Hi, here we are at the Missouri Star Quilt
shop, and for all of you who bought a Binding Tool, I have something really fun for you.
This is one of those light bulb wake-up moments. Look at this darling French Braid Quilt, or
Friendship Braid, I'm sorry. We got this pattern out of this book called "Jelly Roll
Quilts" by Pam and Nicky Lintott. We really love this book and we love the Friendship
Braid, and while looking at this Binding Tool I realized that it is the perfect template
to make a friendship braid. It'll be a little wider than that, but it will be a friendship
braid and I want to show you how we did it. So, come on over with me to the table. OK so the friendship braid is made with a
template that looks just like this. The one in the book is a little bit shorter but for
all those of you who bought this tool, how awesome that it has two uses. Now when you buy a Jelly Roll of course you
know it all blends and it all goes together, and it would be darling in any Jelly Roll
that there is, but what you want to do is unroll your strips, and right here we have
a Jelly Roll strip and we're going to cut off this selvedge end right here. The selvedge
is the very edge where it has the little holes and the fabric finish part. We're going to cut that off and then we're
going to bring our Binding Tool and we're going to lay it right on the Jelly Roll strip,
or any 2 ½" strip. Then we're going to go ahead and cut this, like this. I think
that made a cut, lets make sure. Nope, just a sec. More pressure! There we go. So, now we have that one and we'll move
this tool over and we'll make another one right here. So, this is going to be the perfect
sized template for making a Friendship Braid. OK, so what
we did while doing this, because Jelly Roll strips come faced together, it gives you one
pointing each direction. So, now that you've cut your Jelly Roll
strip, we're going to lay it out in a Friendship Braid. You're going to start with your one
piece and you can start either direction, but I'm choosing to start this way. You'll
lay this on here, and stitch this down, and fold it over. And you're going to
put your pieces, you're just going to keep attaching to this same straight side, making
sure that your angles are lined up, and sewing together. So, we're going to put these different
pieces in. Make sure you get your right angles to your right angles, I can only seem to pick
up the ones that have the same, there we go! Alright, so then we're here. See how that's
taking shape? It looks a little odd, but it actually really works because when you get
it done, you're going to cut this part off right here, and you'll cut the bottom off,
so, you'll have straight long columns of this Friendship Braid, and it just
makes a darling quilt. Particularly, when you use a themed Jelly Roll like this Christmas
one, or a Fall one. We love the new "Saltbox" and the "Awesome"!
It just makes a really fun Jelly Roll, you can sash in-between, or you can just run them
smack right next to each other. It's a really, really quick and easy fun new pattern, and
if you have the Binding Tool, you have a template to make this Friendship Braid. This is another
Quick Tip from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
