I am currently making a Jelly Roll Quilt and need your help! I can’t decide if I should leave my friendship braids in their lengths or chop them up into squares.
The quilt is based on The Friendship Braid from Pam and Nicky Lintott’s “Jelly Roll Quilt” book. The Jelly Roll is called “Mod Century” and consists of these fabulous 50s and 60s style fabrics which have been designed by Jenn Ski.
So far, I’ve cut the strips into trapezoids….
….joined the trapezoids to make the braids.
A quarter inch seam foot really helped with the seam allowance.
Each piece was pressed into place (totally loving the pattern on the back!).
To make these beautiful braids.
I’ve decided to separate each braids with a white border to make the quilt a little bigger and less busy so I can appreciate each fabric. So rather than look a little bit like this:
The friendship braid quilt would look more like this:
However, I’m not sure if I should go a step further and cut each braid into squares – a little like this “Pick and Mix” quilt from Pam and Nicky’s Jelly Roll Inspiration book.
So what would you do?
Stick with the braids? or
Cut into squares?
I would love to know what you think – please send me your comments!
thestitchsharer 
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Like the separation of the braids but would go with a less contrasting fabric (red or grey as has previously been suggested) and definitely much narrower. The white at the moment is really dominating all the other beautiful fabrics.
I like the braids divided by the white fabric best. Maybe have the white a bit smaller, or have another colour alltogether for it, so as not to divide it too much. Good luck!
Stick with the braids but use narrower white strips. Or use that grey or red as the stripe colour if you have enough.
I have never done anything like this but I would stick with the braids. Looking great so far. Best wishes, Carina
I like the strips with the white in between. However either way would look good.
I really like the long braids separated by white sashing. Cutting them into squares makes them kind of ‘blah’…but that’s just my opinion. Can’t wait to see what you do!
Tricky isn’t it…I know it must be very tricky to cut into that sewn fabric but I do really like the look of the squares all bordered. I only got my book yesterday and today have sewn up 3 of the 16″ blocks. It’s upstairs and I’m downstairs so I can’t tell you the name of the quilt they belong to. Think it’s the Kaffe Fassett one but I’ve used a Jelly Roll from Riley Blake “Sasperilla” …for my Grandson. I’m only making him a lap quilt, especially as there are only 22 strips in this roll! So excited to make loads from this book 🙂
actually…it’s not the same book although it was ordered 3 days ago! I’m using Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott 😉
I have no expertise whatsoever but I do like the squares at the bottom. However, the fabric is great and either will be lovely and so, so neat.
Your blog is very inspiring and I’ve even started a 6 week sewing class to let me get some practice and understanding of which kind of machine I might be best getting. Many thanks for sharing your skills.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment – good luck with your sewing class. Looking forward to hearing what you make. x
Definitely stick with the braids. Think it looks fabulous
with or without the white stripes.
I like the braids with the white in between! I think it draws the eye up and down the fabrics better. Squares would be cool too but would some of the pieces may get so small it’s hard to see the nice patterns?
I LOVE the braid effect, so I vote for leaving them whole!
I think that it would look gorgeous as squares. It would break up the colours nicely, and make each colour stand out really, really well. The strips idea is good, but I think the white dominates the quilt that way. Just my opinion. The braids look gorgeous, you have put a lot of work into them!
Personally I like the squares – it brings out the colours and patterns more!
I like the braids as they are. It’s more unusual than if they were cut into squares, which is a common quilt layout. But if you chose to go that way am sure it would look fine. Just my personal preference.