The Jelly roll rug

I first saw the Jelly Roll rug at Quiltcon in February. Moda owns the name Jelly Roll for a bundle of 2.5″, width of fabric, usually about 45 of them, from one line. It started popping up all over the internet. Basically, a flat rope basket, made from fabric and batting. I don’t like using precuts, but since I picked up this Jellyroll on sale, I decided to jump in. I also bought the precut batting, cutting the batting myself would be a pain and a waste of time. On the quilting retreat weekend I did buy the die for 2.5″ strips from a fellow quilter who had two. I tried using that on the batting, still a lot of work. Like most precut packages, this consists of a number of colorways from a line of fabric. I usually find that completely boring. Now that I have the die, I may cut up some of my own fabric….There is a pattern for sale with the instructions. There are also many people on YouTube who share basic information on to do this. It’s pretty much a very large rope basket.Clover clips are a must, here I am creating the rope. Sewing the rope together. I used a topstitching needle. One of the instructions were for a jeans needle, I didn’t have one, but Top Stitching is a pretty big needle. I also used some Common Threads thread. I had bought it a few years ago and I hate it. Sure it’s cheaper than Aurifil or Gutermann, but it’s thick and sheds lint like crazy. My machine, newly back from the dealer didn’t like this thread at all, so I just threw away whatever other spools I had. Roll it all up in a ball, so that it doesn’t get too tangled. I did have to stop and untwist. Going around in circles created a lot of twist.Then it is zigzag around and around. I tried keeping the rope taut on the straight edge and slightly eased in the fabric on the curves so it would stay flat.The end result wasn’t perfect, I’m sure it will be just fine underfoot.A perfect spot, in my kitchen.