Cobblestone Roads – A quilting tutorial

Two weeks ago I received the most awesome squishy package from my UPS man – this jelly roll of the new Hometown by Sweetwater fabric. Kimberly from Fat Quarter Shop sent it over to me so that I could work on a tutorial to go with the Jelly Roll we are giving away this week – make sure you head on over to the post to enter to win!  Look at what I made with it!

You may be wondering who BitterSweet Quilt Designs is…it’s me

Fabric Requirements:
1 Hometown by Sweetwater Jelly Roll
2 Extra Strips of the cream (Sunni got a Jelly Roll two and swapped me for a couple of strips!)
1 yard of Kona Slate for the borders – cut into twelve 3″ strips
3/4 yard of Solid Cream Fabirc (I used Northcott – but didn’t look at the name of the fabric) – cut into six 3″ strips
4 yards backing fabric (42″ wide) or 2 yards backing fabric (108″ wide)

The technique I am using I learned when I made this gorgeous batik Trip to Trinidad quilt (designed by Kathleen Starr) 7 years ago – it now lives in our guest room.

Lay out your strips:

Not pictured are the 2 extra cream strips I got from Sunni!

Layout your groups – lay them out from light to dark so you get a nice gradation of color.

[insert groups]

Sew each group of strips together – you should have 4 groups of 9 strips – there will be extra strips from your Jelly Roll – these will be used later!

The Front

Here’s how you need to iron your seams:

After you have sewn your 4 strips sets together – fold the sets in half – make sure they lay flat and sew them into tubes

Time to start cutting!  Cut your sets into 2.5″ strips

Next – cut your strips apart – choosing a different seam each time

Now the fun really begins – you get to lay out your strips and chose your design! (I tried lots of different patterns – below are a few of them)

Now start sewing your strips together (this goes really fast) I did it in vertical rows – I ended up with 3 sections

Sew the three sections together – I pressed my seams open to reduce bulk

Add your borders (these are your Kona Slate and Northcott Cream 3 inch strips from earlier):


This is where my quilt stands today – I have a backing, my threads and my batting all ready to go, but I have not had a chance to quilt it yet. Once things calm down with my baby’s sleep schedule and I can squeeze in some sewing time it will get done!

The finished size of the quilt top is 51″x71″ – it makes a very nice lap size quilt!

I plan on using my left over 2.5″ square strips as my binding and I promise to post pics as soon as this puppy is complete!  Will you be making a Cobblestone Road quit? If so, please let me know, this is the 2nd original quilting pattern of mine that I am sharing online and would love the feedback!

 

30 thoughts on “Cobblestone Roads – A quilting tutorial”

  1. so much easier than cutting individual squares, Eleanor Burns would love to see this pic. I love your Trip to Trinadad

  2. That turned out so beautiful!!! I will have to try this for sure if I win that jelly roll. 😉 Otherwise I will start looking for another roll that will work once I finish my holiday/birthday projects! 🙂

  3. That is a great tutorial. I've not done the tube strip piecing so I'm intrigued! Gotta get me some more Hometown! It has my Town written on it!

  4. Quilt looks good in the hometown fabrics.
    I love the Trip to Trinidad quilt too.
    Makes me want to start my batik quilt now.
    Not done collecting all my colors yet.

  5. Very cool! Thanks for sharing this. WHat is the final size of the quilt??
    cjnid AT imaxmail DOT net

  6. Cute quilt with a jelly roll. Its amazing how such a simple design works well. I've loved the trip around the world pattern for a while. Great tutorial as well.

  7. Teresa Felgueiras

    I love your tutorial. I have seen many of those quilts but the idea of cutting al those squares scared me off. now I think i'll give it a try. Thank you very much for sharing your great tutorial.

  8. wow that is a ton of hard. work and your tutorial is great. I looks awesome. Thank you so much for sharing and for linking up to Show and Share #2. I hope you are having fun at the party 🙂

    A mommy's life…with a touch of YELLOW
    tyandwhitneyulrich.blogspot.com

  9. Live a Colorful Life

    This is awesome. Thanks for the tutorial! I just got fat quarter stack of Hometown. LOVE that fabric–and anything else by Sweetwater!

  10. SJ @ Homemaker On A Dime

    Really appreciate you linking up this fantastic post at the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop. Hope you'll continually share your creativity with us at the weekly party 🙂

  11. What size is the finished quilt? Is there enough left from the jelly roll to make 2 or 3 more strip sets to increase the size if needed? Thx.

  12. Hi Melissa,
    I'm just wondering where you are going to display this quilt. Is it a wall quilt?

  13. Melissa @ Love Affair With My Brother

    Hi Jessica, The finished size is 51×71 – which is a nice lap size quilt.

  14. I received Howntown in today's mail. So excited can't wait to make a quilt with it. Trip around the World is my favorite "go to" quilt. This is the way I learned, it is so quick and easy. Thank you for sharing.

  15. Chef in Training

    gorgeous quilt! Good job!

    I would love it if you would share this and/or any other projects you have been up to at Tuesday Talent Show at Chef In Training Tomorrow! Plus there is going to be a fun giveaway too! Thanks so much and I hope to see you there!
    -Nikki
    http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/

  16. Love you design…am a newbie to quilting…hope very much i could do this one day..
    very inspirational………..keep up the good work but enjoy the babe…they grow so fast and the quilting will still be there when they are in their teens…clamouring for a QUILT

  17. Yes I will definitely make this quilt. It looks so much more complicated. You have simplified it beautifully. Thank you for sharing it.

  18. Elisabeth Reed

    Really lovely, recalled learning this methot some years ago, meant to use it but have never done so…………..too much to quilt and sew to do everything I want to. Maybe this will re-inspire me. Heaven will be a wonderful comfortable room filled with fabrics to sew and books to read – and someone to feed me wonderful food at intervals!

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top