Friday 17 August 2012

Rainbow Strip Quilt Top Completed...I'm in love

One of my WIPs is a  Rainbow Strip Quilt using this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew
This is what her quilt top looks like:

And this is the pile of rainbow strips that I cut and prepared for my own version:
From the time of selection, two of those strips were changed out. The Indian Summer strip by Riley Blake was replaced by a strip of a Kona solid, Slate, and one of my turquoise strips was just too short so I replaced it with a strip of mini harlequin fabric picked up this week on a whim.

This was what the quilt top looked like before I sliced it, added white sashing and flipped it:
It made me squeal with delight. I think it is beautiful and bright and just what I was envisioning.

Quilt top folded, which shows all the colours together
I then started my slicing. The tutorial directs you to cut once 8" in and then again another 5" in.
The next step was to add the 1 1/2" white strips down the sides of the 5" removed strip.
Here is where fate started to mess with me. My first problem was that apparently (due, I'm sure, to my shoddy measuring, cutting and 1/4" seams) the white strips I cut according to the tutorial were too short!
Note to self: check that before sewing next time. I did some repair work, adding some length by creating a seam (and reminding myself that mistakes lead to character) and got back to sewing. That was when my next problem hit:
Empty bobbin. With 6" to go on the second side! Argh! But I took a breath, wound a new bobbin, and got back to work.

Here (drumroll please) is the finished quilt top:
I was grinning and clapping, seriously. I know my strips do not line up perfectly with the flip, but when you look at it as a whole you barely even notice. Looking at mine makes you want to start cutting rainbow strips, doesn't it? I have a quilting friend, A, who wants to make a rainbow quilt. She has been quilting for years and has yet to get to it because, I think, she always prioritizes gifts for others before the projects she wants to make. I have to say, having made one rainbow quilt as my fifth quilt top ever, I will definitely be making more. They are a joy. A, get on your rainbow quilt!

And as a final picture to capture just how much fun and delight I got from this quilt:
Even the scraps are pretty! I couldn't resist taking a picture!

So tell me- does seeing my rainbow quilt make you want to make one of your own? 

Lynn (aka Buttons)

7 comments:

  1. Yes, I now want one of my own. This is awesome! Great work.

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  2. Congratulations on your beautiful quilt! You did a GREAT job! Even when we are quite experienced we will discover we have made an error and cut pieces to short or too small or did not purchase enough fabric in the first place and we have to go back and it is all gone!! Drats! Your next quilt will be better than the last. The old adage that practice makes perfect really is true.

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  3. What a colorful quilt with a nice 'turn'. You're right, it does makes me want to go up to my sewing room and start one!

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  4. I love how it turned out. It's just so "happy."

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  5. What a pretty quilt! I have plans to make one of those this winter. Yours turned out wonderful!

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  6. Wow. This is beautiful! I keep seeing so many beautiful quilts and am tempted to try one myself. Im hopping over from the Sew Many Ways linkup party.
    Rhiannon at Being Mom{Me}

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