MONTICELLO - A new craze in quilting - a Jelly Roll Quilt tournament - rolled into Monticello Wednesday.
Five area women took the challenge of sewing a strip of fabric, 1,600 inches long, into a quilt top, and being the first to finish. The final products measured about 4 by 5 feet.
Lynn Langenfeld and Hilary Hartman, Monticello; Mary Baker, New Glarus; Eleanor Smith, Monroe; and Charlene Klopfenstein, Brodhead, were trying to beat a tournament record of 35 minutes posted on YouTube.
But as the time came and went, the women agreed that the video-taped YouTube winner must have had some help keeping the strips untangled.
Hartman finished her quilt first, in 54 minutes. The other tournament participants finished not far behind her time.
The quilt name comes from the pre-cut bundle of fabric strips, sold in rolls, like a jelly roll. The bundles sell for about $35 and come in a variety of color schemes.
"Jelly rolls are good for first-time quilters," said Barb Hartman, owner of Quilter's Compass, sponsor of the tournament.
A beginning sewer with a little confidence can create a jelly roll quilt top in a short afternoon. The fabric strips are first sewn end-to-end, and then, in a tournament, the timing begins.
Hartman made one quilt at the age of 12, and didn't want to try it again until about a year ago. Since then, she has finished three and has two more waiting to be finished.
"I like the finished product, and I like picking out the fabric, but I'm impatient (putting it together)," she said.
The Jelly Roll quilt is more her speed.
Five area women took the challenge of sewing a strip of fabric, 1,600 inches long, into a quilt top, and being the first to finish. The final products measured about 4 by 5 feet.
Lynn Langenfeld and Hilary Hartman, Monticello; Mary Baker, New Glarus; Eleanor Smith, Monroe; and Charlene Klopfenstein, Brodhead, were trying to beat a tournament record of 35 minutes posted on YouTube.
But as the time came and went, the women agreed that the video-taped YouTube winner must have had some help keeping the strips untangled.
Hartman finished her quilt first, in 54 minutes. The other tournament participants finished not far behind her time.
The quilt name comes from the pre-cut bundle of fabric strips, sold in rolls, like a jelly roll. The bundles sell for about $35 and come in a variety of color schemes.
"Jelly rolls are good for first-time quilters," said Barb Hartman, owner of Quilter's Compass, sponsor of the tournament.
A beginning sewer with a little confidence can create a jelly roll quilt top in a short afternoon. The fabric strips are first sewn end-to-end, and then, in a tournament, the timing begins.
Hartman made one quilt at the age of 12, and didn't want to try it again until about a year ago. Since then, she has finished three and has two more waiting to be finished.
"I like the finished product, and I like picking out the fabric, but I'm impatient (putting it together)," she said.
The Jelly Roll quilt is more her speed.