Christa’s Quilt Along 1.1 – The Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt Supply List

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Geo Pop Update!!

This design would look fabulous using one strip roll from any of my fabric lines. I’ve recolored it below using Geo Pop!

Jolly Jellyroll quilt in Geo Pop by Christa Watson

The Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt

Do you love precuts but have no idea what to do with them? Are you tired of quilting by check and want to make your own quilts from start to finish? Do basting and binding a quilt scare you? Then come join me for a quilting adventure and I’ll show you how to finish your own quilts yourself, and hopefully help you build the confidence to do so!

With my Quilt Along series I will post step-by-step tutorials showing you exactly how to make a quilt from beginning to end. My first project is this super simple Jolly Jelly Roll quilt.

Scroll to the end of this post for the schedule. You can also share it on Instagram with the tag #christaquiltsqal.

Sugar Sweet Jolly Jelly Roll QuiltI designed this quilt in EQ7 using fabric swatches Bonnie and Camille’s Vintage Modern collection. However, it will work great with any jelly roll!

Vintage Modern Fabric Swatch Vintage Modern Jelly RollLet’s get started! Below, I’ve posted a supply list as well as the quilt’s vital statistics and a few notes.


Suggested Supply List

  • 1 jelly roll, or 40 fabric strips measuring 2 1/2″ x WOF (width of fabric – usually 42″)
  • 1 yard of coordinating solid or tone-on-tone fabric for the inner border and binding
  • 3 1/2 yards of fabric for backing, or a pieced backing measuring approximately 60″ square
  • 60″ x 60″ piece of batting (Warm-N-Natural cotton and Legacy wool are my favorites.)
  • 100% Cotton neutral thread for piecing (I like Superior Threads Masterpiece)
  • 50 weight 100% Cotton or 30-60 wt soft polyester thread for quilting in a blending color
  • Quality sewing needles for piecing and quilting (I use Superior Titanium Needles)
  • General sewing supplies: sewing machine, rotary cutting equipment, pins, seam ripper, etc.
  • Optional: Machingers quilting gloves, basting pins, walking foot

Quilt Vital Statistics

  • Size: Approximately 51″ x 51″
  • Finished Block Size: 4″
  • Number of Blocks in Quilt: 100 (set 10 x 10)
  • Number of Blocks in Border: 45

Go gather up your supplies and follow the links below for some fun sewing!

Additional Notes About This Quilt

1. Fabric selection is easy: just choose a jelly roll that you like and pair it with a nice solid fabric, or a tone-on-tone print that “reads” as solid. This will help break up the busy-ness of the quilt design. The same fabric will also be used for the binding.

2. Do not be afraid to machine quilt this quilt yourself. For this pattern, I will be quilting using a walking foot only and leaving my feed dogs engaged as normal. I will not do any free-motion quilting on this quilt; instead I will show you how much lovely texture can be created with either straight stitching or using a decorative stitch on your sewing machine.

3. I am very generous when figuring out yardage for my quilts. For example, you can probably get away with only 3/4 yard of fabric for the inner border and binding. And, with extremely careful measuring or basting, you may be able to get by with just 3 yards for the backing. However, I always round up just in case of fabric shrinkage or mis-cuts. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Besides, anything leftover is like “free fabric” for your next quilt!


Week 1 – Supply ListJolly Jelly Roll Quilt

Week 2 – Sewing the Blocks

Week 3 – Completing the Top

Week 4 – Backing and Basting

Week 5 – Machine Quilting

Week 6 – Machine Binding to Finish


Sharing is Caring

I’d love to see your version! Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂

33 thoughts on “Christa’s Quilt Along 1.1 – The Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt Supply List

  1. Louise cress says:

    Christa I been reading you blog an I like ur questions an answers planning on making a quilt before long got the flue now but have enjoyed your space thank you –Louise cress to

  2. Kathy says:

    Could you perhaps cut the 2 1/2 strips into fourths for even more variety in the blocks? That way you would potentially have only two repeats of each version.

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  4. Michele Fetter says:

    Very pretty. I have some jelly rolls. I think I’ll use my AccuQuilt and cut some lights and give this a whirl. Thanks for sharing your pattern.

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  7. Gayle Ballinger says:

    Hi Christa! I found you through Google, searching for a fun JR quilt pattern to use a JR of Gabrielle that I had picked up on a sale. I have it started, but haven’t been able to blog recently (for some reason I don’t blog much, despite good intentions!) but when I do, I will link back to you. I know the QAL is done, but, as with the quilts themselves, your tutorials will be forever. Have you ever considered submitting some of your things to something like the Moda Bake Shop? I think they would be a big hit. I am new to quilting and appreciate how much info there is available online. I am really looking forward to FMQ, but finding it hard without a table flush with the sewing machine.

  8. Tara says:

    Gee, I just found this site and got excited about your quilt. I think I can do it! Can sew but have never quilted. So far, my strips are cut and I M ready to see them together.

  9. Rayya Mahan says:

    Christa I’m a begginer, but Im a seasoned sewer, I did well on my first quilt until I could” stipple. I used my machine stitch on my Viking. I still wanted to stipple, I tried patterns, 2 dvds and a teacher I just could’nt stipple Finally my third quilt I said I want to use my machine stippling is to difficult and I like my machine stiches . So I got on line and found your beauiful quilt !

    • Christa says:

      Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions as you make it! You can also post pictures of your progress on my flicker group at Christa’s Quilt Along 🙂

    • Christa says:

      Yay for Holly! You are going to have fun making this quilt! All of the blog entries have been posted and my my quilt is finished so you can work at your own pace 🙂

  10. Kathie says:

    I’m looking forward to working on this quilt. I have a jelly roll of Leaf Haven by Benartex. I loved the fabric but wasn’t quite sure what I’d do with it. I’m thinking of using the Layer Cake I also have for the backing.

    • Christa says:

      Love the idea of a layer cake for the backing. It should be big enough. I used one recently for the back of my Bungle Jungle modern quilt that I’m working on right now.

  11. Laura says:

    I am looking forward to this! I just sorted through my stash. I calculated twenty-eight (28) 2-1/2″ strips. Does that sound right? I don’t want to cut too much. Thank you!

      • Christa says:

        Laura, I’m glad you’ll be joining us for this fun quilt! I will be using a whole Jelly Roll which is 40 strips. This is for 2 reasons – 1. I cut each of the strips in half first to give more variety before sewing them together. I calculated the measurements based on 8 – 4 1/2″ cuts per full strip which will take about 37-38 strips total for all the blocks, including the border. 2. I’m going to use any extra block pieces to add a touch of modern flair to the back!

    • Christa says:

      Fluffy, that’s fantastic! It’s great to use what you have. Don’t worry about the coordinating fabric yet. Next week we will be sewing the strips and cutting them up into smaller chunks. The “solid” framing border will come later.

  12. Christa says:

    To those of you following along: I haven’t decided on my coordinated yard of solid yet – I’ll wait until next week after I’ve started sewing the blocks to see what speaks to me. Then I’ll let you know my choice on my next blog post.

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