French Reel

Last month in a moment of mad impulsiveness while shopping the sale batiks at Hancocks of Paducah I bought a Moda quilt kit.

I have never done such a thing before. For that matter I have never bought a Jelly Roll, Honey Bun or Layer Cake either. I have several charm packs, bought on deep sale discounts, not that I have ever done anything with them other than look at them and think about what I might do. It is a sort of mental drooling.

I enjoyed my kit. The fabric line, Maison de Garance by French General for Moda is gorgeous. The pattern was simple but striking and of course totally made by the fabric, but I had some nits to pick. For example the pattern called for straight grain binding but the picture showed a quilt very obviously bound with bias.

Why am I such a stick in the mud? I have always made my own patterns but I do buy them too. I have made several quilts from patterns in magazines and books. What is the difference in buying a kit? Maybe it is the fact that someone else made the fabric selections, or that there will be many others fairly identical? Am I a quilt snob? I don't know.

Reading my Australian e-friend Mereth's blog in July where she writes about her experiences with Moda's pinked edges on a Jelly Roll I found myself nodding as she made each point.

My experience with the Tonga Treats, which do not have a pinked edge was good. They were not exactly 2-1/2" wide, maybe 1/16th wider, but they were totally uniform. The Moda strips in my kit were a bit disappointing. They were off grain, which meant I was dealing with a slight bias and they had a wowie at the fold. That annoyed me. Like Mereth I liked having a sample of each fabric in the line and they are lovely prints.

Will I buy another kit? Maybe, but probably not. Another package of pre-cut strips? As always that would depend on the price. At the full retail price of $35 the Jelly Roll works out to $12 per yard, 33% higher than yardage price for current fabric lines. I tend to shop the sale bins paying $5 to $6 a yard for the same lines a year later.

Yes, it is much easier to achieve a controlled scrappiness with material that is designed and made to go together, but, LOL, I could go round in thought circles all day.

What do you think?


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