In May we again enjoyed a Retreat Day at Rookwood School. This was organised by the Committee of Sprat & Winkle Quilters, led by our Chairman, Lizzie Rudd Clark. We had been asked to bring a Jelly Roll and be prepared to make up one of the suggested designs that Lizzie and her team had prepared. I had two “Jellies” purchased from Create and Craft TV in lovely Summery colours which I thought would be ideal to make a “Summer” quilt for my husband’s grand piano.

The block design that I chose was called “Jelly Bean” and incorporated “snowballed” corners to the individual blocks of 4 strips of jelly roll.

Pattern inspiration

I took my “Jellies” to New Threads, Weyhill Fairground for some advice. What colour should I use for the accent? Meg initially suggested Grey but we settled on a Dark Lilac. I bought a metre of fabric – I do not want to run out and I knew that I would use some of the accent fabric for a narrow border.

I spent the Retreat day sorting and stitching my strips into sets of 4. We also had a competition and joint block race. The Christmas-themed blocks were then raffled off to a lucky winner, who we hope will put them all together and “show and tell” at the Christmas social. (I really would have liked to win those blocks – oh well, guess I will have to make my own),

I finished stitching my blocks at home and then laid them out on the bed. Photographs helped to decide the arrangement and they were all stitched together.

Under construction

I added a narrow border (1” finished) of the accent Lilac and then completed with a border of 2” (finished) squares using the remainder of the Jellies plus some Fat Quarters I had bought at Franklins in Salisbury. The binding is the Lilac again. I used a 2 oz polyester wadding as I wanted this quilt to be lightweight – it is for the Summer after all. The backing is a Dusky Lilac sheet from Dunelm Mill and the quilting is simple “stitch in the ditch”. I managed to get the quilt completed and able to display on the piano in time for my husband’s return from retreat. He noticed it immediately! As soon as I can, I will post a photograph of the completed quilt but meantime, onto the next project – new curtains and soft furnishings for my bedroom.