In January of 2021, an event occurred that was a sign of hope. I was watching the presidential inauguration and trying to plan out a new quilt. These were scraps I’ve had since 2012 when I made Over the Rainbow quilt. These fabrics were so beautiful and I just couldn’t part with them. But I also didn’t want to do any old project with them. They have been patiently waiting on the shelf all these years, and I was finally inspired.
The last few years have felt very stormy. Lots of differing opinions, and strong personalities. Then throw a pandemic in the mix with everything closed down for safety, and it starts to feel like the storm won’t end. The Inauguration felt like a fresh breath. There was hope, positivity, inspiration. Whether that will continue is still up in the air, but in that moment on that day, I was feeling optimistic.
I got to work to figure out this rainbow quilt. It needed to match how I was feeling. I checked the colors against black, which was too harsh, and white, which was too bright. I had several greys and settled on this darker one. It matched the color of a stormy cloud, but was soft enough to keep the focus on the rainbow of colors.
I didn’t want to trim any of the beautiful rainbow fabric. Fortunately for me, the rectangles in the scrap pile worked fine for the basket weave look I created with the colors and grey. Once I had all the rectangle strips sewn into squares, it was just a matter of laying it out.
Trying to stick to a rainbow look was challenging because there were so many choices. Should I go straight across? Try to arch the colors? Maybe I should mix the colors up a bit as they’re laid out (I’ve never been good at that).
In the end, I decided to go with colors straight across, but the grey basket weaves allowed them to be staggered and help them blend together. I used all the scraps I had, but it seemed a little small so I added some borders of the grey and a rainbow batik.
The backing is the grey with the rest of the rainbow batik. I am really trying to use up all my fabric with each project. Keep my scrap pile to a minimum. I finished it with a grey binding and my label. All done!
When I look back at it, I can remember that awesome feeling I had that day and smile. I can also remember that I finished another UFO that has been hanging around all these years.
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