Since arriving home from Yellowstone last weekend and reuniting with my sewing studio, I have been focused on Jelly Rolls and quilts for the upcoming National Sew A Jelly Roll Day (you can read about it here) on Saturday, September 16th. One of my favorite jelly roll quilt patterns is the Jelly Roll Race which is a great quilt to make when you just want to sew easy especially after working on a mind-numbing project like maybe a Gypsy Wife Quilt. (It's been almost two years since I made mine and I'm still in recovery mode). I designed a variation of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt called Jelly Roll Charm Chase which combined a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line together and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here).
Prior to this pattern being published, I already made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilts several years ago and the Autumn Woods was the second one I made. This quilt is different from the Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilt pattern being I did not use a charm pack for this quilt but instead 4.5" cut squares of the same fabric from the same line of Kate & Birdie's Autumn Woods fabric. This quilt measures 60"x68" which is a little shorter than the pattern because only two additional strips were added for the border instead of four strips. I made this top several years ago and for some reason I didn't like the way it turned out which can happen when you make a Jelly Roll Race Quilt. But sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, because after finally quilting and binding it, I really like the quilt now. It's perfect for the season and will look nice on the living room couch.
Autumn Woods was lightly quilted with only quilting on each row so it's very soft and cuddly which I like. It's the first large quilt I machine quilted on Hazel, my new Juki HZL F600 sewing machine. I'm not too happy with the way Hazel handled the quilt, there was some drag and fabric pushing resulting in some re-basting, but I sure do love the serpentine stitch. I'm also not use to quilting on a small harp space and maybe Hazel would do better with just baby or smaller quilts.
One of the reasons why the quilt top languished in the studio is I couldn't decide on the backing which for me sometimes takes longer than picking fabric for the top because of my indecisiveness if the fabric used for the backing might be needed for a future top--it's sort of like a commitment issue. After agreeing and commenting on a blogger's post that making pieced backings was not one of my favorite things to do, I found myself making a pieced backing, in fact, I ended up making three pieced backings that week. It's still not one of my favorite things to do although it is a great way to use up the fabric stash.
Here's a sneak peek of a new Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt I'll share on next week's post. I've already finished the top and should be ready to start machine quilting this weekend. The backing is ready to be sewn and this time there was no commitment issues.
Last week I shared some photos of my Backseat Sewing Studio project and thought I would post photos of all the blocks made which were two small runners and 18 blocks. Just a reminder these were sewn driving to and from Yellowstone and not during because I did not want to miss any of the scenery. Sadly, I think we're done traveling for the year except maybe for visiting my son and his family who live four hours away. We may be traveling with our two dogs: Dewey will be sitting in the front seat next to Hubby and Sophie will be in the back seat with me and there is no way she is going to let me sew, my arms are meant for holding her.
I'm still not ready to update my Minus 100 Yard Challenge but I will say after the next calculations, my total is going to look pretty good finally. I still can't believe I did not visit one quilt shop during vacation.
I'm linking up with:
My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday
Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?Busy Hands Quilts: Finish Or Not Friday
