the OG jelly roll race

in the midst of all the quarantine/bingo jelly roll racing, there was on that sat alone and neglected in my closet, waiting to be finished up and brought to life.  that almost sounds like a Pinocchio "real boy" situation, but it's pretty accurate am i right?

in 2017, i received my first jelly roll EVER after being part of maker monday for awhile, since it was handed out on the year celebration of the maker monday gang.  i was a few months behind from the original start date, but i love a good oprah-esque celebration.  "you get a jelly roll!  you get a jelly roll! EVERY-BODY GETS A JELLY ROOOOOOOOOOLL"

it was a shades of orange and yellow batik jelly roll, so it sat for a bit, waiting for the perfect idea.  and it sat... and sat... and sat some more.  in the following year or so, angelina hosted a jelly roll race which i had been dying to participate in.  i used that batik jelly roll plus a few strips to make it the full 42 to make this popsicle of a quilt. as far as the race goes, i finished in second place.  using batiks for my first one in a race setting proved difficult, since there is no true front or back side.  that meant there was quite a bit of ripping and resewing seams to get them in the correct direction for that first end to end seamline.  once it was done, it just went in the closet and sat.  quilt tops were folded on top of it as they came in and out, but this beast sat around.that is, until quarantine 2020 hit and i had a LOT of time on my hands during a wave of unemployment.  after i pulled lots of other things here and there, i ended up back at this beast and decided it was time to finish it up.

the back was pulled from inherited yardage, with a chunk added in to make it work.  or so i thought.  well, stay tuned for that info at the end.  when i went to long arm it, i found this feathery pantograph that was a perfect reflection of the prints in the fabrics themselves.  it quilted up pretty quickly, and the more i looked at it, the more i liked it more.  as i was trimming it up at my parents, i nearly convinced myself to keep it once it was bound.  i started calling it the mushu quilt, since it was orange and blue, just like a certain cat that inspired this blog title/logo art.after squaring it up and everything... well, just trimming the edges really... i think it is still a little lopsided... the hunt for binding was on.  at this point, i was willing to take anything that went with these colors, and on a trip to joann's, found this yellow batik that went quite well with it.  i suppose i could have gone for a scrappy binding, but that would have required even more of a fabric hunt!  after photographing this quilt, i left it with my parents to be donated to their church's humanitarian aide, since i really don't NEED another quilt... yet.  at least i will have this blog post to look back at, should i ever need to reminisce about the mushu colored jelly roll quilt.  well... mushu is kind of a jelly roll in himself

for the fun of it, and since i'm still trying to figure out this whole quilty video/vlog style of stuff, i recorded the quilting process of this as well.  check it out here:

i think my next video (once i get through what i have) will be more of a complete start to finish of a quilt.  i have a few baby quilts i haven't even done the pattern or fabric selection for, so that might be a fun start, especially since i work at a quilt shop now!

pattern: jelly roll race
quilt count: 134