We have a week left here in GA and I wanted another quick and easy quilt to work on so I pulled a Jelly Roll and started a Boxed Squares. One Jelly Roll will give you a lap size quilt that measures 48 x 60 inches.
Boxed Squares
Category: Piecing in progress
Brunch
I do most of the cooking around here but if we have brunch, Keith fixes it and it was yummy this morning.
After eating, I went down to the sewing room to work. First up, I assembled the design wall, then I finished the blocks for the Jelly Roll Rail Fence quilt.
They’ll wait a bit for assembly since I’m making more masks for Chris and his co-workers. And since it seems we’ll be wearing them for a while, I’ll make a few more for us too. I finished 8 before calling it a day. It’s been a bit rainy but we think there’s a window to head out for a walk.
Temporary design wall
I used to lay all my blocks out on the floor before I got a design wall but that was about 12 or 13 years ago so while I had laid out a few blocks the other day, I decided I’d use the bed for now (I do have a design wall ordered)! My Jelly Roll blocks are done and I’ll wait until Rae goes home to start assembling them.
Rae commented that her newest doll didn’t have her own quilt like the other two and since I had a pile of 2.5 inch squares cut from the ends of the jelly roll strips, I decided I’d piece her a doll quilt too. I don’t have backing and batting here so I told her I won’t have it finished until the summer.
April’s Precut
After getting my sewing space set up today I actually started my April Jelly Roll quilt. I debated several projects and knew I needed something simple as I’m still distracted with other tasks related to the new house. I’ve seen several quilts using this block online and I know I have a pattern in one of my books at home but when I was searching, I found a free version online at ChristaQuilts. Here’s my first block.
I’ve pulled other strips from the Jelly Roll to get started. My quilt will be set 6 x 8 blocks and finish at 48 x 64 inches so I can pick and choose which strips I want to use. The light fabric in the blocks will all be the same print.
Are you making a Jelly Roll quilt this month? What block/pattern are you using?
March’s precut
EDIT – Stephanie corrected me … March’s precut doesn’t have to be in a bundle! I guess I saw fat quarters and moved right to my project using a bundle of them!
Loose FQs, big chunks, 1/8s, fabric club stuff, all is fair game for March.
I know it’s not March yet but my schedule is very hectic over the next few months so I’m working when I can … rather than starting a new project that won’t get finished before the end of the month, I’m starting my fat quarter quilt now … technically I shouldn’t even be piecing because I have unpacking and laundry to do, still lots of work on the taxes, and another trip on Thursday but since we came home early from St Martin, this counts as a free day to me! So I’m spending some quality time with Finn and doing a little sewing.
I wanted to use one of my dies along with the fat quarters so I chose my chisel die, I haven’t used it in quite a while so I paired it with the 3 inch finished HST die and started piecing. I wanted to put a few blocks up on the wall before deciding if I was going to mix up the fabrics in each block or stick with one … I’ve decided to go with just one fabric plus the background in each block … I’ll use 10 or 11 fat quarters for this quilt.
Off my needles
Another Ross Beanie is done and tucked away in the box to be donated. I’m not sure how many I’ll make before sending them off but I think there are 7 in there now. These are sized for men so they’re a little big on Hat Head.
- Pattern – Ross Beanie – free on Ravelry
- Yarn – Paintbox Simply Aran – colorway Coffee Bean
- Needle size 8
I also made orange Rainbow String blocks. I didn’t have many strips/strings in orange so I cut some from scraps and fat quarters … I had enough for 10 blocks. Again, my plan for these is to make some blocks in each color and then I’ll make a Rainbow HeartStrings quilt myself and donate the leftover squares for our September project in Maine so I don’t need a specific number of each color block. So far I’ve got green, purple, and orange done.
Purple
I didn’t have much time in the sewing room today. I think I mentioned that I joined the board for our association last fall and Florida has regulations about board certification training so while I did an online class right after being elected that met the requirement, I was invited to a class by one of the other board members. I found it helpful although after just a few months I’m wondering why I agreed to be on the board!
I did work a bit and pulled my purple strings and then added some additional strips I cut from scraps for more variety.
I used to keep my strings separated by color in bins but I don’t have enough space for that so now I keep two bins with strings … one with my duller fabrics and then one with the brighter ones for kids quilts. Luckily, a lot of the strings are still in clumps of colors from the last time I did the rainbow blocks so it doesn’t take too long to grab them.
Just 4 blocks were made after the sorting and cutting but now I’m set up to do more over the next few days.
