my design wall got a beautiful result. Conceptually it was the same as a jellyroll quilt, but I had more control on how it came out both in look and length. I highly recommend it.

YES! Make your own strips and join and then sew them together in the jelly roll style. It will look pretty much the same in the end.

I did this one this way:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]454057[/ATTACH]

The other one I did this way that I could find easily was this one.

A very, very early attempt at FMQ in 2012--my first attempt was in July--this was July 16, '12. It was chosen, however, in Dec. 2012 so obviously someone liked it. :) (charity quilt). I just chose strips out of my 2.5" strips box ( large box) in pinks and purples.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]454063[/ATTACH]

Thanks for your input. Gorgeous quilts, justflyingin! I'm really into making scrap quilts now and will definitely put a Jelly Roll Race quilt on my bucket list.

Anita

The only way I know of the add the length you want is as others have said, finish your jelly roll strips and have another jelly roll to add however much length you want. (Or your strips).

The length must be added on AFTER you finish the 1600 inches or whatever you are using. Sew your pieces together until you get the length you want, 8 or 16 whatever. Then sew to your main piece, Hope this helps. I think I used 54 or 58 strips, not sure anymore for my quilt and then added length with the additional strips.

Hi Anita, I made one using a precut jelly roll that I cut the 40 inch length into various shorter lengths, put them all in a bag and pulled out not caring what came out of the bag. I did a straight join. It added a lot more time to the piecing of the initial strip and made a considerably smaller quilt in the end because of all the extra joins. Some of my pieces were 3 inchs long.

It really made it scrappy and less controlled, I love it.

I looked at some JRR quilts on Pintrest and found some with a coordinating block joining the strips. I liked that look. I think I will do one, if I don't like it, I can use it as a backing. I just want to do it.