My Original Rainbow Quilt

In early 2021, I had only been quilting about a year, but thanks to the pandemic, I had already amassed a pretty big fabric stash. I decided to make an entire quilt without purchasing any new fabric. I was going to use up some of these scraps, doggone it! Make room for some new purchases!

If you're a quilter, you know that's not how it works. No matter how big the quilt, your scraps seem to multiply, despite how much you use. It's a sewing room miracle. But back to the story.

I drew up a design of my own, kind of a wonky log cabin block. I wanted to make a rainbow of colors that transitioned through the rainbow in a nice gradual flow.

This is going to be a long-term project, I thought. I'm not going to rush through this like a maniacal sweatshop foreman. Here, I'm going to put all my different colored scraps over here in this big box in the corner and I'll just bring it over to the table when I want to work on it for a few minutes. In the meantime I have all these masks to make, some zipper bags, a baby quilt . . .

Right. Yeah, that's also not how it works. Once I started building the blocks, I became obsessed with how to go from pinkish red to true red to red-orange to orange-red and build the block so that was happening in one corner and in the other corner I was working on how to go from pinkish red to reddish purple to deep plum.

I brought out my colored scraps color by color. My sewing room was a sea of orange and red one week, and purple and blue the next. Every phase I had a new favorite color.

I like an assembly line as much as the next girl (well, probably more) but this project had to be done block by block. Some blocks had to be redone to get the right fade in. My little design wall was overtaxed. I had to keep the cat out of the room as best I could.

Aaaaand again, not how it works. More times than I could count, I had to pick up blocks from the floor and pick the cat hair off.

Finally, I started to sew the blocks together. To me, a fairly new quilter, it seemed massive.

I sent it off to the longarm quilter, who chose the perfect variegated thread and swirly quilting pattern.

Now, to put on the binding. I do my hand-binding while watching TV. I think my husband and I were binge-watching Better Call Saul when I worked on my rainbow quilt.

I love how it turned out!

Scrappy quilts give you a chance to add some whimsy! I added some pieces of some of my novelty fabrics.

Elvis has entered the building!

The front

The back

🦆

To learn more about this quilt and Diane's other quilting projects, contact her at diane.fitzpatrick@mac.com. And check out her Instagram page.

Comments

Back at It!

It's not that I haven't been making quilts. While 2023 was a slower year for me, quilt-wise, I did manage to churn out four major quilts and some smaller projects. It was a busy year: Two international trips and some domestic travel, my son's wedding, summers at the lake, and a new job for me. But my sewing room kept up a persistent -- and loud -- siren song. I attended QuiltCon last year and took classes to make two quilts: a selvedge quilt and a very modern quilt with solids, both paper-pieced and both by Amy Friend . They were ambitious projects and it took me almost a year to finish them. (More to come on the pitfalls I suffered with that modern Gulls quilt god help me why do I do this to myself I'm an idiot.) So while last year wasn't as productive as my first three years of quilting, the quilts I did make were major. The bed-sized quilt I made for my son and his wife was a modern but scrappy double wedding ring quilt in which I incorporated pieces of lace fro

An Overlapping Color Bar Quilt

This sweet little quilt was given to Our Baby Girl last weekend, so I feel like it's a good time to show it off! I had wanted to make a quilt with the look of transparent overlapping color blocks and while there were kits out there, I wanted to figure it out on my own. Using the Kona Solids color chart panel given to me by my sister Pam, I chose pastel solids that I thought would work. For the most part, they did. Some of the blocks I'd like to re-do, but don't we always think we can do better next time? My quilt model didn't much appreciate doing an outdoor shot. Notice the snow on the ground? That lime green overlap color is one of my favorites. I love purples for babies! Quilting, by Longarmed and Dangerous , is variegated pastel thread in these darling twinkles! For backing, I chose Tula Pink's True Colors Fairy Dust , with all of those magical colors perfect for a baby quilt. When opened up and in the light, the quilting really stands out. Abby, my supervis

Dot and Dash Quilt in Candlelight Colors

There's something therapeutic about making a modern quilt. When you are piecing simple shapes in a simple design, your focus shifts to color and detail. And for me, a white background is less forgiving - and I pay closer attention to my work and try to make fewer mistakes. This was my first quilt from designer Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft . All of her quilt designs are very modern, stunning patterns. Check out her variations of this Dot and Dash quilt in bright colors in a rainbow design, in pinks, and in soft pastels - gorgeous! For this quilt, a gift to a BFF, I chose Ruby Star's Candlelight line of fabrics. augmented with blue and taupe solids that I agonized over, because they just didn't seem to match. I even emailed Nicole and asked her advice. (How these designers put up with me, I'll never know.) In the end, the solids I chose worked well. The quilting gods are so kind to me! I loved making this quilt so much that I am ready to make it again, this ti

Search This Blog