One Jelly Roll Is All You Need for This Beginner Quilt

Klaus Schmidt · 2026-10-28

If you've ever stared at a jelly roll in a quilt shop and thought, "That's pretty, but what would I actually make with it?" — this one's for you. The Jelly Roll Rigatoni Quilt is the newest pattern in the Shortcut Quilt Series, and it's about as beginner-friendly as quilting gets. Here's the honest truth: this quilt looks like you spent weeks on it. You won't. One jelly roll plus a bit of background fabric, and you're basically done. ### What Exactly Is a Jelly Roll, Anyway? Quick refresher for anyone new to precuts. A jelly roll is a bundle of 2.5-inch strips, usually 40 of them, cut from a single fabric collection. That's it. The cutting is already done for you, which is honestly half the battle in quilting. That's the whole magic behind the Shortcut Quilt Series. The patterns lean on precuts so you can skip the tedious rotary-cutting marathon and get straight to sewing. And the patterns themselves? Always free. Each one comes with a video tutorial, so you can sew along with someone walking you through every step. ### Just Two Ingredients The fabric list is refreshingly short: - 1 Jelly Roll (40 strips, 2.5 inches wide) - 3 1/8 yards of background fabric That's it. That combination gives you a large lap quilt — the kind you actually use on the couch, not the kind you fold and hide in a closet. The pattern is available as a free download, and there's also a full quilt kit with a matching backing set if you'd rather not hunt down fabric yourself. ### A Little About the Fabric The sample quilt was sewn with Collections for a Cause: Magnolia by Howard Marcus for Moda Fabrics. Think vintage florals with an heirloom feel — classic, a little nostalgic, the kind of quilt your grandmother might have made and you'd fight your cousins over. But here's the fun part: swap in any jelly roll you love. Bright modern prints, moody jewel tones, soft pastels — the pattern doesn't care. It's a showcase quilt, which means the fabric does the talking and the design gives it room to breathe. ### A Club Worth Knowing About If you find yourself buying jelly rolls regularly, there's a monthly subscription that delivers one right to your door — a new Moda Fabrics collection each month. Members save 12% compared to buying the same precut individually. Over a year, that adds up to real money, especially if you're someone who sews through projects quickly. ### The Part Where You Actually Start My advice? Download the free pattern, watch the tutorial once all the way through, then sew along on the second viewing. Beginners often try to wing it on the first pass and end up unpicking seams. Ten minutes of watching saves an hour of frustration. When you finish, share it with #JellyRollRigatoni so other quilters can see what you made. Half the joy of this hobby is seeing how the same pattern transforms with different fabric choices. So — what jelly roll has been sitting in your stash, waiting for a reason? This might be it.