“Two Charm Packs and a Jelly Roll”- Quilt Top tutorial

Finished quilt size: 105cm x 185cm, 41,5″x72″

More images here.

Proceed with caution: This is a tutorial for my first ever quilt top and I am by no means an experienced quilter. So keep that in mind and if you feel that you have way more or better information on something than I do or you see glaring mistakes, please say so. All comments, instructions, corrections and help will be welcomed. :)

Ok, let’s get started. Like many beginning quilters (or crafters of any kind) I started my hobby by purchasing materials. Since I was not very confident about my ability to get the right kind of fabrics to mix and match I bought charm packs and jelly rolls which then hung around my crafting room for months. When I was finally ready to pick up my scissors and start getting my fabric prepared for my very first quilt I ran across a problem. I had all these small pieces of fabric but they weren’t really the right size or shape for any quilt pattern I could find. I knew I wanted to try my hand at coin stacks and log cabins but I just couldn’t find the right kind of pattern. So I made up my mind to make one up myself. And here it is, combining both coin stacks and just a little bit of log cabining.

Fabric used: Flutterby by Tula Pink. Some of the images in this tutorial also feature her Full Moon Forest fabrics (I simply adore everything she does). Two charm packs (5″x5″ squares, 40 each, 80 in total) and a Jelly Roll (2,5″x44″/45″ fabric strips, 40 in total). Note: I did not use every single piece of fabric so you can get away with a little less fabric but don’t push your luck. :)

Note 2: All seams are 1/4″.

Cutting your fabric and assembling your blocks:

First, cut all of your charm squares in half. This will give you 160 2,5″x5″ strips. (I suggest that you sew your coin stacks at this point and cut your jelly roll pieces as you start to piece together your blocks.) Arrange the strips in coin stacks of 6 strips each and sew together. Note that each of your 15 blocks will contain 2 coin stacks. Press seam allowances.

Assembled coin stacks

Some of you might note that you will in fact not have enough coin stacks for 15 blocks (and you’ll have some strips left over) but I’ll get to that later.

Next, start assembling you blocks by choosing two jelly roll strips to accompany every two coin stacks. The blocks are assembled in 5 steps:

Step 1. Attach the two coin stacks together with one jelly roll strip (let’s call this fabric A) to create the center of the block. I suggest that you sew the coin stacks to the jelly roll strip first and only then cut the strip to the correct size.

Step 2. Attach the same fabric (fabric A) to the right hand side of your coin stacks by using the same jelly roll strip as for the center. Do NOT cut this strip but leave it hanging. Press your seam allowances to one side at this point (I know it’s a pain but really, the iron is your best friend).

Step 3. Attach the other jelly roll strip you picked for the block (let’s say, fabric B) to the top of the coin stacks. Align the strip with the left raw edge of the coin stacks and sew across both coin stacks and the right edge strip. Cut the strip to the correct length.

Step 4. Attach the bottom edge strip (fabric B). This is a bit trickier than the previous ones so bear with me. First align the raw short edge with the raw edge of the right hand side coin stack where you left the jelly roll strip hanging. Pin in place and mark (red pin in picture) where the righ hand side seam is.

Sew across the bottom of the coin stacks and stop where you marked the seam. Back stitch. Do NOT cut the strip to size yet.

Then let’s deal with the corner. Align the right hand strip and the bottom strip on the wrong side so that they form a continuous edge (see picture). Then sew across the edge to attach the bottom strip to the right hand strip. The seam is a continuation of the seam you made in Step 2.

Step 5. Attach the left hand side strip (fabric B). This step the same as Step 4. Start by aligning the short raw edge of the strip with the raw edge of the bottom strip and continue as with Step 4. When you have finished all seams, cut the bottom and left hand side strips to the correct length. Press all seam allowances.

Repeat this process for all coin stacks. You should now have 13 blocks ready (remember how I told you you wouldn’t have enough coin stacks for 15?). Next you should choose 6 jelly roll strips for the last 3 blocks and put those aside. You will have enough jelly roll strips and leftovers to cut (2,5″x5″) and assemble the 6 more required coin stacks.

Sew together the last 3 blocks, arrange blocks in a pleasing manner and sew the blocks together. Yay! Your quilt top is ready!

There are many wonderful and detailed tutorials on the Internets on how to create a quilt sandwich and how to quilt and bind your quilt together. My quilt is machine quilted “in the ditch” and you can see my quilting lines in the picture below. The tutorials that I used for finishing my quilt are these:

• Making a quilt sandwich
• Quilting in the ditch
• Binding a quilt (pdf)