Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
The jelly roll fabric has an immensely enticing appearance because of its rolled appearance and fantastic color combination. The jelly roll fabric has a host of uses, one of which …
Turn your jelly roll pieces into a one of a kind spiral accent rug for your space. They are easy to make and perfect for beginners.
There is no real "pattern" for creating a jelly roll rug. This HOW-TO tutorial will have you making rugs in all shapes and sizes.
I still have to laugh - one of the gals at a recent All Day Sewing Day was working on a Jelly-Roll Rug. She showed me the pattern and...
Not long ago I saw the cutest projects showing up on social media . . . jelly roll rugs! Well it didn’t take me long to get the itch to make one myself, so I snooped around a bit and discovered tha…
I still have to laugh - one of the gals at a recent All Day Sewing Day was working on a Jelly-Roll Rug. She showed me the pattern and...
The Jelly Roll Rug pattern by RJ Designs has been around for about a year or two. In that time I've seen many beautiful rugs and many no so beautiful rugs. So when I was asked to review the Purple Hobbies Jelly Roll Binding/Batting Tool I was super excited but at the same time scared. Why scared? The answer is simple, AFRAID OF FAILURE. Many quilters/crafters have made some really awful looking Jelly Roll Rugs. And as you know they are a little expensive to make. It wold break my heart(tick me off) if my rug came out wavy or shaped like a bowl. And I didn't want a little rug I wanted the Colossal, the bigger the better! So I took my time, did my research until I felt confident I could make a rug instead of a mess. While my confidence level was high I purchased a PDF pattern directly from the designer, RomaQuilts. Click here to purchase a Colossal Jelly Roll Rug pattern. By the way, it looks like Roma is having a SALE this weekend. I'm in no way affiliated with this shop. I will not receive anything if you click on the links provided. My first tip is to fan fold your strips after they have been sewn together. This will make it easier to feed them onto the batting. When doing the rug research I saw many ideas and tips. The best one was a trash can and a dowel rod. I had both but neither were large enough for my batting roll. So instead I used a laundry basket and an adjustable curtain rod. I think it might work better because the rubber end caps kept the rod from sliding out of the holes on the side of the basket. In the picture below you can see how I had it set up under my sewing table with my foot pedal right up against the outside of the basket. It was a little tight but I could also still use my knee lift. The batting roll wanted to creep to across the rod as it turned so I used a potato chip bag clamp on the rod to keep it from drifting. My research found that many quilters were having issues from the very beginning. The center being the hardest part. Easing in the bulky layers of fabric and batting was quite tricky. So I decided to make a change. That's not a surprise to those of you who know me. It's rare for me to follow any pattern to the "T". The alteration is simple. I cut (2) 3" x 11" pieces of coordinating fabric. Drew a line 1/4' away from the 2 long sides. Used something round to trace a curve on each end. A soda can, veggie can or water bottle will work for the curve. I used one layer of batting. When I make another rug I'll used 2 or 3 layers of batting so it will be thicker and sturdier. Pin and stitch on the drawn lines leaving about a 2" hole for turning. Trim off excess fabric and batting. Turn it right side out, stitch around the outside edge using a 1/8" seam. Then stitch 3 lines of zigzag stitch to give the illusion of Jelly Roll batting strips. Next I needed to taper the end of the strip. The instructions an measurements for this are in the pattern. Again I flew by the seat of my pants and just clipped some off at an angle. Here's a handy tip. Dip a long pin in some glue. I used washable school glue. Now pinch the pin with the glue between the end of the strip. The pin will also help you to push the fold into place. Remove the pin and add a binding clip or paper clip to hold it all together while the glue dries. Next I started adding more clips to close the binding. I let this set for about an hour so the glue could dry. Just enough time for lunch and to check my email. By the time I came back it was ready to be stitched together. You might want to use a stiletto to assist the tiny end through the presser foot. It was a little tricky and it's not so pretty but no one will ever know but you and me. Tuck the small end of the strip under center as shown below. Zigzag stitch until you get to the edge of the next curve. Tack stitches in place and move to the ironing board. Iron your curves before stitching them. Notice the puckers on the inside curve of the pink fabric. You want puckers. I gave this a little spritz of water so the steam could help hold it into place. Pin the curves in place and zigzag stitch in place. Next you'll want to press the entire piece. Pressing is the most important part of making a Jelly Roll Rug. After pressing she looks pretty good. I repeated the same process for about the next 4 or 5 rounds, until I felt I could go around the ends without causing issues. After this I would press the rug about every 3 or rounds. Steam is your friend while making these rugs. I never use steam when quilting but I quickly learned it is necessary to keep the rug flat. Okay the hard part is over. Once you get around those first few rounds it's smooth sailing. My research also uncovered a lot of big balls of strips. This seamed like a bad idea. It looked to me that it would add tension to the strip and cause a bowl shape rug to form. My strip was placed in the laundry basket and set it off to the right of my sewing chair. Notice the pink plastic below. That is pink trash bags. The trash bags were put over my ironing station that is behind my sewing machine. I also moved my old treadle sewing machine cabinet next to me and covered it with plastic. This allowed the rug to slide much easier as it grew. When it started to hang off the edge of the table I would fold it up as shown below. Adjusting it every so often to keep the weight evenly distributed. Below a video to show how I pushed the rug through. Notice I'm not adding a lot of pressure to push the rope against the rug. You want them to just touch. Your stitches will pull it together. The gloves with rubber grippers helped to hold onto the rug and push. I tried it without the gloves and my hands would slip. They also started to cramp up due to trying so hard to grip and push without the gloves. I love my Colossal Rug. So cute! Bake Sale 2 by Lori Holt was the perfect fabric. You can see my Purple Hobbies Jelly Roll Binding Batting Tool Review by clicking here. It made the construction of the rug so much easier! If you use the code PodunkPrettiesJan20 at checkout at the Purple Hobbies Website you will get 20% your entire cart! expires 12/2020 I also made a short video about how to make your rug lay flat on this post, click here. Thank you for stopping by my little spot in Podunk! Pin It
Hi Everyone! Thanks for dropping by. I recently jumped on the bandwagon (yes, I did) and made the Jelly Roll Rug designed by Roma Lambson of RJ Designs original pattern © 2017. I've been secretly wanting to make it for a while, and when I saw one made by Andrea, from our local quilt group, I knew it would be on my list to make in the near future. I asked some of my friends if they wanted to make it along with me, and they were happy to comply, because what is more fun than sewing with your quilty friends!? A big thank you goes out to Katrin, Ines and Andrea for all of your help! I was given this beautiful collection of Indah Pops (batik) from Hoffman Fabrics. It totally is my style with bright solids, colorful prints and black! I thought It was about time to break it out and use for this project. If you are reading this post in hopes of not purchasing the pattern and just "winging" it through the information listed here, you will be sadly disappointed. The purpose of this post is to help you make the best possible Jelly Roll (or 2 1/2" strip) Rug with the original pattern. I want to give you some additional tips for you to succeed, because you probably won't be making this a second time. My first PRE-TIP is for people with allergies. Be really careful with the batting you use. I have allergic asthma and have problems breathing when I work with bamboo batting. I reacted with this batting and my breathing was unfortunately, affected. It may just be a coincidence. We bought the BLEND batting which does not state what the blend is even though it is "organic." I wrote to the company trying to find out what is mixed in, but they haven't answered my email yet. These tips are in no particular order. TIP 1. Fan-fold your never-ending fabric strip!! I overlooked this in the pattern and honestly, didn't know what it meant! Just fold the strips on top of each other like an accordion or ribbon flowing in the wind. If you think it is better to roll them up, you are terrible wrong. But I wouldn't know that, because I just don't do stupid stuff like that! Ha, ha! There was actually so much cuddle-muddle, I blew off steam several times when untangling the ribbon like a Bavarian at a Maibaumtanz. You can also use a meat cleaver or a vertical paper towel holder to hold the batting if you have one. TIP 2. Encase your strips and batting using a scant 1/8" of an inch seam allowance. I used a guided 1/4" presser foot which worked like a dream in this application. I would highly recommend this but find it even better if you use a 1/8" instead if possible. Ines used a 0,5 cm which is still smaller than 1/4". If you use a 1/4" top stitch, this stitch will be visible when butting the strips together and connecting with a zigzag stitch. Even though I increased the width of the zigzag stitch, it was still visible. Since the fabric is expensive, I would personally prefer to see more fabric instead of thread. TIP 3 - Use bold and beautiful prints! Use very pretty and even busy fabric that makes your heart skip a beat. Use the largest prints you can find that you've been avoiding to use for forever. Pull out the Kaffe Fasset fabric hidden deep in your fabric stash. It will work great on this project. Save those solids. If you do use solids, make sure you have a thread that matches the fabric or even invisible (monofil) thread. I wanted to use a variegated thread, but didn't find anything that matched all of the beautiful colors in this strip pack. I decided to be daring and used black. It was very daring! You see everything, especially where I ran out of bobbin thread and backstitched to secure new thread. TIP 4 - When encasing your batting, work in 5" segments with clips. Fold towards the center using the batting as a guide and not the fabric strip. After encasing the first 5" section, go back and clip off in the middle of that section (about every 2 1/2"). Clip off as much of the strip that you can until all of your clips are in use. It makes it more fun to sew when you have large sections clipped and ready to sew. Since the batting will usually be wider (from stretching) than the fabric, use the batting as your guide when quartering and encasing. TIP 5 - Load up at least 8 bobbins of thread. If you can do this, then you certainly should. This project using much more thread than you can imagine. I was a little stunned myself, because I already had about four pre-wound bobbins that disappeared quickly. TIP 6 - Clean out the bobbin area EVERY time you run out of thread. Otherwise you will have tension problems, because there is so much batting and thread from this project collecting there. Take off the presser plate and clean under there and oil the bobbin case as well. TIP 7 - Adjust your thread tension. Make a scrap mini quilt sandwich using scrap pieces of fabric with batting encased, Set your sewing machine to applique zigzag stitch and adjust the tension (less top thread pull) before you start sewing the coil into a rug. You may even need to adjust the bobbin thread tension to get it right. This is crucial. When the tension is set correctly, you shouldn't have to constantly iron this monster. I didn't starch the rug at all. I did iron once in the beginning to get around the first two curves. The iron was turned off after that.Yes, you read that right. I DID NOT IRON. TIP 8 - Use a new 80/12 or 90/14 Top stitch Quilting Needle. Start with this when you start sewing the strips into a ring. Considering how much you sew on this project and how much wear and tear that needle is getting, you will probably be throwing it away afterwards. TIP 9 - Use a quilting table/platform and books to keep the rug level as much as possible. This starts to get bigger quickly and you want to concentrated on sewing together the coil. You do not want to worry about the rug flopping everywhere and you sew off of your seam. When you get a big section of rug in your lap, fold it over slightly onto the quilting table. TIP 10 - Maneuver the rug with your hand and elbow when rotating in the machine. Sorry, there is not photo of this; I was heavily concentrated. : ) Do not pull but rather push and guide under the needle while rotating simultaneously. This whole process reminds me of quilting a quilt. You will get an exercise workout and your shoulders will feel a little tight afterwards. BONUS TIP: After the rug is made, you will have additional strips left over if you use a pre-cut Katahdin On-a-Roll. You can actually make your rug bigger by adding about eight more 2 1/2" strips to the length. Do this before you start to make your coil. I asked my girlfriends what their tips were. Here's their advice: ______ Katrin's Tip: Use an even-feed (Obertransport) foot when sewing. Do not pull or shift the fabric. Ines' Tip: She has an upcoming blog post in German. You can read it here. ____ Rug Statistics: Time making the entire rug: 18+ hours Size: 28" x 46 1/2" Fabrics: One Indah Pops (40) different 2 1/2" strip of Me + You by Hoffman Fabrics Batting: Bosal Katahdin On-a-Roll, 100% Organic Cotton Blend Thread: min. 8 bobbins polyester thread used. Cotton top thread was not counted. Cost: ~90 € without sewing time (in Germany) I am very content with the way the rug turned out. The colors make me smile especially, because they are not in color order! It is a light and colorful rug. It makes a great accent in my sewing room too. If you would like to make a jelly roll rug, I hope these tips will help you to make that perfect rug with your favorite fabrics. If you have any questions or would like to add your own tips below, we all would be very happy to read them. Thank you. Enjoy your weekend. -Quilty hugs, Karen
Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
Great modern & simple strip rugs made with fleece (instead of cotton) and hand-cut fabrics or from bought jelly roll fabrics
I still have to laugh - one of the gals at a recent All Day Sewing Day was working on a Jelly-Roll Rug. She showed me the pattern and I thought she was insane - why would anyone pay money for a Jelly Roll, then spend hours stitching a rug when you could simply purchase one for next to nothing at Target, especially since you were going to throw it on the floor and walk all over it?! (Uh duh, that would be what we do as quilters on a regular basis, now wouldn't it, minus the walking-on-it part?!) The crazy thing was that I couldn't get that rug off my mind! I went home and watched every YouTube video I could find, searched all the hashtags on Instagram, and read everything I could find about tips and tricks in making a rug. I even e-mailed the pattern author! The more I read, the more nervous I was that I wouldn't end up with a rug I was happy with. But finally, I felt like I had gathered enough info and was ready to take the plunge. It turned out great, and I had so much fun making it! And, after all the research I did, I wanted to document it here and share it with you as well. So, here are my Jelly-Roll Rug Tips and Tricks: ~ First of all, you'll need to purchase Roma Lambson's Jelly-Roll Rug pattern. I purchased it from The Old Country Store, the local quilt shop where I teach classes. You can purchase a downloadable PDF from Roma's Etsy shop here, or you can find it online from various shops, ~ This video by Erica Arndt of Confessions of a Homeschooler was the most helpful of the ones I viewed. Thanks, Erica, for filming it! ~ You can use a Jelly Roll or cut 2-1/2" WOF strips from your stash. If you decide to use a Jelly Roll, you can rearrange the order of the fabric strips, but I decided not to over think it and used them in the exact order they were arranged on the roll. I simply decided which strip I wanted on the outside of the rug (usually the darker values look best on the outside). It was so fun to see the design emerge!! ~ Instead of fan folding my pieced fabric strips, I simply let them fall into a small round laundry basket as I seamed them. Then, when pressing the seams, I allowed them to fall into a second laundry basket. ~ I used Warm & White batting scraps and also cut strips from batting yardage instead of the 2-1/2" Bosal precut batting roll. It was a great way to use up all those skinny batting scraps that I've been saving, and it was cheaper too. But, using the precut batting strips will save you some time. My understanding is that the Boasal is not quite as thick, so your rug may end up being a little less substantial. You can also use the 2-1/4" Bosal precut batting rolls that are now available. ~ I did not seam or fuse my batting strips; I simply lapped them, cut them on a diagonal, then butted them up and overlapped them ever-so-slightly. ~ I don't know if anyone has tried using polyester batting, but I would think cotton batting would be the better choice in case you need to steam press your rug to get it to lay flat. Same with using a cotton/poly blend fabric such as vintage sheets - I would not try that until you get the hang of keeping your rug flat without pressing. ~ I used my Juki to stitch the fabric and batting tube; it speedily powered through the thick layers with no trouble whatsoever and didn't require a walking foot! I wouldn't have even considered skipping the walking foot if Erica hadn't mentioned that in her video. ~ If you find you do need to use a walking foot for stitching the tube, try to center the tube under the walking foot so that the walking foot isn't hanging over the tube, and so that the tube is centered over the feed dogs as well. You'll likely need to move your needle over a few notches if you are stitching on the edge of the tube vs. in the center. I used a 3.0 stitch length and chose to stitch a slightly less than 5mm seam (less than 1/4"). I was really happy with the way that looks in the finished rug. ~ I turned the edges in toward the center and clipped as I went along, using no more than five Clover Wonder clips at a time. ~ Again, I allowed the tube to coil into a round laundry basket, even though rolling the long fabric tube into a ball results in a way cooler effect! ~ If you choose to roll your tube into a ball, Clover Wonder Clips in place of rubber bands work great to keep it from unrolling. ~ When it comes time to zig-zag the coil together to make the rug, I would encourage you to make a test swatch and test your stitch length and tension. For whatever reason, I had trouble with skipped stitches using a Denim/Jeans needle on my Bernina until I switched to a Topstitch needle. I only had a size 14 on hand, but a size 16 would probably have been a better choice. Had I taken the time to do a test swatch, I could have saved myself from unpicking a lot of stitches. ~ You'll probably want to change your sewing machine needle at least once if not more during the zig-zag stitching process. Keep in mind you are sewing through four layers of fabric and four layers of batting. I could hear that my needle was getting dull, but I didn't bother changing it because it didn't seem to be impacting my stitch quality. ~ I followed Roma's recommendations on the stitch length and width, and was really pleased with the results. ~ When stitching the first sharp turns, I found a Clover Tailor's Awl to be helpful in guiding the fabric tube and holding it in place. ~ I had planned to use a walking foot, but I felt that I got better results with the dual feed. I did reduce the foot pressure to 25 on my Bernina. ~When zig-zag stitching the coils together, keep your eye on your presser foot and don't look away, especially on the turns! This may sound like a no brainer, but I found myself admiring the rug instead of watching what I was doing, and before I knew it, my stitching was no longer in the center and I had missed catching both sides of the coil, especially when I was going around the curves. ~ A flat bed machine is ideal, but not all quilters have that kind of set up these days. I simply used three plastic Art Bin boxes next to my machine, and that allowed me to keep the rug flat as I was stitching it. You basically can use anything to create a flat surface - books, foil roasting pans, you name it! ~ After seeing numerous pictures on wavy rugs online, I was really concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep my rug flat. But, I had absolutely no trouble. A flat surface was most likely the secret. Also, as soon as the rug starts getting wonky, take it off the machine, spray both sides liberally with Best Press or spray starch, press flat and allow to cool before proceeding. I mixed up a solution of half Stay Flo and half water in a spray bottle, but never even needed to use it! ~ Don't feel like you need to have your machine sitting on a large table. I simply folded the rug as needed while I was working on it. ~ I had a number of thread start and stops, either because I had stitched off course, or due to the bobbin running out. I chose to bury my thread ends (I know, I'm probably the only one out there crazy enough to do that, but it really does make for a nice stitch if you want to take the time to do that.). ~ I was really happy with my decision to use Aurifil 50 wt 100% Cotton Thread. I considered using So Fine polyester thread thinking it would be stronger, but then I was concerned about pressing a polyester thread with high heat if my rug needed lots of pressing. My go-to shade of Aurifil 2021 blended in beautifully. I looove the finished rug! It was such a "zen" project.... I really, really enjoyed working on it. Can't wait to make another one!!
I am sharing 10 free Jelly Roll Patterns with you today that are my favorites from around the internet. Beautiful patterns that aren't complicated!
The Jelly Roll Rug pattern by RJ Designs has been around for about a year or two. In that time I've seen many beautiful rugs and many no so beautiful rugs. So when I was asked to review the Purple Hobbies Jelly Roll Binding/Batting Tool I was super excited but at the same time scared. Why scared? The answer is simple, AFRAID OF FAILURE. Many quilters/crafters have made some really awful looking Jelly Roll Rugs. And as you know they are a little expensive to make. It wold break my heart(tick me off) if my rug came out wavy or shaped like a bowl. And I didn't want a little rug I wanted the Colossal, the bigger the better! So I took my time, did my research until I felt confident I could make a rug instead of a mess. While my confidence level was high I purchased a PDF pattern directly from the designer, RomaQuilts. Click here to purchase a Colossal Jelly Roll Rug pattern. By the way, it looks like Roma is having a SALE this weekend. I'm in no way affiliated with this shop. I will not receive anything if you click on the links provided. My first tip is to fan fold your strips after they have been sewn together. This will make it easier to feed them onto the batting. When doing the rug research I saw many ideas and tips. The best one was a trash can and a dowel rod. I had both but neither were large enough for my batting roll. So instead I used a laundry basket and an adjustable curtain rod. I think it might work better because the rubber end caps kept the rod from sliding out of the holes on the side of the basket. In the picture below you can see how I had it set up under my sewing table with my foot pedal right up against the outside of the basket. It was a little tight but I could also still use my knee lift. The batting roll wanted to creep to across the rod as it turned so I used a potato chip bag clamp on the rod to keep it from drifting. My research found that many quilters were having issues from the very beginning. The center being the hardest part. Easing in the bulky layers of fabric and batting was quite tricky. So I decided to make a change. That's not a surprise to those of you who know me. It's rare for me to follow any pattern to the "T". The alteration is simple. I cut (2) 3" x 11" pieces of coordinating fabric. Drew a line 1/4' away from the 2 long sides. Used something round to trace a curve on each end. A soda can, veggie can or water bottle will work for the curve. I used one layer of batting. When I make another rug I'll used 2 or 3 layers of batting so it will be thicker and sturdier. Pin and stitch on the drawn lines leaving about a 2" hole for turning. Trim off excess fabric and batting. Turn it right side out, stitch around the outside edge using a 1/8" seam. Then stitch 3 lines of zigzag stitch to give the illusion of Jelly Roll batting strips. Next I needed to taper the end of the strip. The instructions an measurements for this are in the pattern. Again I flew by the seat of my pants and just clipped some off at an angle. Here's a handy tip. Dip a long pin in some glue. I used washable school glue. Now pinch the pin with the glue between the end of the strip. The pin will also help you to push the fold into place. Remove the pin and add a binding clip or paper clip to hold it all together while the glue dries. Next I started adding more clips to close the binding. I let this set for about an hour so the glue could dry. Just enough time for lunch and to check my email. By the time I came back it was ready to be stitched together. You might want to use a stiletto to assist the tiny end through the presser foot. It was a little tricky and it's not so pretty but no one will ever know but you and me. Tuck the small end of the strip under center as shown below. Zigzag stitch until you get to the edge of the next curve. Tack stitches in place and move to the ironing board. Iron your curves before stitching them. Notice the puckers on the inside curve of the pink fabric. You want puckers. I gave this a little spritz of water so the steam could help hold it into place. Pin the curves in place and zigzag stitch in place. Next you'll want to press the entire piece. Pressing is the most important part of making a Jelly Roll Rug. After pressing she looks pretty good. I repeated the same process for about the next 4 or 5 rounds, until I felt I could go around the ends without causing issues. After this I would press the rug about every 3 or rounds. Steam is your friend while making these rugs. I never use steam when quilting but I quickly learned it is necessary to keep the rug flat. Okay the hard part is over. Once you get around those first few rounds it's smooth sailing. My research also uncovered a lot of big balls of strips. This seamed like a bad idea. It looked to me that it would add tension to the strip and cause a bowl shape rug to form. My strip was placed in the laundry basket and set it off to the right of my sewing chair. Notice the pink plastic below. That is pink trash bags. The trash bags were put over my ironing station that is behind my sewing machine. I also moved my old treadle sewing machine cabinet next to me and covered it with plastic. This allowed the rug to slide much easier as it grew. When it started to hang off the edge of the table I would fold it up as shown below. Adjusting it every so often to keep the weight evenly distributed. Below a video to show how I pushed the rug through. Notice I'm not adding a lot of pressure to push the rope against the rug. You want them to just touch. Your stitches will pull it together. The gloves with rubber grippers helped to hold onto the rug and push. I tried it without the gloves and my hands would slip. They also started to cramp up due to trying so hard to grip and push without the gloves. I love my Colossal Rug. So cute! Bake Sale 2 by Lori Holt was the perfect fabric. You can see my Purple Hobbies Jelly Roll Binding Batting Tool Review by clicking here. It made the construction of the rug so much easier! If you use the code PodunkPrettiesJan20 at checkout at the Purple Hobbies Website you will get 20% your entire cart! expires 12/2020 I also made a short video about how to make your rug lay flat on this post, click here. Thank you for stopping by my little spot in Podunk! Pin It
Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
Hi Everyone! Thanks for dropping by. I recently jumped on the bandwagon (yes, I did) and made the Jelly Roll Rug designed by Roma Lambson of RJ Designs original pattern © 2017. I've been secretly wanting to make it for a while, and when I saw one made by Andrea, from our local quilt group, I knew it would be on my list to make in the near future. I asked some of my friends if they wanted to make it along with me, and they were happy to comply, because what is more fun than sewing with your quilty friends!? A big thank you goes out to Katrin, Ines and Andrea for all of your help! I was given this beautiful collection of Indah Pops (batik) from Hoffman Fabrics. It totally is my style with bright solids, colorful prints and black! I thought It was about time to break it out and use for this project. If you are reading this post in hopes of not purchasing the pattern and just "winging" it through the information listed here, you will be sadly disappointed. The purpose of this post is to help you make the best possible Jelly Roll (or 2 1/2" strip) Rug with the original pattern. I want to give you some additional tips for you to succeed, because you probably won't be making this a second time. My first PRE-TIP is for people with allergies. Be really careful with the batting you use. I have allergic asthma and have problems breathing when I work with bamboo batting. I reacted with this batting and my breathing was unfortunately, affected. It may just be a coincidence. We bought the BLEND batting which does not state what the blend is even though it is "organic." I wrote to the company trying to find out what is mixed in, but they haven't answered my email yet. These tips are in no particular order. TIP 1. Fan-fold your never-ending fabric strip!! I overlooked this in the pattern and honestly, didn't know what it meant! Just fold the strips on top of each other like an accordion or ribbon flowing in the wind. If you think it is better to roll them up, you are terrible wrong. But I wouldn't know that, because I just don't do stupid stuff like that! Ha, ha! There was actually so much cuddle-muddle, I blew off steam several times when untangling the ribbon like a Bavarian at a Maibaumtanz. You can also use a meat cleaver or a vertical paper towel holder to hold the batting if you have one. TIP 2. Encase your strips and batting using a scant 1/8" of an inch seam allowance. I used a guided 1/4" presser foot which worked like a dream in this application. I would highly recommend this but find it even better if you use a 1/8" instead if possible. Ines used a 0,5 cm which is still smaller than 1/4". If you use a 1/4" top stitch, this stitch will be visible when butting the strips together and connecting with a zigzag stitch. Even though I increased the width of the zigzag stitch, it was still visible. Since the fabric is expensive, I would personally prefer to see more fabric instead of thread. TIP 3 - Use bold and beautiful prints! Use very pretty and even busy fabric that makes your heart skip a beat. Use the largest prints you can find that you've been avoiding to use for forever. Pull out the Kaffe Fasset fabric hidden deep in your fabric stash. It will work great on this project. Save those solids. If you do use solids, make sure you have a thread that matches the fabric or even invisible (monofil) thread. I wanted to use a variegated thread, but didn't find anything that matched all of the beautiful colors in this strip pack. I decided to be daring and used black. It was very daring! You see everything, especially where I ran out of bobbin thread and backstitched to secure new thread. TIP 4 - When encasing your batting, work in 5" segments with clips. Fold towards the center using the batting as a guide and not the fabric strip. After encasing the first 5" section, go back and clip off in the middle of that section (about every 2 1/2"). Clip off as much of the strip that you can until all of your clips are in use. It makes it more fun to sew when you have large sections clipped and ready to sew. Since the batting will usually be wider (from stretching) than the fabric, use the batting as your guide when quartering and encasing. TIP 5 - Load up at least 8 bobbins of thread. If you can do this, then you certainly should. This project using much more thread than you can imagine. I was a little stunned myself, because I already had about four pre-wound bobbins that disappeared quickly. TIP 6 - Clean out the bobbin area EVERY time you run out of thread. Otherwise you will have tension problems, because there is so much batting and thread from this project collecting there. Take off the presser plate and clean under there and oil the bobbin case as well. TIP 7 - Adjust your thread tension. Make a scrap mini quilt sandwich using scrap pieces of fabric with batting encased, Set your sewing machine to applique zigzag stitch and adjust the tension (less top thread pull) before you start sewing the coil into a rug. You may even need to adjust the bobbin thread tension to get it right. This is crucial. When the tension is set correctly, you shouldn't have to constantly iron this monster. I didn't starch the rug at all. I did iron once in the beginning to get around the first two curves. The iron was turned off after that.Yes, you read that right. I DID NOT IRON. TIP 8 - Use a new 80/12 or 90/14 Top stitch Quilting Needle. Start with this when you start sewing the strips into a ring. Considering how much you sew on this project and how much wear and tear that needle is getting, you will probably be throwing it away afterwards. TIP 9 - Use a quilting table/platform and books to keep the rug level as much as possible. This starts to get bigger quickly and you want to concentrated on sewing together the coil. You do not want to worry about the rug flopping everywhere and you sew off of your seam. When you get a big section of rug in your lap, fold it over slightly onto the quilting table. TIP 10 - Maneuver the rug with your hand and elbow when rotating in the machine. Sorry, there is not photo of this; I was heavily concentrated. : ) Do not pull but rather push and guide under the needle while rotating simultaneously. This whole process reminds me of quilting a quilt. You will get an exercise workout and your shoulders will feel a little tight afterwards. BONUS TIP: After the rug is made, you will have additional strips left over if you use a pre-cut Katahdin On-a-Roll. You can actually make your rug bigger by adding about eight more 2 1/2" strips to the length. Do this before you start to make your coil. I asked my girlfriends what their tips were. Here's their advice: ______ Katrin's Tip: Use an even-feed (Obertransport) foot when sewing. Do not pull or shift the fabric. Ines' Tip: She has an upcoming blog post in German. You can read it here. ____ Rug Statistics: Time making the entire rug: 18+ hours Size: 28" x 46 1/2" Fabrics: One Indah Pops (40) different 2 1/2" strip of Me + You by Hoffman Fabrics Batting: Bosal Katahdin On-a-Roll, 100% Organic Cotton Blend Thread: min. 8 bobbins polyester thread used. Cotton top thread was not counted. Cost: ~90 € without sewing time (in Germany) I am very content with the way the rug turned out. The colors make me smile especially, because they are not in color order! It is a light and colorful rug. It makes a great accent in my sewing room too. If you would like to make a jelly roll rug, I hope these tips will help you to make that perfect rug with your favorite fabrics. If you have any questions or would like to add your own tips below, we all would be very happy to read them. Thank you. Enjoy your weekend. -Quilty hugs, Karen
These are the 5 Mistakes that I made while working on my jelly roll rug quilt project. I'm sharing in hopes that you'll learn from seeing my mistakes!
Let's discuss the 5 most common questions I get about my Jelly-Roll Rugs! Clover Fabric Tube Maker: https://shrsl.com/46isq Patterns: https://rj-designs.net/ Virtual Sewing Classes:...
There is no real "pattern" for creating a jelly roll rug. This HOW-TO tutorial will have you making rugs in all shapes and sizes.
This fun scrappy quilt is quick to put together and great for beginners. Use lots of different colors to keep it bright and fun…or just a few colors to keep it calm and simple. Finished Size: 36" x 41" 1. You’ll need to cut 27 color strips 2" x width...Read More
Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
10 Fabric Jelly Roll Projects to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing I love jelly rolls - both the food and the fabric varieties, but in this case I'm referring to the fabric version. Jelly rolls were created by a company called Moda. Other companies create them too, but you will find that they won't call them jelly rolls since that name belongs to Moda. Either way, jelly rolls are simply strips of pre-cut 2½' x 42' bits of fabric and you usually get around 40 strips in the pack. Pre-cut means that you don't have to sit there slicing up
These are the 5 Mistakes that I made while working on my jelly roll rug quilt project. I'm sharing in hopes that you'll learn from seeing my mistakes!
Ready for a fun sewing project? Here's a free pattern that you're going to love! These Jelly Roll Trivets are so handy to have around and are so easy to make! These trivets can be made using jelly roll precuts. The color possibilities are endless! Make some to match your home decor or make some
Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
Jelly roll quilts are a popular and easy way to incorporate your favourite fabric into a useful and decorative project. The pre-cut strips are an economical way to get started and are ideal for qui…
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These are the 5 Mistakes that I made while working on my jelly roll rug quilt project. I'm sharing in hopes that you'll learn from seeing my mistakes!
Learn tips and tricks to make a beautiful and colorful jelly roll rug. All you need is some precut batting and a jelly roll of fabric!
I am sharing 10 free Jelly Roll Patterns with you today that are my favorites from around the internet. Beautiful patterns that aren't complicated!
