Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Reading Rainbow Quilt Finished!

I am so thrilled that I finished my Reading Rainbow quilt this weekend! It has been 10 months in the works - since we started with purple in January for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Every month I’ve added blocks of books in the color of the month according to a plan I drew out ahead of time.


The quilt was constructed with 5 12” blocks per row. Some rows, like green, orange, and yellow are all one color - because I had more of those scraps in my stash. Other rows combine colors like purple and black, red and pink, and teal and blues. And here and there I tried to add in little whimsical bits of interest; a mouse, a fishbowl, a globe, flowers, etc. All designs were pulled from my warped own imagination except that awesome Laurel Burch cat on the yellow row.



The “wood” shelves are 2” (finished) wide and the outer borders were cut at 3”. Even the back has the same Joel Dewberry woodgrain fabric, except where I had to supplement with a plain Kona gray. My husband Bruce was kind enough to haul a chair out to our colorful flowering pear tree in front. He graciously stood on the chair holding the quilt so I could snap pictures.


The finished quilt measures 66x86”. The batting is Warm & Plush cotton (my favorite), and I used a basic stipple quilting pattern. No surprise there, but there was a method to my madness. Let me show you.


The book titles were taken from fabric selvages. Most of the time, but not always, selvages are woven more tightly than the fabric itself in order to prevent fraying on the bolt. And that is one of the reasons we trim selvages - they will shrink (or not) at different rates than the main fabric. When I sewed on the selvages, I reduced my the stitches on my machine to a 1.0 length - very tiny. That doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be fraying; I fully expect that there will be fraying over the first couple washings to those seam lines.


So that’s where the stippling came in. It was another opportunity to go over the selvages with more stitches, as Alfie points out here...

And here....


And.....whoops!


It appears my Supervisor got a bit sidetracked with the camera strap ....

Now, where were we? Oh yes..... stippling. So, all in all, it seemed to make the most sense and give me the best maneuverability to get everything secured as best I could.


Reading Rainbow will be my own quilt to “read” and cuddle with this winter. It also represents a finish for the 4th Quarter 2017 Finish-Along. It is my goal #3. The link to my list is here


Thanks for dropping by! I will show another finish (a pink baby quilt) on my next post and catch you up with my other works in process.

Cathy maroon

22 comments:

  1. Cathy - that is so amazing!! Even the part about it being finished!! Congrats! Now I have something to aspire to for next year..

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  2. Cathy, Reading Rainbow is absolutely AWESOME! I love it! You had so many wonderful ideas for this one, and it will definitely be perfect for reading under this winter. xo

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  3. It's as fantastic as I imagined it would be! I love it!!!
    So should I send my address to you now so you can get it in the mail to me ASAP???

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  4. This is my favorite Cathy quilt ever...except your African Crazy Quilt. Yup, THAT's my fav ever. Oh, I forgot Magic Carpet and Big Game. Oh Heck, too many to mention. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't get so much done without the help of your kitties.
    xx, Carol

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  5. I just LOVE this quilt. Looks even better now it's quilted and finished.Super!

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  6. this is just so fantastic a quilt! I love it!! ;)) great job on this one...hugs, Julierose

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  7. Congrats on this awesome finish!! Not sure how you will top this one!

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  8. Reading Rainbow turned out absolutely gorgeous! I'm blown away that you have it completely finished so quickly. Congratulations on an amazing quilt!

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  9. What a wonderful whimsical quilt. And what a showoff...finishing a quilt BEFORE the end of the RSC year. But yes, the winner is Alfie with his exceptional paw work.

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  10. AWESOME!!!! I LOVE THIS QUILT!
    Congratulations on a wonderful finish!

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  11. Wonderful finish! It was a joy to watch this quilt take shape over the past ten months. I hope you have lovely times while reading and cuddling with it!

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  12. the quilt is great! I've never seen a bookshelf quilt like that, so it's unique, too! I love all the extra little touches on the shelves: fish bowl, globe, fan... it gives it and extra little "pop" and some great personality, too!

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  13. This is just spectacular! I love all the special details you created, and using selvages for book titles is brilliant!
    A fantastic rainbow scrap quilt!

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  14. Cathy, this is absolutely amazing! I love bookshelf quilts, and this may be my all-time favorite. I'm working on one for me and I'm wishing I had seen yours before I started, because I didn't think to do rainbow. This is just so beautiful!

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  15. Congrats! on finishing your Reading Rainbow quilt. I absolutely adore it!! I think it may be one of my all time favorite RSC finishes.

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  16. This is one of my favourite quilts! You have good reason to be proud of it and I know you will enjoy it for many years to come. So nice that you have a studio helper too - to point out the finer elements of the design.

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  17. Books and rainbow fabrics - what's not to love! Such a gorgeous quilt with lots of extra special little additions! On behalf of the 2017 FAL hosts, thank you for participating in this quarter's Finish Along.

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  18. Love the way you used the selvedges!! Congrats on a great finish!

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  19. WOW! I LOVE this quilt! Wait...there’s no pattern? Please publish one! Thanks for sharing.

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