Blogger's Quilt Festival - Taste the Rainbow

It's that time of the year again...each fall, Amy, who blogs over at Amy's Creative Side, hosts the Blogger's Quilt Festival on her blog.  We are allowed to link up two quilts and have the opportunity to visit and be inspired by other blogger's wonderful quilts.  

My first entry to the festival is my Taste the Rainbow mini quilt which I designed and made for my local guild's, Greenville Modern Quilt Guild, challenge.   The challenge was to create a mini quilt (less than 36" on all sides) with a modern take on the classic birds in the air block.

My mind went towards how to place the blocks without the traditional grid and thought of a circular design.  Combining that with a rainbow palette and I had the beginnings of my quilt design.  The rainbow fabrics are a mixture of fabric manufacturers with the majority of the fabrics being Robert Kaufman Kona Cottons and Michael Miller Cotton Coutures.  The background is a Blueberry Park print from Karen Lewis for Robert Kaufman.

I used Corel Draw to draw out the design and create the paper piecing templates.  In order to keep everything well aligned and spaced, I added a lot of radial lines, you can see the craziness.

The design is paper pieced from 16 "pie slices", with each slice being sewn from 4 paper piecing templates.  This was not a quick make, but it was exciting as each colored slice came together.

I used my favorite batting, Warm & White by the Warm Company for the quilt.  I find Warm & White has a great structure after quilting so it is perfect for wall hangings.

I quilted the background by echoing the triangle shapes close to the seam lines and then adding some concentric 16 sided polygons.  Next, I add some running stitch hand embroidery (I am calling it embroidery as the stitches only go through the top layer, they are not quilting stitches) 1/8" spacing between the lines using matching Aurifil threads in 28 wt.  This also took a long time but gave me a nice hand project for when I was outside with the kids.

As I was showing sneak peaks of the design and quilt on my blog and social media I was asked if I could write a pattern for the quilt so I put together templates for anyone who would like to create their own Taste the Rainbow - Craftsy & Etsy

Note: This is a set of advanced level paper piecing templates, not a full pattern.  The instructions do not contain general paper piecing instructions, sizes of fabric pieces to cut, or seam allowances printed on the template sections.  

Quilt Stats

Size: 32 1/2" x 32 1/2"
Fabrics: Solids from Kona Cotton by Robert Kaufman and Cotton Couture by Michael Miller.  Background gray is from Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis for Robert Kaufman.
Thread: Triangles used matching Aurifil 12 wt., Background used Aurifil 40 wt in dove (2600)
Batting: Warm & White by the Warm Company
Quilting Patterns: Triangles used running stitch hand quilting.  Background used outlining and concentric octagons.

My other entry for the Fall 2017 Blogger's Quilt Festival is Arrow Point Path, you can read about it right here.

Here are my entries for the Blogger's Quilt Festival over the years:

Fall 2016: State of Being
Fall 2016: Canvas Lines

Fall 2015: Riley Blake Triangle Quilt
Fall 2015: Improv Table Runner

Spring 2015: Use Your Illusion
Spring 2015: Plus Plus - Two Tone Version

Fall 2014: Oh The Places You'll Go
Fall 2014: Vintage Star

Spring 2014: Kona 2013 Quilt
Spring 2014: Improv Quilt Two

Fall 2013: Pi Quilt
Fall 2013: Pink Broken Herringbone Quilt

For those that are new to my blog, please check out the Magnolia Mystery Quilt (my 4th annual mystery quilt), we are just getting started!