Jelly roll race II with a split

My husband, Mike, and I have been living in Houston since May. He has Acute Myeloid Leukemia and is being treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Caille came to spend her spring break with us last week and we got busy with a sewing project.

Armando and his family are friends of Mike's from his high school days back in Miami. In some strange synchronicity, he happened to be getting a stem cell transplant here about two weeks behind Mike's. He is still inpatient and going through a very difficult phase of the process right now. Caille and I decided we'd make a quilt for him.

We started with this Jelly Roll Race II quilt explained so well in this video tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company:

http://youtu.be/9w9UOFj0CSo

We were inspired by an episode of Fons & Porter, called "Stitch and Slice Quilt."

We used World Tour jelly roll (https://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop/detail/13265/free-spirit-fabrics/parson-gray/world-tour-jelly-roll), plus less than a two-yard cut of Barcelona Tin from that same collection (https://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop/detail/13192/free-spirit-fabrics/parson-gray/world-tour-barcelona-tin-yardage) for border and a backing treatment.

Ending up with this:

Then, horizontal to the strip seams, we ironed on paper-backed fusible. We marked a zig-zag pattern on the paper, then sliced it apart. It was a bit scary, slicing right through a perfectly good quilt! This is what it looked like on the wrong side:

And this is what it looked like on the right side:

Next, we removed the paper from the fusible and ironed a piece of white cotton fabric down the middle of the split. It was a little fussy getting the stips to line up across the white piece, but worth it to get it right. Wouldn't want a wonky quilt, would we?

Then we used a blanket stitch along those edges to make sure it would hold securely and to add a bit of a decorative touch.

We made the border out of the Barcelona Tin yardage. 

Rather than have a plain white backing, we cut one 2.5-inch strip horizontally from the edge of the quilt top (basically yielding a strip of 2-inch blocks) sewed it between two 4.5-inch strips of Barcelona Tin, and then offset it between white. 

We quilted with the walking foot, folowing the zig-zag pattern in the zig-zag, then jus stitching in the ditch every other strip for the rest of the quilt.

For the binding, we used alternating white and Barcelona tin. I hand sew my bindings.

Finished quilt top:

Finished quilt back:

A gift for Armando: