My First Quilt – Part 2: Fabric Choices & Firsts

As I mentioned in my introduction post, for my first quilt I’ve chosen the Snapshots quilt from Elizabeth Hartman’s The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker. Rather than using the white on black prints I was hoping to find something a bit more colourful, but I also wanted to keep it simple because I tend to be terribly indecisive.

Using the alternative fabric suggestions in the book, I thought an easy way to introduce a range of fabrics would be to use a Jelly Roll. While there are so many beautiful prints available even that was too much to think about so what I’ve chosen to use is a rainbow solids jelly roll, this one is Kona Cotton Solids – Classic Palette. In a quilt of firsts, this was the first time I got to crack open a Jelly Roll and oh my… it was gorgeous! Even the lint it left everywhere looked delicious (sprinkles anyone?).

Kona Cotton Solids - Classic Palettemmm sprinkles

The Jelly Roll was paired with Kona Cotton in White, I bought yardage for that and sliced it up myself thanks to some encouragement and a few tips at my first Saturday Sit n Sew with the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild. It turned out to be more of a Stand n Slice for me but that step alone would have scared me for months if I were doing it on my own.

I took out a few of the extra strips from the jelly roll, then paired each strip with a white strip and set out on a chain piecing mission. I loved watching the rainbow forming behind my machine as I made my way through the pile.

Strip pairs
Strip chain piecing

Once all the pairs were done I randomly sorted them into piles and began the next step joining them into strip blocks. I’ll share those in the next post, including a rather uncanny (or perhaps somehow subconcious) combo that almost exactly matches something from my wardrobe.