I have recently decided to start sewing again. I wanted a new machine, without affecting our household budget. I sold a bunch of junk from around the house, and bought myself a Singer Futura Quartet. It is supposed to be the best of the best… if one knew how to run it! *but that could be another blog entry all its own! Lol.
After doing a few small projects for my triplet granddaughters, I decided to reward myself by sewing a quick quilt top. I saw the jelly roll "1600 Quilt" HERE quite some time ago. I also recently pinned it on my pinterest board which fueled my desire to give this rapid quilt a try. I started my project with a jelly roll (a jelly roll contains 40 2.5”x42”ish strips of fabric) that I had won from the online FabShopHop, so I was truly at the will of fate on the content of the fabrics since I could not tell what was inside the roll of fabric strips.
This jelly roll had several colorways of the same fabric prints. There were shades of pinks, teals, greys, all of which I enjoy. There were cute little bugs, chevrons, and “sunny” shapes, as well as other designs and colors.
I began by sewing all 40 strips together, end-to-end. Some blogs suggested sewing them at angles, some suggest end-to-end. I went end-to-end because it was easier and faster. Here was the difficult part for me; I put all the strips into a tub and pulled them out randomly. This was a challenge for me because I like “order” and “patterns”. It took everything in me to leave this quilt up to chance. My goal of this project was to push my own boundaries and to let the quilt be totally arbitrary. The only exception I made was this; if the next strip of fabric was the color of the strip before it, then I put it back and pulled another strip.
I ended up with one LONG 1600 inch strip.
To make a long story shorter, I continued to sew the strip onto itself, over and over, and I ended up with this quilt top.
I found it interesting that some fabric strips ended up right next to its matching strip. So my worry about colors next to each other in the end-to-end sewing really didn’t matter. After the top was completed I noticed that some of the fabrics were not cut exactly straight, something completely out of my control since I did not cut them, and this bothered me a bit but I decided to let it be… it is what it is. My goal of this project was to push myself to not control every issue, to let the quilt not be perfect, to let the randomness become the beauty, to see how some colors/fabrics that I might not have chosen went together well, and to push myself to do something different.
I really enjoyed this quilting exercise. I liked that it was a challenge for me, to let go of the control. I liked that it was an inexpensive project, free jelly roll. I liked that it was quilt pattern that I had never tried. I liked that I actually did something from my Pinterest board! I liked that it was FAST from start to finish. If you're looking for a speedy quilt top, this is your answer. I am happy with the result of the quilt top, and the result of my "learning to let go of control" lesson. Now, finishing this quilt is on my list of things to complete. This quilt will become a Christmas gift for someone… shhhh, that part is a secret!
