Sweet Roll Quilt Expansion Tutorial
I LOVE being able to offer options for my patterns, even though I can’t always squeeze them into the pattern itself, so here’s a supplement to my Sweet Roll Quilt pattern!
It’s all about scrappy stash busting in today’s blog post!! 🥳 I love a good stash & scrap buster and this one is fun! You may or may not know about my Sweet Roll Quilt… it’s a fast, easy, and fun make (especially with friends… get those sewing machines ready to RACE! 🏁😁). Today we’ll go over some bonus makes for the pattern and how (get ready for some quilty math 😅) to make them fit what you need whether it’s a pillow, set of placemats, a table runner, bed runner, or other-sized project 😃.
Whatever project you decide to make you can make it super scrapy like this tester quilt,
more traditional like this quilt
or more modern like this version.
Alright, let’s get to it! 😃
Quilty Math
First, we need to do some quilty math 🧮😆. I know, probably not your favorite, but in this case it’s a must and I'll walk you through step-by-step 😅. What size do you want your finished project to measure out at? The side the strips run horizontal to you’ll want to have in increments of 3”, as that is the finished width of a strip. Let’s start with a table runner example.
A quick note: as you “race” the strips they become exponentially larger… 3” becomes 6” after the first race, which then becomes 12”, 24”, and so on, so keep that in mind as you're going through the math.
I want my table runner to measure 15 x 43”.
First, I need to figure out how many rows I will need (the 15”, horizontal-strip part). Each row will be 3”, so…
15 (the width) divided by 3 (finished width of a “race strip”) = 5 strips
That 5 then needs to be multiplied by 43” (the length of the table runner). This gives us the full length of the “race strip” we need after the strips have been “raced” together.
5 (strips) x 43” (finished table runner length) = 215” long race strip
As you can see from the calculator above I had quite a few strips 😆; I ended up with 4 table runner quilts each at 43".
For every seam needed to sew the strips together you need to add an additional 3½”, this accounts for the fabric lost during the strip-joining process. With more seams you’ll need more strip lengths.
To figure out how many yards that is divide 215 by 36”.
215” divided by 36” = 5.97 yards, which we’ll round up to 6 yards (216”)
This will help us measure the full length easier.
One last note… since I want a 15 x 43” table runner, but the racing will produce a 12” wide strip and then a 24” wide strip I will need to either deal with the 12” and add a border or cut one 43” long strip before the “racing” begins, that I will later sew onto the 12 x 43” raced strip to get my 15 x 43”.
If an 18” width was desired then two 43” strips, one 86” strip, or one 43” strip after the first race could be cut. See… options 😃!
Stash & Scrap Fabrics
Now that we have the math out of the way 🥳, we can start getting to the fun part… The fabric! I know I have a bunch of red, white, and blue in my stash (from previous Quilts of Valor and other RWB quilts I’ve made), and with Independence Day just around the corner I thought I would make a RWB table runner. I pulled all my red, white, cream, and blue 2½” and 1½” strips from my scraps… I ended up with quite the variety of prints, solids, tone on tone, and low volumes.
Originally, I had planned on mixing all my strips, but after sorting I have enough to make a BUNCH of table runners—colored jelly strips with light honey strips and colored honey strips with light jelly strips 😆.
So… have fun mixing and matching colors to come up with some great combinations to dash that stash into a fun quilt project or two!
Supplies
You’ll need 2½” and 1½” strips, each needs to be at least 10” long. You’ll also need your basic sewing supplies, and of course, a ¼” foot.
Directions
Pair your jelly and honey strips together and sew—I did this as closely in size as possible, then with long ends I cut them off and tried to pair with another jelly/honey strip.
And instead of sewing all the way to the end when one strip was shorter I sewed off the side and continued chain piecing the rest.
Sew your paired strips together.
Then race! 🏁
Grab your full directions with tips and trick here.
If you like this post, you may find these ones interesting as well:
- Neck Wrap Hot Pack Tutorial
- Quick Heart Block Tutorial
- Turning Quilting Scraps into Stash
- Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial
- Bowl Cozy Tutorial
- Casserole Hot Pad & Trivet Tutorial
Warmth & Love,
💜 Tracy
PS. If you made this bonus Sweet Roll Qulit project and love it, I would love if you shared your thoughts and gave it “a 5 star review” in the comments! Also, tag me on Facebook or Instagram @EssentiallyLovedQuilter.