Jessica's Quilt

This past week I've been working on my sister-in-law Jessica's quilt. The pattern is called Garden Trellis from the Jelly Roll Quilts book by Pam & Nicky Lintott. Jell Rolls are just a fancy way of selling material already cut into 2 1/2 inch strips across the width of the fabric (45inches). I didn't spend the money on the pre-cut rolls, I bought a half yard of each material and ripped then into 2 1/2 " strips. Ripping fabric instead of cutting it is much faster and actually more accurate, because the material tears along it's weave.

Next, I selected a light and a dark strip, right sides together, and sewed the length of it. After all 104 strips were sewn into 56 strips, the two strip units are sewn to another two strip unit, right sides together and light-to-dark. Sew both sides to form a tube.

Using a rotary cutter, mat, and a 45degree angle, cut all the strips into blocks. This is a bit more coplicated than it sounds. The instructions tell you to use a Omnigrid 98L, line up center seam to the 3 1/2in line, and the bottom seam to the 7 1/2in line. It works very well with this tool. I am think I'm daft in certain areas. I couldn't figure out how I could use a rotary cutting square, so made a trip to my local quilt shop and they sold theirs because they hadn't needed it since they got it! So if you are of average intelliegence (count me out!) you can use the rotary cutting square, position the 0 on top and place a piece of tape from left 6 1/2in marking to right 6 1/2in marking. This is your guide along the bottom of the tube.

When this step is done, you will have 224 small squares. Put for squares together to make 56 large blocks. The small squares should be placed with lights/darks on opposite corners. This is the fun part and Jessica and the children helped on Saturday!