Thanks, Rita. That's a method that my friend also used when dealing with the pinked jelly rolls. It wouldn't have worked for the pattern I was making since I was sewing the 2.5" pieces to 1.5" pieces, so it really depends on the pattern that you are using.

Renata - I've met the owner of SewBatik several times (enough for him to know me by name) and I'd bet that his jelly rolls are pretty close to perfect, although I haven't tried any of them yet. He and his wife are very particular about their product.

fiquilts - One hint I've seen (after working with my jelly rolls, of course) is to run a lint roller over the top and bottom of the jelly roll before unwrapping it to get rid of a bunch of the fuzzies. Of course, as your fuzzies go away your strips get narrower, so I think you have to measure carefully.

Nancy

Pinked jelly rolls make a mess when you work with them. All those little pinked tips shed.

That is a good way to work around the irregularities of the Hoffman Bali Pops! Thanks for the link!

Reetzbobeetz wrote: Thanks for the reminder of this Brenda Henning reference, Rita. I had seen it a long time ago but had forgotten all about it. I have a SewBatik jelly roll I want to attack soon. The SewBatik president assures me their rolls are perfect and straight... I hope so but it's nice to have an alternative to 'cussing' if they turn out not to be so perfect...

I have found Brenda Henning's method helpful when dealing with jelly rolls. I know it doesn't mention ones that have been pinked but I guess you could use the same method?

http://www.bearpawproductions.com/userfiles/file/Strip_Width_May_Vary.pdf

My first thought about the question was to measure what you have inside the pinking. Then go from there. The other thing I thought was--say you need a 1 1/2" piece; fold the strip in half and measure out from the fold. Does this help? If not, I am sure Margo will put it into something you can understand.

I just completed my first top using pinked jelly rolls and had the same problem as Margo. The widths were very inconsistent with as much as 1/8" difference in widths between 2 strips in the same roll. For the wider strips, the peaks seemed to be at the 2.5" width, so that's what I used. I also found that I hated trying to line up the pinked and unpinked edges where they met so I won't be getting any more pinked jelly rolls myself, unless I'm doing something where I really want the variety of the entire line of fabric. I was really surprised about this since jelly rolls are so popular and I was so excited by the fabrics.

Good luck!

Nancy

The strips in the last two jelly rolls I tried to use were nowhere near the same width.
Luckily, I was using a pattern where accuracy sewing the strips together was not a critical issue.

And remember, the accuracy of the seam allowance is not nearly as important as the size of the fabric that is left!

For anything that needs to be accurate, maybe cutting your own strips or using an AccuQuilts system would be a better choice?

How do you get a consistent, accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance on a jelly roll cut with pinking shears? What guide do you use for the edge...the peak or the valled?