Jelly Roll Race Quilts

You might remember that I won the “Left, Right, Centre” game at last year’s guild Christmas party and ended up with a hotchpotch of 120 jelly roll strips in every colour and pattern imaginable. It only took me a day or two to decide what to do with them – since they were all so mismatched, a Jelly Roll Race quilt felt like the perfect solution. I had never made one before, but I knew of the pattern, and plenty of instructions are available online.

I actually finished two of the tops right away – they were done before New Year’s! The third one, however, had to wait until summer, but as soon as I wrapped that up, I quilted all three of them. I also finally found a method for binding quilts entirely by machine that works well for donation quilts. For my own quilts, though, I’m still a bit picky and will probably always take the time to stitch the binding down by hand – I’m just not fond of the flat look that machine binding tends to create. My trick is to use a decorative stitch instead of a straight one. There’s a lovely curved stitch on my machine that meanders over the binding edge, making any irregularities on the back less obvious.

All three quilts have been donated to a local charity, the Ann Davis Transition Society. One of our guilds regularly provides them with quilts, and I know from past deliveries that they try to give as many quilts as possible to the children who come seeking shelter with their mothers. Supporting this effort means a lot to me.