Friday, February 19, 2021

9-Patch Spectrum

I have another Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt finished! This baby is staying right here with me. I don't know what it is, maybe loving 9-patch blocks, maybe all the memories tied up in the 120 fabrics surrounding the 9-patches, but I feel very attached to this one.

Yep, we got some more snow, this time just a light one, overnight, so I had pristine snow on the front lawn upon which to toss the quilt. And bonus: a beautiful sunny warmish day!

This was one of my two RSC 2020 projects, and it is on my PHD list, so I am very happy to have another UFO crossed off. I absolutely loved making my 12 blocks per month last year. It worked out perfectly for the ten months as the quilt is 10 by 12 blocks. I like the way Angela breaks up the colours for us, giving light blue, dark blue, turquoises/teals, light green, and dark green each a month of their own.

I've had the backing fabric for a couple of years, a 3-yard piece I found in the clearance at JoAnn's in Auburn Hills by Great Lakes Crossing, a great place we used to take Brianne and Brady when they came to visit... 'in the before times'.

'You're my end of the rainbow'... could it be more perfect for an RSC quilt? I wish there had been more, but I did pick up another piece of a rainbow-esque fabric in that clearance section, which you'll be seeing soon with any luck, as I have a couple more of these RSC quilts to finish.


Isn't it awesome fabric? Sadly three yards wasn't quite enough, as the quilt measures 60" x 72". After I cut the first chunk, I split the remainder vertically, which gave me just enough width. Like jeee-ust. However, as you see from the above photo, I was short about 20" in the length. When I spied a perfect 20" chunk of 'Rainbow Rectangles' left over from my Postcard Cushion I made in 2019, I knew that was it. It's got the same tone of colours too! Because of having barely enough width, and because of a long vertical seam joining the backing pieces, I loaded the quilt sideways onto the longarm.

As for the binding, I've had this piece of rainbow-coloured prism fabric forever. I'd bought it as a possible blender for kaleidoscope quilts (I may have a rather healthy stash of those types of fabrics with not a lot of desire to make a bunch of kaleidoscopes, so I'm aiming to use them.) It's a Hoffman International, so that dates me. Man, they made some beautiful fabrics. Not sure if Hoffman California is that same company? Anyhow, here's the binding, machine stitched to the back and top-stitched to the front.

Isn't it a wonderful fabric? The 'stripes' go out from centres of prism-type objects, so it's pretty wild. My initials are quilted in the dark green corner block, quite the feat as the quilt was loaded sideways!

As you can see, I quilted it mostly with ruler work. The dot-to-dot work makes a cool secondary star pattern. I stitched in the ditch around all four sides of each block and around the outside of the 9-patch centres. Continuous curve was FMQ-ed in the 9-patches. Other than the SITD, this is how Angela Walters quilted Jenifer Dick's quilt in the book this is from. I used two colours of Essential threads from Connecting Threads (affiliate link): Custard for the lighter blocks and Stone for the darker ones. The variegated green was for stitching down the binding, a perfect choice over all those colours. Note the new spool, just like Aurifil's, where the bottom pops off where you can wrap and hold the thread.

Memories in each block. Above and below: there's my Aunt Phyl's backing, a piece from an Island Batik quilt, the backing for my first-ever quilt published for Benartex Fabrics, a piece of Amanda Murphy fabric made for a blog hop for Benartex, a piece from a published quilt in McCall's Quilting, a piece of lining of a bag I made ages ago, a piece from my niece Fawn's quilt, a piece from Dayna's Mariner's Compass, a piece from Freefall, my first QAL quilt... and on and on.


Lovely texture in the lovely sun!

This is the second UFO I've finished in February, third for the year. Feels good!

One last shot, ahh!


Quilt Stats:
Pattern: 9-Patch Surround by Jenifer Dick, from Nine-Patch Revolution
Size: 60" x 72"
Fabric: scraps and stash
Backing: main piece is from JoAnn Fabrics, small piece is 'Rainbow Rectangles' by Kim Schaefer for Andover
Batting: Hobbs Heirloom Natural Cotton 
Quilted: on Avril: 161 909 stitches
Threads: pieced with a variety of cottons; quilted with Essential Threads


31 comments:

  1. What a beauty! I can understand why you want to hang on to this one. How amazing to see what can be created from scraps!

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  2. I, too, get very attached to scrappy quilts because of all the memories in the fabrics. This is lovely, Sandra! The perfect simple block, but a great layout!

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  3. Congratulations! It is FABUlous!! Great work with the quilting too. Bravo! ;^)

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  4. Oh, I love it! I love the colors and how you've laid it all out. It looks great on that pristine snow, and I'm envious of the sunshine. I get attached to my quilts, too, so I know how you feel. If it's meant to find another home, it will! Congratulations on the happy finish!

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  5. Wow! What a great RSC quilt! Congratulations on your finish!

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  6. Lovely RSC 9 patch & I can see why you'd like to keep it. Do like how you've quilted it & good to see your finishes coming along well. Take care & hugs.

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  7. Pretty! I don't blame you for keeping it.

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  8. Gorgeous! I would keep it too! I like the quilting and the secondary pattern it creates.

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  9. I am so glad you are keeping this one for yourself, with all the memories packed into it. The quilting looks great, the fabrics are so bright and lovely. I hope you have a good quilt date with it, snuggled under with a good book!

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  10. I can see why you are keeping it, so beautiful.

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  11. Amazing what you can get done when you don't have to meet someone else's deadlines. Lots of memories in this one.
    Pat

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  12. what a fantastic quilt! no wonder you're keeping it!

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  13. Congratulations on your third finish of the year!! It is a beautiful quilt and I love the flow of colors across the top. With all the memories included in this quilt it is fitting that you should keep this to snuggle under with a good book. I like the look of the new spool for the Connecting Threads thread. Will have to check them out when I need to renew my threads again. Great backing fabric and that little piece did fit in well. You are sure off to a great start this year!!

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  14. This is a wonderful RSC quilt! Congrats on your new finish, Sandra.

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  15. It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of scraps. Gorgeous.

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  16. It's really really pretty. Your recounting the memories from each of the squares reminds me of how we used to do that with Grandma's scrap quilts. "That square was from my dress... I remember Mom wearing a pantsuit out of the material in that square... That was was from Karen's favorite shirt..."

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  17. Great job, the quilting really makes it! Thanks for linking up with TGIFF!

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  18. Gorgeous quilt, so many tones of the Rainbow colours.

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  19. Great finish for the RSC. I really like the checker board look!

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  20. Congrats on a completed Rainbow Scrap Challenge (keeper) quilt, Sandra!! Enjoy all that rainbow goodness!

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  21. Hi Sandra! I saw the photos on IG but there are even more here on the blog and much easier to enjoy. What a beauty this finish is! And a UFO, too - a double winner. Thanks so much for sharing the fabulous shots of your quilting! I really need to get more practice in with my rulers - I sure do love the look of dot-to-dot secondary patterns, and the SID really stands out of the back. This is a happy looking quilt and I'm so glad you're going to be enjoying and snuggling underneath it. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  22. No surprise you kept that one! It's an all around beauty: from the front to the back, binding and quilting. You did RSC proud!

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  23. What a wonderful quilt Sandra. Congrats on your finish! Take care.

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  24. Love your Nine patch quilt, just beautiful!!

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  25. Wow! Definitely a gorgeous quilt. Love how you quilted it too AND told us what you did. Thank you. I'm always stuck a bit when it comes to that stage. Great job! It's a beauty!

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  26. I can not tell you how much I LOVE this one!!! The quilting, the colors, the backing... its perfect!!!

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  27. This is amazing. So bright and colourful.

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  28. This quilt sings, Sandra! I'm glad you are keeping it for you!

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