After organizing my personal fabric stash recently, I realized I have more fabric than I thought. To help clear out some of the fabric, I made a list of projects in order to use up my stash. As of this moment, I have many quilts in progress or on my to do list. One of the first bundles I pulled from my stash is a Smoke and Rust jelly roll. I have been wanting to make something with this for a while. Initially, I was going to make a jelly roll rug, as I thought the more neutral colours of this collection would make a great rug. After unrolling the strips of fabric, I decided to make a throw size jelly roll quilt.
I kept this quilt simple, which makes this is a nice beginner quilt. It is also a great way to use any single jelly roll you may have hanging around your fabric stash. This quilt uses one jelly roll, and the finished size of this throw quilt is about 50 inches wide by 60 inches long.
Once I unrolled the jelly roll, I divided the strips into eight groups of five. Each set of five strips is sewn together lengthwise. I chose to organize the strips with the dark and light colours on opposite ends, and the grey and rust strips in the middle.
After sewing all eight sets of strips, it is time to create the quilt blocks. Each set of sewn together strips should measure about 10.5 inches by 42 inches (width of the fabric), which can be cut into four 10.5 inch square quilt blocks. You will have 32 quilt blocks once all eight sets of strips are cut into 10.5 inch squares. This quilt only needs 30 quilt blocks, 6 rows of 5 blocks.
With all of my quilt blocks cut, I organized them into six sets of five blocks. To create the layout of this quilt, rotate every other quilt block. If the strips of the first block are horizontal, place the next block with the strips vertical. This will create a rail fence quilt pattern on the quilt.
Hopefully you are not like me, and you double or triple check the quilt top before quilting. I realized after I started quilting that I attached two rows of quilt blocks the wrong way, and it kind of screwed up the pattern.
Normally I use quilt cotton for my backing, but I wanted this quilt to be a little cozier. I found a great black and grey buffalo check flannel that coordinated really well with the colours of the quilt top.
Originally I had planned to do a grid quilting pattern, but once I started quilting I felt that would take too long. I wound up just doing straight lines a 1/4 inch along the seams of the vertical jelly roll strips. I am happy with my decision as I like how the quilting turned out.
Despite the error made when sewing together the quilt blocks, I am loving this quilt. The flannel back makes it feel warm and cozy. It is going to be a great blanket for the couch.