FNSI = Friday Night Sew In/Jelly Roll Race Quilt top

This month, I didn't think I was going to be able to participate in FNSI, but due to a change in my plans, I signed up late....although I've just checked over at Handmade by Heidi's blog, and several people signed up for it AFTER me, so I wasn't as late to the party as I thought I was lol

So here's the thing, I must be honest with you, I actually started sewing and then it dawned on me, "hey fool, it's FNSI and you haven't signed up yet"....at this point, I pressed pause (metaphorically speaking that is!) on the sewing machine and had a wee break from sewing, to come to the pc and sign up for FNSI.

Want to know what I managed to get sewn????  Well you're just going to have to wait as I want to explain a bit about it first....just in case any of you wonderful readers (I'm sure I have some still as I get the occasional comment from some of you!) have any other solutions to the Jelly Roll Race size dilemma???

I stumbled across a formula for calculating how many strips you'll need to make whatever size Jelly Roll Race quilt you want (I think it was on The Quilting Board) anyhoo, I calculated it out.....or at least I thought I had....the best made plans for me, are usually wrong and in the end, this was no different!

One of the FQ's I stripped up, was a small fq and was only 18" square (who sells fq's that size??? lol) so I just did 18" strips and sewed them together, and to make up the shortfall in those, I added a black 2.5" square between each of my main strips....without giving it much thought, I forgot about adding those into the calculation....ooops, my bad!

The first 'pass' of sewing the strip together seemed like it was a Toy Story side.....you know, to infinity and beyond!  Have you ever made one of these quilts?  I know several of you have, as I've seen pics on your blogs, and now I've tried it too....maybe I should've just made the original 1600 JRR top first, and used that to help with the calculations for the right size for Aussie Hero Quilts.

I got carried away, and sewed it one too many times, so then I had to reverse stitch and now I have this really obvious SEAM down the middle, but it'll still work out...I hope lol

Now, I can unveil my FNSI JRR for AHQ (don't ya just love all the acronyms...in English for those not familiar with them, that all stood for - Friday Night Sew In Jelly Roll Race for Aussie Hero Quilts)

Today I have a swap present or two to make and get ready to send, so I can't share them with you, but if I have time, I'll have another attempt at the JRR quilt, but with the amount of strips I think I'm supposed to use to get the right size.....I want it so that it just needs trimming up when you're done with the race part....not cut some off and attach it to the top of the quilt to make the right length....fussy much?  Yep, you betcha!

Here's the two formulas I've used now, and as I said, one is definately from The Quilting Board, and I can't remember where the other was from sorry, as I looked at so many in my research phase of my first ever JRR quilt.  If you can think of any other formulas I can try, please let me know!

METHOD 1:

Width of the quilt required (42") x 36 (number of rows needed to achieve the length of 72") divided by 41 (which is the length the jelly roll strips end up after being sewn) = 36.87 or 37 strips if you round it up.

METHOD 2:

Length of the quilt (72") divided by 2 = 36 Rows
Width of the quilt (42") x 36 = 1512" of strips divided by 41" (finished length of the Jelly roll strips) = 36.87 or 37 with rounding up

So, as you can see, either method gets the same result....now to trial it with just 42" x 2.5" strips and see what size top it ends up being.  Wish me luck.  The thing I think confuses me at the moment, is if you have 42" strips, and you join them together using the bias method, wouldn't that make them shorter than 41" finished???  Or am I over thinking the method?