In honor of Spring Cleaning lets clean up some of our stash with one of my favorite new patterns, the Easiest Ever Jelly Roll Quilt. We were given this pattern by our Moda rep to use Moda’s precut Jelly Rolls (2 1/2 x WOF strips). I decided to make up one with some of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics from my stash, so I just cut my own 2 1/2″ strips. The pattern calls for one Jelly Roll, so you would need 40 strips. WARNING: YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE JUST ONE QUILT! Once you see how much fun this is, you will be searching out every Jelly Roll you can find! PS. Check out Moda’s newest website: www.modabakeshop.com for lots of other great patterns that use their Bake Shop line of products.
Easiest Ever Jelly Roll Quilt
1. Sew each 2 1/2” strip end to end with a diagonal seam.
Note: Jelly Rolls cotain 40 strips so this will make one continuous strip approximately 1600” long! Don’t worry too much about fabric placement. There’s no way to judge which fabrics will end up next to each other.
2. Trim seams to 1/4” and press in one direction.
3. Cut the first strip off approximately in the middle and discard the loose end. Trim the selvage off the 40th strip.
4. Here’s the hardest part of the whole quilt– bring the two ends together rights sides together with no twists in the strips. Sew the long sides together. Your strip will now be 2 strips wide and about 800 inches long!
5. Clip the folded end so that you can open the strips and press the seam in one direction.
6. Again, bring the short ends together, sew the long sides right sides together, clip the fold and press.
7. Repeat step 6 until you have 32 strips in width. Notice that each fold cuts the strip length in half and the seams become much easier to sew!
8. Optional: add a 6 1/2” border.
9. Layer your quilt with batting and backing, quilt, bind, enjoy!
Optional:
Use matching charm squares or additional yardage, appliqué simple shapes onto the quilt.
To enlarge the quilt, use an additional Jelly Roll to add on. Simply measure the quilt top to get the proper length, sew several strips together to get enough strips of the right length. Add this border to the opposite sides of the quilt, sewing across the ends of the original 32 strips.
Katie Hennagir Designs 
Thank you so much for the Easiest Every Jelly Roll Quilt pattern. The first time I sewed this pattern I had so much fun, that I did not stop until I finished the quilt top, including the border. I was so excited to see the out come, which I loved!
It is a great way to make a fast gift, use Bali Pops, and clean up ones stash. Thanks to you, I now cut up left over pcs into 2.5 inch strips to use with this pattern.
Thank you, keep them coming!!
Hugs and Stitches,
Donna in Montana
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it. I have loads of scraps and stash and this quilt would take care of lots of them!
Thanks again!
I saw this pattern before I left for a Retreat in Montana in October 2009. Many of the Ladies there were a little confused about what I was doing until they saw the results the next morning. Yes, I sewed all night to finish the quilt top & the results were just beautiful. It inspired several other Ladies to make the same quilt using their own Jelly Rolls. What fun we had! I’m still being asked for a copy of the pattern. Thank you for such a great idea that is very simple & gets rave reviews all the time.
My friend made this Saturday, and I can hardly wait to make one, too.
I especially like that the seams get shorter as you progress. That never happens!
What Kay said! I just saw this and haven’t it this yet, but I have a jelly roll and I’m stoked.
I just made one of these quilt tops tonight using an Australiana Theme jelly roll. It looks fabulous. I love it…..Can’t decide whether to put a border on or just quilt and bind…..Thank you, it was so easy. Deb
Thank you for the directions. I purchased two packs of civil war print jelly rolls at the Ohio State Quilt Expo in Columbus, Ohio. I plan on using this sewing technique to make quilts for my son and son-in-law!
You are welcome! This pattern is great for using all types of fabric!
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Can you sew the seams straight across? I am nervouse about sewing on an angle.
Yes you can! I have used both methods. Good luck!
I just finished this quilt in 4th of july fabrics and loved it. For backing I am using” kaufman ” Patriots and the Declararion of independence…Can’t wait.. Thankyou Kathy
How many 40″+- length strips should be used to make what finished sized quilt? I used 16 for a baby quilt, and I know 40 would make a huge quilt. Any ideas on how many to use for twin, full, queen,king. I know I can always add borders or take a strip off one side or the other.
Hi Christine, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. 40 strips makes a quilt that is about lap size. Every quilt turns out a little bit different size depending on how many times you fold the bottom up to the top. I’ve never tried to figure out the math for larger sizes so I don’t have an exact amount of strips to recommend. But you could try this: start with the 40 strips and start to make the quilt like you were making a lap size. But, stop when you get to the finished width that you want for your bed. Then measure how long the quilt is. Subtract that amount from the length that you want for your bed and then sew a new “quilt” together to attach to the bottom of the first one and so forth until the quilt is long enough. That may help you gauge how many more strips you will need. Good luck!
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Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
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