11 Sew the rows together, again pinning at all seam intersections. Press well.
QUILTING AND FINISHING
12 Your quilt top is now complete. Make a quilt sandwich of the quilt top, the wadding (batting) and the backing. Quilt as desired and then bind to finish.
13 To make a scrappy binding, cut each of the six jelly roll strips allocated for the binding into four pieces, mix them up and sew them together into a continuous length, making sure you do not sew rectangles of the same fabric next to each other. (Six strips is rather tight, so feel free to add a bit extra.) Now make your double-fold binding.
Neapolitan
For those familiar with our patterns, you will know we normally use ‘just one jelly roll’ for each quilt design. We are ringing the changes with this quilt as one jelly roll wasn’t enough! This is a classic Trip Around the World design brought up to date with subtle shades of aqua, pink, green and yellow, designed by Tanya Whelan. You need four similar sets of sixteen strips for each of the four quarters of this quilt, otherwise you might lose the distinct design. We used four identical jelly babies (twenty jelly roll strips in each baby), which was absolutely perfect, but two jelly rolls will work. You need to sort them a little more but artistic licence can be used. If you press your seams as we have suggested, there really is no need for pinning, as your seams will butt together nicely.
Vital Statistics
Quilt size: 64in x 64in (162.5cm x 162.5cm)
Quarter quilt size: 32in square (finished)
Number of blocks: 4
Setting: 2 x 2 blocks
Requirements
Two jelly rolls OR four jelly babies OR eighty 21⁄2in strips cut across the width of the fabric
A scrappy binding can be made from excess jelly roll strips
SORTING THE FABRICS
Divide your jelly rolls into four sets of sixteen strips, ensuring each set has similar colours. Each set will make one quarter of your quilt. Using four identical jelly babies is easier as you know you have four strips of each fabric. Spend some time deciding in which order to sew your strips together. To assist in your decision, note that strip 1 will be the top left corner fabric – we used aqua. Strip 15 becomes the centre fabric of the quilt, surrounded by strip 14. Strip 16 (orange) is the only fabric that has a full ‘round’ and has no repeat.
Reserve seven of the spare jelly roll strips for a scrappy binding.
MAKING THE QUILT
1 Once you have decided on the order of your strips, sew strips 1 and 2 right sides together down the length. Then sew strip 3 to strip 2, making sure you sew in the opposite direction. This will prevent your strip unit bowing. Continue to add strips until all sixteen strips are sewn together. This will make one quarter of your quilt.
2 Press each seam in the opposite direction to the next seam. This is very important as it will ensure your seams nest together nicely.
3 Once pressed, fold the strip unit right sides together and pin strip 1 to strip 16, lengthways. Sew together to form a tube.
4 Lay the tube flat on your cutting mat, carefully making sure there are no folds anywhere, and then cut the tube into sixteen 21⁄2in segments.
5 Taking one 21⁄2in segment, unpick the seam between strips 1 and 16.
6 Take the next segment and unpick the seam between strips 1 and 2. Then take the next segment and unpick the seam between 2 and 3. Continue to do this with all sixteen segments, keeping the segments in the correct order, as shown in the diagram.
7 Sew the rows together to form a block (which is a quarter of the quilt). As your seams are pressed in alternate directions, they will butt together nicely. You may wish to use a few pins at the seam intersections to start with, but we found after a while that it was unnecessary to pin. Press seams in one direction, as shown.
8 Repeat the process to make three more blocks like this.
9 Rotate the four blocks so they make the pattern shown in the diagram. Sew the blocks together, ensuring the seams match. You may have to re-press and pin a number of seams so they butt together nicely. When all seams are sewn, press well.
QUILTING AND FINISHING
10 Your quilt top is now complete. Make a quilt sandwich of the quilt top, the wadding (batting) and the backing. Quilt as desired and then bind to finish.
11 To make a scrappy binding, cut each of the seven jelly roll strips allocated for the binding into four pieces. Mix them up and sew them together into a continuous length, making sure you do not sew rectangles of the same fabric next to each other. This is now ready to make your double-fold binding.
EXPLODING
Stars
Our Starlight Express quilt, from our first book Jelly Roll Quilts, has been a firm favourite with everyone. We love playing around with the Lone Star design, and using some stunning fabrics from Alison Glass we have created this Exploding Stars quilt. Only one jelly roll creates this large quilt. However, you do need lots of background fabric so make sure you choose one you love.