Has anyone ever made their own Jelly Roll from scraps or pieces of fabric not large enough to make an item? I would love to use up all the "little" pieces of fabric that I have stashed. Need the width and length of a Jelly Roll, then I probably can go from there. I imagine it is just sewing strips end to end. Need advice. Thanks, Mary

jelly rolls are 2 1/2" wide by the width of fabric cuts. They are packaged in the stores by laying all the strips on top of one another and rolled into the jelly roll. Is this what you were asking. I hope I understood what you meant.


edit: then you sew, cut and resew as you wish to make the pattern that you like or you can cut the strips into squares, traingles, etc then sew them into your blocks.

The main attraction of a jelly roll is they have one 2.5 inch by the WOF strip from every fabric in a collection. That's typically 40 different fabrics.

I just made up a bunch. I tried to include 5 of each fabric or 8, at least in numbers that would add to 40. If I am making tube quilts which takes 4 fabrics, then I make the jelly roll with 10 of each fabric in it.
Lots of books on jelly roll quilts.

The name brand jelly rolls are rolled by machine. Have you ever tried re rolling one? If you don't get it rolled tight the middle will fall out. If I cut my own strips I hold them together with a big metal desk clip lengthwise.

precuts that I bought were off by a half inch.I will not buy them any more-I can cut better than that.I was very disappointed with the lack of accuracy-messed up my project.

I've heard that before, that the jelly rolls (and other pre-cuts) are often not the width they are sold as.

With the stash I have ... I just cut my own for whatever project I want to do!

Moda has always had perfect precuts. I won't buy any other brand of precuts.

I was thinking of making some. I just used a jellyroll from Moda and really enjoyed working with it.
It would be fun to go in my stash and make my own!

PS. Bellaboo- I didn't see your post. My Moda jelly roll was perfect! :D

we are more accurate than the pros,lol. some parts were 2.5 in ,others anywhere from 2-2.25 all on the same strip.

I have one from CT, haven't done anything with it yet.

Thanks for all the ideas. I will try and use up some scraps, 2.5 wide and sew them end to end until I have the with of fabric (44/45")long. LOL I won't try to roll them into a "jelly roll". Don't think I could get it tight enough. I will try to make 40, 2.5 wide X 44/45" long, then sew them together. I watched the tute on U-Tube and it looked like fun. Again, thanks everyone. Mary

AMEN!!

I just got done cutting a bunch of 2 inch strips out of browns. Going to put them in a container so when I am ready to make a quilt with them they will already be cut. :)

Who is to say that WE aren't the pros here? ;-)

There are 3 books available by Pam and Nicky Lintott with cute easy quilts to make from Jelly Rolls, either precut or from your own stash. The titles are "Jelly Roll Quilts", "Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts" and their newest book "Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts". These books have great pictures and easy to follow instructions. One tip I read was to cut a 2 1/2 " WOF strip each time you cut a new fabric and before long you will have your own collection of "jelly roll" strips.

Ive run into that same problem with charm packs..... some of the squares were cut in half!! Couldnt return it since I had kept it over a year befor using it. very frustrating!

If you use a lot of the 2.5" strips and have the Accuquilt cutters, you can make a gigillion in an afternoon.

I agree - the Moda jelly rolls are exactly perfectly cut.

What an excellent idea. I had thought about this but never did follow through on it. May do it for my red/white/blue quilts.

like the idea of cutting a strip ftom every fabric

If your charm pack is a Moda brand I'll bet that you will find that the one that is cut in half has at least 1 or more full size ones in the pack. I have had some cut in half but there was always at least 1 full size one just like it in the pack. Jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes, are the names Moda gave to their precuts and were the first fabric company to make precuts. I think they are wonderful to work with.

THe LQS by me will cut them for you. She has the machine that cuts strips so 2 or 3 of us all pick out the fabrics and in seconds she has the strips all cut. we can also get cirlces and the other shapes for the machine cut for really cheap. It's like the AccuQuilt for stores. fantastic stuff really!

Friends in my quilting group take binding leftover from quilts and just keep sewing them together end to end. This works well if you use 2 1/2 inch binding. Then, they cut the strips into quilt width lengths and sew them together two by two, etc. to make a scrappy quilt. They don't bother trying to plan or "randomize" and the quilts are beautiful.

I have made many "quilts" using this method ... cut my stash in 1 1/2", 2" or 2 1/2" widths ... length is whatever it is ... sew using the jelly roll method and create a new piece of material which can be cut or make a quilt top ... queen and king take less than a day ... now I have more room for material ... quick and fun baby quilt or birthday gift! Remember to reverse the sewing order of each row so it does not buckle.

I have made many "quilts" using this method ... cut my stash in 1 1/2", 2" or 2 1/2" widths ... length is whatever it is ... sew using the jelly roll method and create a new piece of material which can be cut or make a quilt top ... queen and king take less than a day ... now I have more room for material ... quick and fun baby quilt or birthday gift! Remember to reverse the sewing order of each row so it does not buckle.

what is the best method of sewing them end to end?

I call mine jelly roll soup. I cut my scaps 2 1/2" wide, or whatever I want and thenput them in a plastic shoebox until I need them. I mark each box with the width strip in it and keep it handy.

I have found that the Bali Pops are off by a lot.........but I have never had a problem with the Moda Jelly Rolls.......those have been "On The Money"......

Perhaps cut more than one strip each? While you are doing it...you would end up with four or five jelly rolls -just in case?

If you have big pieces, sew them and then cut lengths...
Remember to cut the selveges all off first.

Hi Everyone Just new to join the Quilting Board Forum
Would like do do my own jelly roll i know the width is 2 1/2 inch what about the lenght.Can the strips be all the one length does it matter if they are not and do you stagger patterns or are all the same patterns together.
Thanks for any help Jenny

"Officially" a jelly roll is 2.5" by the WOF (or width of fabric selvage to selvage) -- which can be anything from 40" - 44" of usable fabric . (The manufacturers vary the width of the fabric and vary the width of the selvage). They are usually packaged 40 strips to a package. If you are doing a pattern, that is what they pattern designer is counting on. You can cut your strips any length (I frequently cut the 2.5" strips from fat quarters, so my strips are about 20-22" by 2.5" and I adjust the patterns accordingly).

I was watching Quilt In a Day a few weeks ago and Eleanor Burns (who started using the 2.5" strips LONG before Moda made jelly rolls) said the reason she used them is because there was some kind of garment factory near where she was and the left over waist bands were 2.5" wide. Interesting where this all came from.

I cut a bunch of my scraps into 2 1/2 strips and made a jelly roll quilt out of them. It looked really cool to me, you have to like scrappy though which I love.

I used my scraps and cut into 2 1/2" strips. Did not count how many, sewed together until the pile was as high as my chair seat. Some of the scraps were short and some longer than the 40" requirement. Found the 2 ends and began sewing together. Folded the long snake, it went from one end of the room to the other, about 60'. Folded and did it again. Over and over, when the the quilt was the size I wanted I added boarders. It became a queen size quilt. The fold will twist, so either un-sew or cut when you get to the end.