Wednesday, July 11, 2007

What's on my mind


One thing that's (still) on my mind is pink fabric. Somebody linked to this Freshcut fabric - which I've been eyeing for ages, anyway - at On the Farm Quilting for $7.49/yard. Which is, what, about a dollar cheaper than it is most places? So of course I bought several.

Another thing on my mind is jelly rolls:

Holly Jolly jelly roll

like this one from the Fat Quarter Shop.

The thing is, I have yet to buy a jelly roll. Thirty dollars seems awfully expensive - that's 75 cents a strip! was what I kept thinking. Then I did the math. 40 strips - I'm assuming they're selvage to selvage, can somebody confirm that that's actually used one? at 2-1/2 inches a strip means you're getting 100 inches of fabric, or a little over 2-3/4 yards. And that comes out to $10.80 a yard, which isn't at all outrageous. (Bearing in mind, for one thing, that the going price for fat quarters comes out to $10 a yard.) I don't know about you, but I can't cut selvage-to-selvage strips with absolutely no waste. And of course you're getting all these different fabrics, too! So I have changed my tune about jelly rolls, a bit.

The other quilting thing that's on my mind is a little sensitive - I'm afraid of hurting the feelings of somebody that's made one of these quilts. But I'm going to say it anyway. I just don't get the popularity of patterns like Yellow Brick Road and Turning 20. They're not all that incredibly cute. And I'm thinking, why spend money on a pattern for something that... random? I would rather just come up with it on my own. But then I'm not really a pattern-oriented (or for that matter, direction-oriented) person anyway, and I know a lot of people are. And some people aren't comfortable coming up with their own pattern. I guess it's just one of those things you have to chalk up to differences in the way people's brains work!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just bought that exact jelly roll, but I have yet to use it. I was going to play around with what can be done with strips and how big of a quilt top can be produced with them. Just as an FYI.

I'm not a Turning 20 kind of gal either. But the quilts can be quite nice with the right fabrics. I think beginners and people looking for a quick project (ie: don't have time to do the math, or don't own EQ) buy them. They are sure are popular patterns.

The Calico Cat said...

I had the same thoughts about Jelly Rolls...

Re: YBR & the like - I have the pattern & have used it - for me it was a good get out of the not sewing funk project. Simple more play than work... I can mix in fabrics without really worrying about value & color/fabric placement.