Rainbow Scrappy: Log Cabin Quilt

Remember once upon a time when I was making rainbow inspired goodness? Well that never really stopped, I have been trucking on this quilt for just a year and a half. I made the first block on a rainbow whim and that was going to be it. A big pillow I thought. I made another for the back but I couldn't stop making them.

I made a 6 block top and showed it to the hubby. He said quilts need to be big - and I agreed. I hate that when the toes stick out or the arms aren't quite covered. So I made 3 more blocks and fudged it together with the first 6. It measures 76" x 82". All the blocks are total improv. No measuring with anything other than my eye. So making them all fit together with a little white around the edges to break up the colors was a little tricky. But I made it happen. One strip, one color and one scrap at a time.

The scraps really do tell the story of  my quilting life. There are not so pretty fabrics in there; ones that were gifted to me or that I had long before Blue Bird Sews. There is a huge amount of swapped scraps most notably from Spontaneous Threads when I won a box of scraps from her a while back. Then there was an amazing grab bag of modern scraps from one of my favorite thrift stores. There was also Stashtacular from 2 summers ago where I was the beneficiary of some wonderful and tragic prints.

The other notable aspect of this quilt is the quilting. I knew I wanted to practice hard core on it but I didn't know what patterns or ideas exactly. So I just sat down and first made little loops on the white boarders. They looked adorable so I did the DS Quilts loop d' loop on one of the blocks. Then I wanted to practice some swirls so I did that but wasn't satisfied with the density so I went back and filled in with circles. I did two of the blocks with different boarders. I did more swirls and I did repeating lines.

I did it all and I learned a bunch about how my machine jumps when I let go of the quilt. About how I can't move my left hand without losing total control over the design. And about my stitch regularity and how it needs a lot of work. And that is just what this quilt was for. Testing, growing and learning.

The last little bits that are incredible about this quilt is the backing and binding. Backing in rainbow vintage sheet and binding in vintage black on white polka dots. Perfect.

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be doing a holiday market at the Portland Waldorf School on Saturday in Milwaukie. I am hoping there are lots of people who need a quilt (but not this one)!

Cheers!
Kelly