The quilt with two names

I've known about this quilt forever. I originally read about it on the Quilting Board way before I'd seen the Jelly Roll Race or the 1600 inch quilt. You can find the original post here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/super-fast-jelly-roll-quilt-t44258.html  I recommend you wade through it because there are a lot of nice examples. On page 7 is a picture tutorial and somewhere in there is a discussion of making different sizes and using different widths. She used to have a PDF printout for free but you could just print the first page. 

Anyways, I used my JoAnn's, 20 strip jelly roll to try this out. 

I wanted to also separate the strips by piecing squares in between them. I really like that look for this quilt so I chose a crazy scrap I had laying around and cut twenty 2 1/2 inch squares. The jelly roll had only ten different fabrics, 2 strips of each, so I pieced squares on one end of each strip.

I should clarify, you need to piece strips of the same print together on the 2 1/2 inch side to get the best distribution. They're more likely to land next to each other if they are drawn at random. I don't know why, that's just the directions. You also have to cut about 18-20 inches off the beginning so that it doesn't all line up. Both of these steps help a lot to make it scrappy looking.

I don't have pictures but you can check out this video on YouTube by the Missouri Quilt Co. Basically you keep joining the ends together and sew down the long side.

The first seam took forever and felt so long! It wasn't even the full length. I don't have pictures but you can imagine. Have plenty of bobbins ready before you start. I didn't have time to do it all at once, despite the name.  This picture is at sewing the third seam.

Mine came out nice and even at the end. I just lined up the outer edge and ran my fingernail along it to make a crease while it was still under the needle. Then I cut along the crease.

Since this strip was half the length, I met the ends together to see which side I wanted to sew on to get a bit better color next to each other. I chose the right side on this last seam because I didn't want the aqua next to the fuchsia because its too strong of a combination.

This finished at 33" x 54" after 5 seams. It would make a nice crib size. I love how the squares are randomly distributed.

The sewing was too easy. I kept letting the seam allowance wander but in the end you just press the seams to one side so they all even out. It's not great quality fabric and I don't know anyone with a baby so, I cut it in half and sewed it into a bathmat.

I laid an old big microfiber cloth on the wrong side, folded it right sides together and stitched it up leaving a small opening (too small, I ripped some stitches @_@) I turned it right side out and topstitched all the way around.

I made this one as a trial sample before using my strips from Connecting Threads' Urban Odyssey line to make the real thing. I bought all the fabric for the top on sale for under $20! I can't beat that with a stick!

Looking at my pictures, I see I really need to do something about that unfinished tabletop. It's kind of driving me nuts.

ETA: I've gotten a lot of spam on this post so I'm changing the title to see if that helps. It just helps me since you don't see any of this. The previous title was Super Fast Jelly Roll quilt AKA the Jelly Roll Race quilt.

ETA2: still getting spam here thank goodness for moderated comments. I don't know what else to do.