Pantograph

After completing the Jelly Roll Quilts, another donation quilt was waiting to be finished. This was my ‘leaders and enders’ project, inspired by my friend Renate’s idea of alternating light and dark fabrics to create this pattern. Sewing time was limited over the past year, so finishing this top took a little longer than expected. But once it was finally done, I quilted it right away, and it has since been donated to the Ann Davis Transition Society. And, of course, I have already started on the next one!

Whenever I post one of these quilts, people ask about the pattern. There actually is no official pattern – the large squares are simply 4 inches, seam allowances included. From this starting size, you cut them in half to create rectangles and into quarters for smaller squares. I have written a bit more on how to put it together in this post.

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.