String Cheese - A Tutorial
I realized with my teeny scrappy quilt, that it would be just as good (and faster) to make with a jelly roll and yardage. And if I need a quick, easy, but really high impact quilt pattern in my life, maybe you do too?
I made the sample here from a Jelly Roll of Sketchbook by Alexa Marcelle Abegg and 2 yards Kona Blueberry. But I have plans for so many more - especially holiday versions!
So here’s the very, very quick version:
WOF=42”
You can substitute pieced together scraps for the WOF strips.
String Cheese Quilt
Fabric Requirements
40 2.5” WOF Strips —OR— Jelly Roll
40 1.5” WOF strips — OR — Honeybun
Backing: 3.5 yards, or 5 yards (for longarm clearance)
Sew one 2.5” Strip to each 1.5” Strip. Sub-cut the strip sets into 10” blocks. Assemble the quilt top. Piece backing, baste and quilt as desired.
Sounds so easy, right? If you’re an experienced quilter, that’s probably enough of a tutorial. If you’re not, or you’d just like some more detail, stick with me.
If you want to use scraps, you should absolutely use scraps! This is a great quilt for that. Just choose which strip set you’re going to replace with scraps. I find it easiest to trim all the scraps, and then piece into long chains. Using scraps for the 1.5” strips will be a little calmer, but replacing the 2.5” strips will use up more scraps.
First, if you’re using pre-cuts, Measure them! You’d be surprised how many 2.5” strips are not actually 2.5”. However, unlike a lot of jelly roll patterns, it doesn’t matter for this quilt. Your quilt will just be a tad wider or narrower if they aren’t precisely 2.5”, and that’s good to know. (You can of course trim the strips down if that’s your preference).
Now sew one of each strip together, with a 1/4” seam allowance. It’s okay if you haven’t perfected the perfect scant 1/4” seam, this quilt doesn’t require it, though its a great one to practice on.
Decision time: Do you press the long strips? Or, do you press later? With my scrappy version, I pressed the long strips. With my non-scrappy version, I cut the pieces and sewed several chunks together before pressing. Both worked great. You could probably sew the entire quilt top together without picking up an iron.
Whatever you decide, cut each long strip set into 10” blocks. You should have 160 of them (4 per strip set).
Now it’s time to assemble - I told you this was quick and easy!
20 blocks in each row, 8 rows total. Every other row is flipped, so not all the seams align. If you are a fan of nesting seams though, every other seam should nest nicely.
Ta-da! You have a 60” x 80” quilt top (give or take a bit of wiggle, this is quilting not precision medical instruments).
Backing: If you’re planning on quilting on a domestic, you can get away with 3.5 yds of backing fabric, cut in half and sewn together width wise. This way, your back would be 63 x 84. If you’re sending to a longarmer (or you have a long arm), you’ll need a bit more overage to account for the machine. So you could do 5 yards, pieced vertically, to make a back that is 84 x 90. Plenty of extra that way.
You could also do a super fun scrappy back, to use up even more stash!
I’m so excited to have you try this tutorial, and see your fabric combos!!!
