- It's been a while since
I've done a Stashbuster, and viewers keep asking me
to do one with jelly rolls. And you know I love a challenge, so today I have a cool pattern where value does all the heavy lifting, and to qualify to be a Stashbuster, not only do you shop from your stash, it's got to be fast, it's got to be easy, and there's got to be
little leftover scraps. Stay to the end for directions on how to download the free pattern. So stick with me and I'll
show you how to do it. (bright music) Hi there, I'm Karen Brown
from Just Get It Done Quilts. I give you tips, tricks and strategies to help you make the quilt
that you want to make. And if you like what you see,
please support the channel by hitting that subscribe button. This is my 8th quilt in
the Stashbuster series, and the first one where I use jelly rolls. This quilt is perfect for when you need a fast and easy project for a sudden gift, or those times when you
just need a simple project so that you can burn up your stash and take a break from a
more complicated pattern. (bright music) This pattern can be made
several different ways depending on what you have. The finished quilt size is 56 inches by 56 inches without borders and requires 40 with the fabric strips that are 2 1/2 inches wide
and at least 43 inches long. This can be a jelly roll, one that you buy or one that you make, or just 40 assorted strips, which might include old binding strips scrapped with the fabric strips. You can even piece your scraps into strips as long as they are 2 1/2 inches wide by 43 inches in length. And you want to lay them
out in two sets of 20, going darkest to lightest. The easiest part of
working with a jelly roll is this is often already done for you, and you just simply have to
separate them into two sets and take a photo for reference. If you are making a set
with your own strips, organise them darkest to lightest, take a black and white photo, and then make any adjustments you want. You might be asking, "Why
a black and white photo?" It's all about a color's value, which I go into in more
detail in my Colour Series. I'll put a link in the notes below. Then pair the two lightest together, then the next two together,
then the next two together, until you have 20 pairs. Then I mark the fabrics 1 to 20. I use stickers and clips. You can use numbered pins or mark the number on the pins, but if you want you can even use a piece of paper and pin that. (bright music) Take the set number 1
and the set number 20 and make a stack of four strips. Trim the selvage from one side and then cut at 2 1/2 inches. Cut the remaining piece at 40 1/2 inches. Take your marker number 1 and attach it to the smaller stack. Take your marker number 20 and attach it to the larger stack. Then take set number 2 and 19 and make a stack of four strips. Trim the selvage from one side, and then cut at 4 1/2 inches, and then cut the other
strip at 38 1/2 inches. Put the number 2 marker on the small stack and put the 19 on the larger stack. Take set number 3 and set number 18 and make a stack of four. Trim off the selvages and
then cut at 6 1/2 inches, and cut the remaining
stack at 36 1/2 inches. Put your marker number
3 on the small stack and put the marker number
18 on the tall stack. And we are going to repeat
this for the remaining set number 4 and 17, 5 and 16, and so on, and when you are done, you
will have 20 stack sets. Don't worry about writing
down all these measurements. They are going to be in the pattern. (bright music) Take your stack number 1 and lay them out. You're going to have
two light and two dark. Then take your stack number 2. We are going to sew strip set number 2 to the right of strip set number 1. Keep dark with dark and light with light. Then we are going to take stack number 3 and sew them to the left side, and then stack number 4 and we're going to sew
that to the right side. Then number 5 on the left, and
then number 6 on the right. You get the idea. We're going to do this until we get to 20, and it really is this simple. However, you need to sew
straight and iron well so that your block strips are
perpendicular to each other. So let's just pause for a second and review a couple of good practises. Use a ledge. I showed how to make one in my video "5 Sewing Hacks With Masking Tape". And it's really crucial
that the ledge is straight and in the right place. So make a couple of practise
pieces out of your scraps and adjust your ledge until
it's in the right place. Use a leader and sew
right off the end here so that you can chain piece. There are more tips in my
video "How To Sew Straight". And when you iron, set your seams and then finger press, pushing the fabric away from the centre. Remember, no swishing. For a complete description of this method, see my video "A Really
Good Ironing Technique". And for this block, I will alternate using the seam roller on the even seams and ironing on the odd, just to save myself a
trip to the ironing board. Now as you sew, you might be tempted to trim this tail off, but don't. You'll quickly realise
that you need that tail when you sew on the next strip. And just be aware that this edge on the bottom
of this block is on the bias. And to avoid stretching it while you're sewing your blocks
together and quilting it, it's best to stabilise it, and I think the simplest way
is just with a basting stitch. Set your stitch length
as large as it can go, I put mine to a 6, and make a long basting
line just at the edge. Oh, and remember to change
that stitch length back. Ask me how I know. But you could also use tape or iron on interfacing if you prefer. And as you can see, I found it much easier to work all 4 blocks at once, but if you'd rather work on
one at a time, that's okay too. And for this version, you end up with two
versions of the blocks. One pair goes dark to light and the other pair goes light to dark. (bright music) Lay the dark block down with the right angle corner on your right. Lay your light block down on top aligning the right side. Pin as necessary and sew. Then repeat with the other pair. Iron and press to the dark side. On a flat surface, lineup
the long sides of the block so that the seams in the middle nest. Then keeping the block
flat, pin the strips from the middle out to the ends. Sew this seam together. And you're done, and at this point the quilt top measures
56 inches by 56 inches. (bright music) You may elect to put borders on. I do need my quilt to be
just a little bit longer 'cause I have tall people in my family. Because the strips are
all 2 inch wide finish, I decided that my border
should be a multiple of that. So I cut three 2 1/2 inch
strips and made one long strip, and from this I cut two 56 1/2 inch pieces and I pinned and sewed them to the sides. Then I cut three 6 1/2 inch strips and I made one long strip from these. And then I cut two 60 1/2 inch strips, and sewed those to the top and the bottom. (bright music) Unfortunately, there were
almost no scraps leftover at the end of making this quilt. I only had enough to
make this stack of hexis. Funny how shopping from
your stash can surprise you. I dug into my stash and found this flannel and found it had the perfect
colours to match my front. I knew it was there. I purchased it for Christmas gifts that I have yet to find the time to make. I made the back in three pieces. It had a bit of a nap to it, so I cut a 78 inch length, and then I cut another
40 and cut that in half and sewed that to the sides. (bright music) This pattern is perfect for quilting on a domestic sewing machine. Grab your walking foot
and quilt straight lines just following the strips, or do wavy lines, even easier, and work one section at a time. Now you know I have a new long arm, and though I really like this design, it's not easy to do when I only have this amount of working space. So I am using this quilt to
practise my pantograph skills. (bright music) Again, shopping for my
stash is making me dig into fabrics I wouldn't normally go to, but it turns out I had a
fabric that matched the colours and the quilt top really well. This is one of the first
fabrics I ever purchased and I decided to make a
tight 1/4 inch binding, so my strips are only 2 1/4 inches wide. If you did not put a border on your quilt, a 1 inch binding in one
of the darker colours would look fabulous on this quilt. If you haven't watched
my binding series yet, which shows you how to make
wide and narrow binding, I'm going to leave a
link in the notes below. And I am pretty darn happy
on how this turned out. (bright music) I might even make another one. If you want to check out one
of my other Stashbuster videos, I'm going to leave a link here. They burn through your stash, they're fast, they're easy, little or no wastage, and
free to all my viewers. I have this pattern for download along with all my other
Stashbuster patterns on my website Just Get It Done Quilts, and I'll put a link in the notes below. Last week on Karen's Quilt
Circle, I had Jennifer Mahnke, and we were talking about
Quilting for a Cause. I'll put a link in the
notes to that as well. If you liked this video,
please give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell beside
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subscribe to my newsletter at JustGetItDoneQuilts.com. So take care and I'll see you next time.
