Every quilt has a story, right?  So, just blogging about my quilting projects inspired me to finish project #4, the Penny Quilt.  This quilt is from the book Jelly Roll Dreams by mother and daughter team Pam and Nicky Lintott. I LOVE their books and all of my Lintott books are full of sticky notes.

My Penny Quilt is made from a jelly roll of Rue Indienne by French General for Moda Fabrics. I am double addicted to all of the French General fabrics.  I bought the jelly roll at my local quilt store on impulse even though I had a little talk with myself about no more fabric before getting out of my car.  It didn’t work!  I always check out the new fabric and there it was – on display in a Venus Fly Trap plant. Once my hand touched the jelly roll it was stuck to my fingers. Without any plan in mind, I walked to the counter to check out with a jelly roll of gorgeous fabric.

Going to a fabric store is like being a kid at Christmas for me. I just have a visceral response to the colors and the soft feel of the fabric.  And I always take my “gift” to my bedroom to open the jelly roll and spread all the strips on my bed to savor the fabric and to smile.  The fun part of new fabric is waiting to solve the mystery of what quilt the fabric will become.  This is my favorite part of the process. The quilt pattern always pops into my head unexpectedly.  More fun!

With a jelly roll quilt I spend a lot of time deciding which fabrics are going to live next to each other.  For the Penny Quilt I put all the pieces on my design wall to see the quilt as it would look finished. After moving around many crosses and even starting over completely once, I was satisfied.  I have made the Penny Quilt once before as a wedding gift for a family member. It seemed like a great first applique project. My “pennies” on the first version weren’t that round. Luckily a friend introduced me to teflon circles to make the edges of the pennies perfect.  This quilt is for me. Love the pattern, love the fabric.

The story of this quilt is that spontaneous combustion quilting is mysterious, exciting, fun, happy, beautiful, satisfying…..you get the idea. Happy quilting, Turtle.