Several months ago i taught my church quilting group how to 'do' the 1600 inch jelly roll quilt. We had a great time! The first week we spent cutting up 2 1/2" strips - I man-handled my Studio cutter (named Phil Collins for Stu-Stu-Studio) to the church and I must have spent 4 hours cutting lots and lots of fabrics. The next week we all came and sat and stitched these wild and crazy quilts. It is just so much fun with us all working, laughing, chatting. The ladies have made some fabulous 1600 quilts and I have some of them here that I'll be quilting in the near future. Anyway, my daughter Emily recently told me of a friend of hers who was a student at SCAD and discovered that she has some sort of cancer of her kidney. She had to move back to Florida to be with family and deal with chemo treatment. And she is only 19 years old. Emily asked if I could make her a quilt, and my 1600 inch unfinished top came to mind. So I've spent the last 4 days finishing it up for her. And it's now off of Max and ready to finish the binding - I actually sew the binding down to the front as I'm quilting, so all that needs to be done is the hand-sewing to the back. These pictures are of the quilt draped over Max ... big big big quilt! I used the Circle Lord Swirls on this beauty. And the strips run north/south. I think I used more than 1600"!!! And the back is pieced with fabric I had on hand. I'm really liking a pieced backing!
I actually used all my own 2 1/2" strips from my strip box. When I finish a project, I automatically cut 3 1/2", 2 1/2", and 1 1/2" strips from the remnants and throw them into my strip boxes. I just pulled out what I thought would look good (mostly florals and pastels) and started sewing. And I know I used a great deal more than 1600" of fabric. I just kept sewing until I thought I had enough for a good size quilt. Sometimes I'll be piecing a quilt just for the fun of it, with no thought to whom this quilt will go ... and somewhere down the line, God will speak through that quilt. And by Emily's request, I knew that this would be Rebecca's quilt. When I can, I'll get full on pictures but for right now just enjoy this marvelous quilt and say a prayer for Rebecca.
