Scrappy Rainbow Stars Quilt

It's amazing what a little pressure or incentive, or both can do to get a quilt done! This is one of three of my RSC 2023 quilts, yet another attempt to put a dent in the strings (it didn't). The free tutorial to make the 16" blocks is here.

As you can see, I had a good time quilting it.

The pool got closed last weekend but the gardens all around and on the deck and yard are still pretty spectacular

Our elephant ears and bananas didn't do as well this summer, most likely as it was an unusually cool for Essex County summer. Still, that quilt is 48" square, so it gives you an idea of how big they still got. The mandevilla vine is spectacular. This was its third summer, a gift from my darling friend Linda in Florida (no, she didn't send it up, though they grow year-round there). We have brought it in, where it goes a little sad and dry over the winter, and then I put it back out in spring, and it flourishes once again!

I outlined the stars around all the edges, which meant that the white and tan squares got outlined as well. Meandering with Essential pale yellow thread went through most of the stars, though I chose to switch to a similar colour for some of the deeper coloured stars. 

Those white squares on point were crying for a little custom quilting, so over to my shelf of quilting books from gurus such as Angela Walters, Judi Madsen, Kathleen Riggins and more. I pulled out Judi for this one. It's amazing what you can do with simple dot-to-dot quilting and a little 'tamping down' of the background to make the design pop. I varied that 'tamping down' design. Sometimes I did figure eights, some got pebbles, one got a paisley and another a simple circle (circle-ish for one!)

The tan and cream squares have a variation on one of her designs. I like the woven effect.

I went to my backing vault, looking for rainbow-style prints, not girly, as this quilt is headed to a little boy. I had a nice chunk left from Santa's Power, and a bit from a RSC quilt from about five years ago. Just needed a little more length...found it in the frogs chunk which is in another quilt I made for someone in the extended family, so I like that connection, and the dinosaurs. That is one of the 50 fat quarters I won earlier this year from The Fabric Nook on Instagram.

A rainbow binding was in order, of course! I emptied out my baggie of leftover bindings but for a couple chunks of black. I needed to cut about another 50", and was pretty tickled to trim to 2 1/4” a strip from squaring the quilt!

I wish the sun had come out to show the texture a little better, but it is what it is. 

So this quilt, along with this one, an RSC quilt that I finished at the end of 2021, and which has been waiting for the right home,

are headed out to Alberta to my two great-nephews. I think they will love having their own rainbow quilt to snuggle under on the couch this fall and winter, or have on their bed for extra warmth.

This quilt will be travelling with me to the guild presentations in Whitby, Port Perry, and Brighton next week! The guilds are giving out a PDF I made of the scrappy star block, so they'll be able to see an entire quilt of the stars.

Full disclosure: I wish I could boast that it will clean out your string bins, but it won't...

If you'd like that PDF, shoot me an email (see sidebar) and I'll send you a copy.

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Slab Star original design

Size: 48" x 48"
Fabric: scraps and stash

Batting: Pellon 100% polyester

Backing: On A Winter's Night by Kathy Schmitz for Maywood Studio, Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell for Moda, k.p. kids & co. by Kari Pearson for S.S.I. and (I think) Dino Friends by Makower

Quilted: on Avril: 83 342 stitches

Threads: pieced with various; quilted with Connecting Threads Essential 100% cotton, Aurifil 50 wt 100% cotton, Coats & Clark white 100% cotton, and YLI purple variegated 100% cotton; Bottom Line in the bobbin

If you'd like to attend any one of the three guild presentations I'll be doing, check out the flyer Kindred Hearts Guild made:

Linking up

My Quilt Infatuation

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

From Bolt to Beauty

Alycia Quilts

Songbird Designs

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