Jelly Roll Sew Along - Week 4

Here are the final instructions for the Willow Weave jelly roll sew along!
As I mentioned in my previous post - you can sew your blocks across horizontally, but I preferred sewing these rows vertically. It was much easier to press all of my seams in one direction after chain piecing them into long rows. So here are my single rows.
Odd rows - all seams pressed UP, Even rows - all seams pressed DOWN.

Each row below the woven band is made up of 9 blocks.
TIP: to keep the rows in the correct order, I took clear tape and wrote the numbers 1 thru 10 with a sharpie. Then I stuck them to the first block of every row.

Once I had all my single rows sewn - I began sewing them into pairs.

To finish the section below the band I continued sewing all my rows together. Then I repeated this same process with the 2 vertical rows above the woven band.
Now my quilt is in 3 Pieced Sections.
Notice the placement of the woven band. The pieces don't interlock perfectly with the rows above and below it.

You can leave it like this and sew your quilt together - BUT if you FLIP your woven BAND row over so the last block is now first - look what happens. The rows will interlock perfectly.

Here is a close up of the band row sewn to the top section of the quilt. (sorry for the crooked picture below)

Now you can visually see the woven band lines running across the width of your quilt.

To complete the quilt you will sew the TOP, Middle and Bottom sections together.
(I pressed the seams away from the band section)

Here is my finished Quilt.

I'd like to thank everyone that joined in and look forward to seeing all the fabulous quilts you've made.
Please share them in our Link-Up below.

I will be away 2 different weeks next month due to the July 4th Holiday and a scheduled vacation. So our next Sew-along project will take place in August. (details coming soon)

every quilt tells a story...

Jelly Roll Sew Along Week 3

Are you ready to WEAVE..????
OK ladies here we go, but first my apologies for posting so late.
It wasn't until after 3pm that the logical part of my brain realized it was Wednesday.

Please do not start sewing until you've read ALL of my instructions!
You may (or may not) decide to omit certain steps!

Gather up your blocks and be amazed at how simple this is to lay out. There is only ONE rule, and that is you must remember to flip your blocks every other row. All of the odd rows starting with 1 will have the middle weave pointing RIGHT. All of the even rows starting with 2 will have the middle weave pointing LEFT.
.

For those making this using my Jelly Roll instructions - you will place 10 blocks across in every row. You will have a total of 12 rows. (10 x 12 = 120 blocks)
For those making a QUEEN size using stash fabrics you will need to make your quilt 14 blocks across by 16 rows. (14 x 16 = 224 blocks)
Here is how rows 1 and 2 look all laid out. Notice the direction each row points in.

Continue laying out all of your rows of blocks. Be sure to do this when you have some quiet, free time. This took me a couple of hours to lay them all out to my liking.

Oops, did you notice something missing???? That would be Row 3.
It's the row that I added my little woven "band" design.
I like Baskets that have this little accent woven into them. But if you do not - then simply omit the next step and continue making your Willow Basket without one. My feeling won't be hurt - honest! ;)

Adding the woven band row/row3:
Gather your blocks for this row and stack them so the middle weave is pointing RIGHT. (odd row sequence) You will also bring out your 2 piece sections you made from square print fabrics and rectangular background fabrics.

Cut the 2-1/2" x 6-1/2" sections in half to measure (2) 1-1/4" x 6-1/2" pieces/pairs.

Sew your strips to the top and bottom of each block as shown below.

Now that you've added your band sections to these blocks you will sew them across into a finished row. Please note: This is the ONLY row of blocks that we will be sewing across/horizontally.
Here is what this row will look like. (the band sections will look even narrower when the rows are sewn together)

TIP: to align the seams flat when sewing, I pressed blocks 1,3,5,7,9 in one direction (up) and blocks 2,4,6,8,10 in the opposite direction (down).

And here is the row back on my design board along with the rest of my pieced quiltlets/blocks.

The plan is to finish sewing our rows together next week to complete this quilt. This weeks assignment is approximately 4 hours of work.
However, for those of you who wish to forge ahead I will give you a bit of early instruction.
The rest of this quilt is assembled in VERTICAL rows. I have a picture below showing a space between them so you can see that you will be sewing long tall rows rather than across horizontally.

You will have (2) block rows x 10 across the top of the quilt, the woven band row (already sewn) and 9 block rows x 10 along the bottom. (If eliminating the woven band row you will simply have 10 vertical rows of 12 blocks to sew. I will post clear, details instructions next week for the final assembly. (and much earlier in the day this time)

Remember the OMIT part I mentioned earlier?.. it also applies to the assembly. Remember I said only 1 rule, well I meant it. If you decide to move ahead and prefer to sew all of your rows ACROSS/horizontally, that is fine too! lol

every quilt tells a story....

Remember to add your link here once you post some progress on your blog:

My Jane Quilt is headed to Vermont for the show!

My Dear Jane quilt has just taken her first big "journey"!
She left yesterday for The Vermont Quilt Festival where she will be part of the Celebrating Jane Stickle exhibit, curated by Brenda Papadakis.

I was SO nervous about mailing her away that I asked my son to drive me to the drop off center. LOL
We've been thru a lot together Jane & I.
She has been the most intensely challenging AND rewarding quilt experience of my life.

I've shared pictures of my Jane flimsy on my blog before.
I'll post pictures of my finished quilt once it's hanging at the Exhibit in Vermont. But for now, I'd be more than happy to flip a corner over for a special peek at the bottom right corner.

My quilt is titled "A Modern Day Jane". I'm dedicating it to my nieces who bravely served in Afghanistan & Iraq during war time.

I am so grateful for the many wonderful quilter's I've met along this journey. I look forward meeting many more Janiacs in the future!

every quilt tells a story...

June Jelly Roll sew along Week #2

Last week we cut out ALL of our pieces for this quilt. This week we will be sewing our blocks. These are fabulous for speedy chain piecing because every block is stitched in the same identical manner.
The entire quilt is made from 1 simple 6-patch block pattern. (with a simple twist to be announced next week)

Here we go.... keeping your rectangle units in sets, begin chain piecing (1) 2-1/2" background square to the RIGHT side of each of your print fabric rectangles.(right sides together)

Once I reach the end of my set, I will cut my tail thread from the machine and begin chain piecing a new set. You end up with multiple piles of "chained" sets.

Cut apart one of your chains and press your 2 patch pieces. (I press toward the rectangles)
Repeat this process for each of your chain pieced sets.

Remember the 4 jelly roll strips you grouped together?
From them you now have 36 rectangles.
Randomly mix them up and group them into sets of 3's.
Chain piece these the same as the units above.

Now you are ready to sew your blocks together. Easy as A,B,C.
Units A and C will have the square to the right of the rectangle. Unit B will have the square to the left.

TIP - I also chain piece my units for each set so as not to forget to flip unit B to the left. Here are units A & B sewn together:

Next add unit C to finish the block.

Your blocks should measure 6-1/2" square... however, in a previous "test run" I've had a few quilters tell me that their blocks measured 6-1/2" across/wide but only 6-1/4" down/long.

This was due to sewing along pinked edges of jelly strips that may/may not have measured exactly 2-1/2" wide.
So if YOUR blocks measure 6-1/2" x 6-1/4" it is OK!.

As long as the width measurement of ALL your blocks are the same and the length measurement of ALL your blocks are the same your block size will work just fine with this pattern.

Continue sewing and stacking your block sets together.

Once you have finished all of your block sets, you will take out your (10) background rectangles and (10)print squares. Again, sew the 2-1/2" square to the RIGHT side of each rectangle. Press open and set aside for next week.

You will now have a total of (120) 6-patch blocks and (10) 2-patch units.

Special Note: If you wish to make this quilt QUEEN size like Julianne - then you will need a total of (210) 6-patch blocks and (14) 2-patch units.
That means you would need to start with a total of 630 print rectangles, 14 print squares, 630 background squares and 14 background rectangles. (further instructions will follow next week)

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! Next week we begin our assembly process.
Once you've posted your progress be sure to link up below so we can stop by for a visit.

every quilt tells a story....

WEEK ONE of Jelly Roll Sew-Along

OK Everyone...it's time to bring out those Jelly Rolls.(or stash bins)
This week we will be cutting out all of our fabrics.

Please note that the TIPS I share below are not Rules you must follow - just helpful suggestions that have worked for me.

TIP #1: To avoid a lot of identical fabric "match ups" when sewing the quilt top together - create "sets" of similar blocks by grouping your fabric strips together.

I did this by grouping my Jelly Roll into 12 sets of 3 fabric strips
and 1 set of 4 fabric strips. Choose fabrics for your groupings that contrast or compliment each other. But really anything that looks pleasing to you will work. Just try to avoid grouping all darks or all lights together.

Please note: This is an important step BEFORE cutting:
Open all of your Jelly roll strips so they are laid out in a single long strip. - NOT doubled onto itself.
(I stacked my long strips 3 and/or 4 high to cut multiple layers of fabric all at once.)

From EACH of your Jelly Roll strips you will cut:
(9) 2-1/2" x 4-1/2" rectangles and (1) 2-1/2" square.

You should now have 360 rectangles and 40 squares of assorted print fabrics.
(These totals are the same for those using their Stash bin fabrics)

From your background - cut 24 strips of fabric 2-1/2" wide x wof. Subcut into (360) 2-1/2" squares and (10)4-1/2" x 2-1/2" rectangles.(I left my background strips folded in half when I measured and cut my squares and rectangles out)

You will only need 10 of your 2-1/2" print fabric squares for this quilt. Pick out your ten favorites and set them along side your 10 background rectangles.

That's it for this week!
Be sure to share a picture of your fabric selection in this week's Link-Up below

How to use Linky - enter your blog url in box #1
Enter your blog name in box #2, scroll down and enter your picture in box #4.