jelly roll mania!

It shouldn't be a secret that my favorite precut is the jelly roll.  I just love 2 1/2" strips and I keep my eye out for things I can do with them.  My guild is planning a strip swap beginning in January and I'm already cutting from my stash to participate!!  Three of the quilts I've made so far this year were from 2 1/2" strips, all projects from Kim Brackman's books.  And then this past week/weekend I whipped up another quilt from a jelly roll, this time using a prepurchased pattern called Jelly Girl from Fig Tree Quilts:

This started out as one of those "leaders and enders" projects while piecing Kaleidoscope ... I needed to have something to push through the machine so that I could get up to take all my work to press without having to cut the threads.  Since you start by piecing the jelly roll strips in pairs and then cutting from that, it was so easy and perfect.  I used the Prayer Flag line by April Cornell for Moda.  And I found the most perfect cream colored background while shopping at Schoolhouse Fabrics in Floyd on Saturday.

The quilt went together so easily and my points look pretty good too. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I have one more border to add ... since no one is selling Prayer Flag yardage in my local stores that I can find, I ordered some on eBay and it will arrive within the week.  No, I don't know what I will do with the quilt, but I'm somewhat considering giving it to my great aunt for whom I've been serving as power of attorney, since she was greatly on my mind this last week ... she fell and broke her hip while I was on vacation and I'm told she is now back in the nursing home and doing well.  I don't even think she remembers who I am at this point, but hopefully she would still appreciate a quilt.

I love, love, LOVE quilts using jelly rolls that don't LOOK like they use jelly rolls.  Which is why I'm so anxious to get my hands on this brand-spanking new book by Kimberly Einmo called Jelly Roll Quilt Magic.  I mean look at this quilt ... from a JELLY ROLL!

 And even though I'm hoping *I* win, she's giving away a copy of it on her website - just go comment here.  If I don't win, I'm going to have to buy a copy since I have SO many strips and jelly rolls around here.  I am especially excited after reading the following from the amazon.com review of this book:  "Last but not least, Kimberly experimented using precuts in a Round Robin exchange with international quilting friends. The idea and the results are amazing."  How timely with my guild's exchange scheduled for 2012!