Turning circles with our Jelly Rolls!

Jelly Roll Week is here!!!! Cruise over to MSQC and partake in the goodness that will be coming for us all! We should start getting jelly roll ideas later to day or tommorrw! If you don't yet have a jelly roll the daily deal is here to help us all find fantastic deals on jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs, patterns, etc. and word has it that soon there will be a free charm pack available on the daily deal site with only the $5 shipping to pay for your entire order!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win my "Broken Breakfast" mini quilt by commenting on any of my "Jelly Roll (end of the) Week" posts and/or blogging about them for more entries! The giveaway is open till September 20th! So comment away and share the fun! One entry per comment, One entry for blogging, only one of each kind per post!
Sew many entries! Sew little time!

Of course, while your here enjoy a quick tute of a fabulously fun, little circular rug!

Supplies~

1 yard of Textured of base fabric
1 yard of Heavy upper base fabric
approx. 44-2.5" strips wof or Jelly roll strips
Basting spray


I'm gonna talk base fabric first. I chose random fabric that I simply had in my stash and I have a lot of random fabrics! I chose something textured for the bottom as this is likely going infront of a dresser in my daughters carpeted room. I chose a denim for the top because I had it, it was sturdy for light traffic, and it was dark so hopefully it will not look dirty to quickly.
You may choose whatever fabrics you like for your base.
You might consider
a piece of canvas,
or heavy drop cloth,
or a light, thrifted rug
(though I would try to avoid anything to thick for sewing purposes and without a plastic bottom.)
The idea is that it will be completely covered anyway!

Making the base~

Fold your fabric square into fourths and stack both pieces. Using a push pin and a length of ribbon that reaches from the folded corner to the raw edge pin the ribbon down to the folded corner of the fabric. Stretch the ribbon across and holding the ribbon and pencil to swing across the edge mark a quarter circle on the top layer of fabric

Use this as a guide to cut through all thicknesses of your base fabrics.

Lay your base circle's out right sides together with the wrong side of the heavy layer on the top. Pin around the edge and sew together leaving a small 4"-6" opening for turning.
Spray the wrong side of the heavy upper circle with basting spray and turn the base piece right side out smooth the circles out immediately so the basting spray can hold it correctly in place.

I did my fabric in circles of receding sizes. If using an actual Jelly roll I would reccomend a spiral pattern instead do this by simply curving in slightly as you aproach the end of the circle you are working on and continue following the edge never finishing a circle round till you reach the center. I recommend this because of the lack of matching fabrics in a typical jelly roll. Spiraling justs give a more scrappy look.

Add your ruffles~
Start by ironing your strips in half lengthwise and trimming the selvages from your jelly roll strips.

Sew your strip down as close to the outer edge of the upper base layeras you can (less than 1/4" from the edge), finger ruffling it slightly as you go.When you reach the end of one strip simply add another by butting the 2 raw edges together.

My outer row took approx. 4 1/2 strips.

If spiraling simply curve inwards slightly once you have made a full circle to the next row. If you're doing full color circles finish a row by ruffling your fabric and trimming it to meet the beginning of the row you were working on and doing a small backstitch.

Then simply scoot in and add another row. When you add your inner rows pull the ruffles from the outer row away from the fabric strip you're working with and line up the edge of the new strip with the sewing line of the first to get your placement spaced right. Continue in this manner adding circles or spiraling inward till you reach the center. For spiralling simply curve till you get there do a little backstitch and your done!
For circles you will take a scrap of one of your strips and using pinking shears cut out an approx. 2.5" circle. When you reach the center there should be a hole about the size of a quarter left to fill. Place your 2.5" circle directly over this space and do a little backstitched X in the center!
Hurray we're all done!

These are super cute and fun for a kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom depending on your jelly roll :)

Candied flowers for my sweet!

I love jelly rolls and can't wait to see all the quilt projects the Missouri Star Ladies have come up with! Jelly Roll Week officially starts at the MSQC on the 13th!

Until then we will enjoy my little group of collected Jelly Roll projects and today we are making a versatile little jellied flower.

Perfect for little girls hair, a trendy sweater, or as I'll show you today children's clothing embellishments.

Supplies~

Jelly roll strip atleast 20" long

a round marking tool

Take your 2.5" strip and mark on it 5 scallops using your marking tool

Unless you are using a water soluble marking pen I would suggest marking on the back of your fabric. You'll want the rounded edge of your scallops atleast .25" from the top edge of the strip and the points between scallops should meet .75" -1" from the lower edge leaving plenty of room for the gathering stitches and closure.

Next using a highly contrasting thread color free motion stitch along your marked line twice.

don't let this free motion stuff scare you I'll show you a close up of mine

That's my good one, I like the wavy stitching it looks sketched on and cute, below is a bad one. My stitching got a little too wavy :)

You'll want to keep your fabric pretty stretched and taught as you do your free motion stitching. Because it's a single layer of fabric it will cinch up pretty tight if you don't keep it taught. Some cinching is ok as you can see :)

After you've double stitched the petals you'll need to trim off the excess by cutting close to the outer edge along the stitching. Do not cut through the stitching.

Along the straight edge sew a long basting stitch

Gather the flower as tightly as possible without breaking the threads, tie them off, and trim them.

Gather the petals right sides together with the gathered end sticking out the back and whip the end together to tighten the center hole.

Using a button large enough to cover the center raw edge sew down to the flower making sure all the center raw edge is well hidden.

Tie it off in the back.

It's now ready to apply to whatever project you have in mind!

I'm keeping mine mobile at the moment. It's simply pinned inside the pocket of these pants.

But I'd love it attached to a little head band or clip in my girls hair!

Keep in mind that these are not very washer friendly and while the double stitching will help them last they are only a single layer of fabric and are fairly flimsy so if attaching to clothes I would suggest pinning it or lightly tacking so it can be removed for washing. You could attach velcro to the back of the flower and to the article of clothing for a more permanent yet washable plan. Hehe, just brainstorming!

Jelly Roll (end of the) Week giveaway!

I'm really enjoying these jelly roll projects but also thinking that you guys might enjoy it a little more if we bring it closer to home for you!

I'm thinking I want to giveaway a couple of things during this

"Jelly Roll (end of the) Week"!

If you'd like to be entered just leave a comment on any of the posts during "Jelly Roll (end of the) Week" (which goes September 9th till Sunday the 13th) That includes posts previously made starting with my It's Jelly Roll Week Somewhere post. Every comment recieves one entry you are allowed one comment per post. Unless you want to tell me that you blogged about this and then you will be allowed one additional comment and so you get an extra entry for blogging! Yay! Extra's just for doing what you love to do anyway!

The giveaway will be open through the week following "Jelly Roll (end of the) Week" and will close Sunday, September 20th to allow more time for people to comment!

Would you like to know what you're entering to win?

I thought so,

I'll be sending some lucky person the Designing Happy Original mini quilt "Broken Breakfast" from the previous post, along with a few other something's I have lying around.

(I happen to have several little FQ's layin' around...

just saying :) )

If you don't want to wait feel free to check out the tutorials, jelly roll thoughts and fun, and maybe make your own!

So the tutorials are ready for you whenever you are!

Broken Breakfast!

Today's jelly roll project comes fresh from my little head.

This is my "Broken Breakfast" wall hanging.

I'm loving it! It's a mixture of regular and raw edge applique over a quilted background and so easy! As you wash this little wall hanging each applique strip will develop a soft fringe on one side for added texture! So cute!

My directions will give you a finished wall hanging of approximately 11x17

After all the trimming down :)

supplies~

12" x 18" piece of background fabric

14" x 20" piece of batting

14" x 20" piece of backing fabric

10 ~ 12" x 2.5" strips of fabric (applique)

approx. 60"+ of 2.5" fabric strips (binding)

Notes on choosing your fabrics ~ I stuck with 2 colors but feel free to choose a rainbows worth! If you're using a Jelly roll you will probably need 3 colors for the applique and you'll need to find 2 matching strips for the binding.

Start by quilting the background! Yay don't you feel like you're almost done already!

I simple did straight lines lining the presser foot up with the edge and then along the previous stitching line. These don't have to be perfect in fact considering the wonky nature of this project having your lines veer a little is a good thing!

When your finished trim you batting off if desired (I did mainly because I didn't want the extra bulk and my batting was slightly sticky from the use of a basting spray. By the way, first time I've used basting spray and I love it!)

Now it's time to break up your breakfast!

Tke those lovely little 12" jelly roll strips and lets make them wonky!

Lay your ruler over your strips making sure that you don't get any closer than 3/4" to the thinnest edge. I used the ruler to measure one end and the mat to make sure the other end didn't get closer than 3/4" Feel free to cut these strips a few at a time this helps your angles to not all be exactly the same.

This next step isn't strictly necessary but I laid out a few of my strips just to get a feel for what I was doing and the order of the chaos :)

I'll tell you what I saw when I did this, I saw that I wanted some pairs of fabrics and some singles, I took note to make sure I had wide and thin ends randomly on each side, I also wanted to make sure I was brave enough to have them be at odd angles! :D You might also note at this point that the straight cut edges are all to one side, these will be sewn down. The pinked edges also all face the same direction, these will be soft edge appliqued.

Next clear your quilted background and choose the placement of your first strip.

With the right side facing down against the quilt top stitch the strip down at .25" along the straight edge.

Iron to set the seam them flip your strip over press again and sew it down .25" from the raw edge. You just finished appliqueing your first piece!

continue adding strips taking care to make sure you put your strips on facing the same direction and not to sew over the raw edge parts of the strips.

You can see me here checking to make sure that my .25" seam allowance won't over lap my raw edges.

Sew the next piece down and continue in this manner over lapping is fine and great just make sure you over lap on the sewn edge. If you start at the bottom and go up this is the easiest way to get over lap. Starting in the middle like I did I found that going up overlapping was easier and going down making the background space between each was easier. (This is assuming that the raw edge hangs down) So, depending on which look you want more of I might recommend choosing your end and working straight across.

When you're through adding strips you'll have something to this effect.

Trim your edges

and prep your binding strips

Sew the binding on and voilá!

You've got a lovely little doll quilt, wall hanging, or heck at these dimensions it could be a place-mat or a table runner for your end table!

Enjoy!