moda holliberry alexandra tote

i'm in love with this bag, but i'm not going to lie... it has a funny backstory.my boss asked me one friday night if i had any plans after work.  being the year 2020, obviously not...  my only plan was to sew, but i was intrigued to hear what the offer was.  tayva asked me if i would be up for sewing a new sample bag to go with some sew by number battings we had in stock for our live show that weekend.  with a handful of jelly rolls to select from, and a quilt shop at my fingertips, i selected moda's holliberry jellyroll for my exterior and a cut of grunge for my bag lining.  my apologies now, i forgot to write down which shade of grunge it was...
but let me tell you, it was fabulous.
the hardest part of this bag was deciding the layout of the strips.  overall, it used about half of a jelly roll, which allowed for a lot of variation between the two sides of the bag.  i started with one consistent middle red strip, and worked the rest of the colorways out from there.  when it came to the other diagonal on the bag, i tried to keep them matching the best that i could so it would be cohesive on both sides.the process of sewing the bag was super easy.  spray baste the lining to the solid side of the batting.  then, once that is flat and good to go, select your strips and lay them in the numbered rectangle.  sew, and then repeat.  apparently i wasn't supposed to iron it until the very end, but you know... rules are meant to be broken sometimes.  no quilt police were called on me either, so that's a plus.speaking of breaking rules...

i totally didn't understand how the pattern wanted me to do the straps, nor did i end up with 2 matching jelly roll strips to do it the way i thought it was saying.  so i flubbed it.
i pieced together the straps from some of the lining/binding fabric (grunge) with one of the jelly roll strips i really liked but didn't have enough for two straps.  i then folded it around the batting strip as well as the webbing that was included and stitched down the center to close up all the seams.  i also did a top stitch on both edges to help finish it off and really hold it together.
it may not have been what the pattern said to do, but i love it.given that this was a question that was posed before i left the shop, i didn't really have time to analyze what color of thread i would need, since the inner quilting would be visible.  i did not have the right shade of gray AT ALL, so i decided the next best thing would be a bold, contrasting red.  and i was right!  it adds a little bit of festive-ness to the inside and really helps the binding on the edge pop.  the pattern also says that you can leave the inside edges raw or zig zag them, but after talking to tayva about how she did her batik sample, i went ahead and made a sort of binding for that as well.  i much prefer the clean (yet slightly wonky) look that it gives without having white batting peep out against the gray.

go figure, i don't have any photos of that though...

i really enjoyed how quick this project was, and the instant gratification that came from finishing it in about an hour or so!  i can't remember if i had a show or movie playing, or if i ended up listening to a podcast... but it didn't take long at all.

this would be a great project for beginners, since it gives you all the numbers of what way to sew the strips on and everything.  

would i do another one?  absolutely.

i've already oogled halloween rolls and thought about how cool they would look, or even some of the other fun june taylor bag patterns caliquiltco carries.  wouldn't it be a super fun gift bag?  or trick or treat bag?  i was also thinking of how cool it would be for a baby shower gift, filled with diapers or other necessities.

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

stashbust jelly roll race

so on the great quest of quarantine stash busting, i decided to see if i could task myself to come up with a 42 strip set equivalent to a jelly roll and complete a timed jelly roll race.  with our guild's 4 week long bingo, we've had quite a variety of different tasks to do, and this week we had a square to watch a jelly roll rug or race tutorial.  having done a jelly roll race in the past, i watched 3 of missouri star quilt company's jelly roll race videos on youtube and then decided to make it happen.
i went through my stash, generated a somewhat cohesive color palette of fabrics i already had (lots of stars... you can tell it's my fabric!) and got to chopping.  42 strips later, we had our faux jelly roll ready to go and i decided to film the entire thing.
first, here is the pull of fabrics.  also as proof that YES there are 42.  as i was zooming along sewing, it seemed like there wasn't 42 at some point... but once i got past a certain point with fabrics... i absolutely realized there most definitely was.
the last time i did a jelly roll race, it was just over an hour.  and that was even with all my mistakes using batiks and having to seam rip things because it got mixed around.  so this time, i also asked the internet what they would think it would take me.  i got responses from 55 minutes to upwards of 5 hours.  boy i cannot imagine sewing for 5 hours straight.
now the fun part.  since i recorded it all, you get to watch it!
don't worry, i sped up the sewing part like crazy
here it is!
in the end, as mentioned in the video, it took 1 hour and 10 minutes to sew.
since i had shut my door to reduce noise and pulled the blinds to eliminate weird outside light, i basically killed all air flow in to my room, which made it MUCH hotter in there.  ack. 
also... WHY DIDN'T I PUT MY HAIR UP?!?!
i feel like time was lost every moment i had to swish my bangs out of my face.
next time... all these details will be fixed.
this jelly roll race quilt will be donated once quilted, but in the meantime, here's a peek at what it looked like (beyond what you see in my lovely video skills)
do you feel challenged yet and ready to do your own jelly roll race?
I DARE YOU!
should i do another video post?
what kind of things should i record? more sewing? puzzle making? lego building? underwater basket weaving?  just kidding... the pool is closed, so i can't do that one.