I really love both the jelly rolls and charm packs. I often make my own using my Acquilt cutter. When I buy them though often you can get 20 or more different fabrics from the same line, that is what makes them special to me.

Connecting Threads doesn't charge extra for cutting. It's worth a peek for those interested in trying w/o the extra expense.

Sometimes it's more practical to buy the precuts if you want a variety of the fabrics because many places, especially online shops, will not sell less than 1/4 or 1/2 yard. It would cost a lot more to get 40 1/4 yard pieces to get the variety you can get in a jelly roll.

Love them!!! And it all coordinates, which is hard for me to decide which patterns to use.

Jelly Rolls or 2 1/2" strips as other manufactors call them are great for certain projects. There are many great quilt design that call for "jelly rolls". These rolls have about 40 strips of coordinating fabric - so the coordinating is already done for you. The thought of picking 40 different fabrics gives me a headache. also I think that they are actually cheaper then buying 1/4 yd of 40 fabrics ( 10yds x $10 = $100) as compared to about $35 for rolls. I recently bought a roll and was delighted with variety of fabric in it. Patterns I would not have chosen by myself.
I have not used anyother precuts.

I have bought from the Missouri Star Quilting Company and love, love the Jelly Rolls...the main reason I love them is that they are all coordinated sets...everything goes together...they are just plain fun! I love their tutorials. I am making the Summer in the Park quilt using Jelly Rolls...I am hand quilting it now.
Here is their tutorial pages.
http://tutorials.missouriquiltco.com/

Love them... when I can afford them and they're on sale I grab a bunch for the stash.

I love jelly rolls. When I bought my studio the first die was the 2.5 strip cutter.

My avatar quilt was made using a Moda "Fresh" Jellyroll. I personally like precuts as they offer a little piece or strip of each fabric in a collection.

I want to try Layer Cakes for the twister pattern.

I agree they are more expensive ! Except I did find one layer cake blue/yellow/green that I couldn't resist. Plan to make a sampler.