As I mentioned previously, I’ve been wanting to make a very large quilt for using outside. We often sit in the backyard in the afternoons, and keeping B from eating grass, dirt and rocks is a full-time job. I usually end up spreading out every quilt we own. Many or most of them are quite small, and folding up ten quilts every evening is a little annoying. Plus, there are always holes between them which she exploits. Enter the Kona jelly rolls. Kona makes two jelly rolls, sunrise and sunset.
Sunrise:
Sunset:
I’d seen some very simple striped quilts on pinterest. For example, here’s a link to a dirt simple striped quilt by Red Pepper Quilts. It’s merely a bunch of solid strips sewn together, but it’s beautiful. I thought that perhaps I could sew the sunrise and sunset strips together side by side and make a very nice quilt. Each strip in a jelly roll is 2.5 inches by 44 inches. The sunrise and sunset roll ups each contain 43 strips. Therefore, I figured if I sewed all the sunset strips together and all the sunrise strips together and then laid them side by side, accounting for a 1/4 inch seam allowance, I’d end up with a quilt 86 inches by 87.5 inches – a very large, square quilt, about queen size in fact.
Before sewing – I wasn’t thrilled with this:
I commenced sewing them together in batches of ten:
They look really cool on the music stand.
Laid out the way I envisioned the quilt:
I do think they look considerably better laid out above. However, I think either group makes a very nice quilt. I’m not sure they make a great quilt together. (A single group is 43″ x 86″ or so – not a great size for a quilt. A twin quilt is 65″ x 88″.) Then again, this isn’t destined for the Louvre or even a friend or our own bed. I’m just looking for something we can sit on outside. Some options are:
1.) Sew together as is
2.) Sew together as is but with a strip of white or gray or denim or yellow fabric between the two sides.
3.) Chop lengthwise (such that every cut would run through 43 colors) and divide into six strips. Sew the ends of the strips together and shift the starting point so I had six strips of 43 colors, one starting with purple, another with blue, another with pink, and so on. Sew the strips together. A variation would be to separate the six strips with a solid piece of fabric (like #2) in some color.
The major downside to #2 and #3 is that I would have to order fabric, but I’ll probably end up ordering fabric to back this quilt anyway, so that’s not the end of the world.
4.) Make two twin quilts. Add solid fabric on either side, width 10.5″. Keep the bluer one for L (since she loves blue) and give the other one away. I don’t really know a lot of people who I could give a twin quilt to, though. It’s kind of an awkward size if you don’t actually sleep in a twin bed.