Rainbow Rose QAL Week 5: Assembling your quilt top!

Welcome back to week 5 of our Rainbow Rose QAL

First up congratulations to Yvonne @ Quilting Jet Girl who won last week's prize of the QAL, a fat quarter bundle from Sew Crafty Fabrics by linking up a polka dot Rainbow Rose!

For our schedule see the QAL tab at the top of this page.  We are exploring the colour wheel and making this block, the Rainbow Rose, in your choice of 2 sizes to make either a 40” x 40” baby quilt or a larger lap or bed quilt 80” x 80”.

Prizes!
This weeks post is sponsored by Just Sew Now who have sponsored a prize of fat quarters to the value of €20 to a lucky winner who links up to this weeks post on assembling our Rainbow Rose Quilt top!
  
To win the bundle, link up a photo, instagram or flickr image, or a blog post of your progress on the Rainbow Rose block by clicking the blue linky button at the end of this post.  Random number generator will choose a winner to be announced next week!  The linky will be open until midnight next Tuesday and the winner announced next Wednesday!

Piecing:
We're onto the home stretch and the part where it all comes together! Cue the A-team music! Di-di-di-da!

1.  Layout the pieces we've made as follows:

2.  Sew into rows and finally sew the three rows together to make the Rainbow Rose Block.

3.  Before trimming our border pieces measure across the length of your block in three places : at the right, middle and left side. Take the average measurement and use this figure to trim your border fabric for the two sides of the block.  If you have maintained a perfect 1/4" seam the block will measure 32 1/2" x 32 1/2" and the bed quilt 72 1/2" x 72 1/2".

4.  Sew the side borders to either side of your block.

Large lap quilt & smaller baby quilt version!

5.  Measure again across the width of your block at the top, middle and bottom and taking the average measurement trim the top and bottom border. If you have maintained a consistent 1/4" seam it will be 40 1/2" for the baby quilt and 80 1/2" for the bed quilt.

6.  Complete the quilt top by sewing on the top and bottom border.

7.  Now I quite like the minimalist look of this block, floating in all that background space, but if you like a more traditional treatment and a fancy border, here are some options for using your leftover triangles and stash of Rainbow fabrics!

Hexagon with squiggle or Orla Kiely inspired orange peels!

 

Options for borders if you wish - shown here the 72" block with border options to finish at 80" x 80"

The templates to make the applique pieces for each of these 3 options for both the baby quilt and lap quilt sizes can be downloaded here.   

 Remember to print at 100% with no scaling to end up with the right size templates.  A 1" checkbox is included for reference.  You can use any applique method you wish.  Templates are sized for raw edge fusible applique e.g bondaweb or the Crafted Applique method by Lara Buccella.  If you prefer to needle turn applique please add your seam allowance when cutting out your fabric shapes.  Hexagon Flower templates are correct size for the EPP method.

My placement of applique squiggles on a corner of the larger sized quilt!
Yes there is a piecing mistake in my corner block, I had to unpick! Can you spot it?

And you are done!
Except for the basting/quilting and binding, labeling and gifting if you like...

Exploring the colour wheel
Last week we looked at complimentary and triadic colour schemes.  Other colour schemes that are fun to play with are:

Analogous - fabrics used are from colours side by side on the colour wheel like red, red orange and orange. 

Monochromatic - all the fabrics used are from the same colour and vary in lightness only.  You can have great fun playing with gradients and ombre effects.

This colour scheme could be fun to try in each of your applique borders if you like and add to our rainbow blend & complimentary colour centre.  You'd have lots of exploring colour theory in just one quilt as an an end result!

And lastly, Achromatic - think of a Black & White photo.   B&W in photography is sometimes referred to as greyscale.  Using tones of grey with black and white can make for a very beautiful quilt.

I had the privilege to make some blocks for a Share Jane quilt project co-ordinated by Paula Rafferty.  The Share Jane concept is for lots of people to make blocks of the Dear Jane quilt, a really old quilt design made up of small squares. It's a quilt made over 150 years ago by a lady called Jane A. Blakely Stickle and contains over 5600 pieces.  It's a sampler quilt of 4.5" blocks (169 of them!) with a triangle border (adding it all up to 225 patterns in total).   Taking this traditional sampler project and re-colouring it, Paula designed 3 very striking quilts!

An Achromatic version with a happy accidental pop of colour:

Photo by Ruth Bourke.  Image used with the permission of Paula Rafferty

A Rainbow version:

Photo by Ruth Bourke.  Image used with the permission of Paula Rafferty

 An Irish version based on the colours of the Irish Flag

Photo by Ruth Bourke.  Image used with the permission of Paula Rafferty

Doesn’t this traditional quilt look very modern with Paula’s colour treatments? 

Remember to link up a photo, Instagram/Flickr post or blog post on any progress on your Rainbow Rose to win this brilliant prize of a fat quarter bundle from Just Sew Now Click on the blue button below to add your image.

For our final link up opening on the 20th July we will have three more prizes to giveaway.  The link up will be open until the 30th of July so there is lots of time to catch up and finish your quilt top if you need to!  Random number generator will choose 3 people who have linked up finished quilt tops and finished quilts to win prizes from Fluffy Sheep Quilting, Slaney Handcraft and Love Fabric.ie.  Mark it in your diaries and see you at the final linky party!

Thank you for quilting along with us and exploring the colour wheel.  I hope this will be of use to you in making your own quilt designs and can see that applying your own colour treatment to some traditional designs can make for some very fun quilts – Modern Traditionalism at its best! I hope you enjoyed it and thank you too to all our very generous sponsors.

Please share the love and visit our sponsors by clicking on each of the photos below! 

        

Rainbow Rose QAL Week 4: Centre Star

Welcome back to week 4 of our Rainbow Rose QAL

First up congratulations to Imelda who won our third prize of the QAL (by linking up to last weeks post), a fat quarter bundle from the Quilt Shop Tuam!

For our schedule see the QAL tab at the top of this page.  We are exploring the colour wheel and making this block, the Rainbow Rose, in your choice of 2 sizes to make either a 40” x 40” baby quilt or a larger lap or bed quilt 80” x 80”.

Prizes!

This weeks post is sponsored by Sew Crafty Fabrics, who have sponsored a prize of fat quarters to the value of €20 to a lucky winner, who links up to this weeks post on piecing the centre Star of our Rainbow Rose.

To win this bundle, link up a photo, instagram or flickr image, or a blog post of your progress on the Rainbow Rose block by clicking the blue linky button at the end of this post.  Random number generator will choose a winner to be announced next week!  The linky will be open until midnight next Tuesday and the winner announced next Wednesday when we move onto assembling our quilt!

Piecing : Lastly we come to the centre star!
1.  Take the remaining 4 background fabric squares 5" x 5" for the baby quilt or 10" x 10" for the bed quilt and cut in half along the diagonal. Remember if you are not used to handling bias edges you can starch your squares before cutting to make them easier to work with and avoid stretching out of shape.
 

2.  Gather up your remaining coloured triangles - you should have 4 left from the corners and 8 left from the middle sections. You will need 16, so from your colour wheel fabric, choose colours to blend with what you have.

It can be helpful in choosing the fabric to arrange your on hand pieces into a star shape, so you can see what works best together and what colours you are missing.

3.  Again, to make the triangles needed cut 5" x 5" square or 10" x 10" from your fabric.

4.  Cut in half along the diagonal to make two identical triangles.  You will have extras and can use them to make a label for the back of your quilt if you like!

5.  Pair the colour triangles for the star points with a background fabric triangle, by placing right sides together.  For the remaining colour triangles pair as per the diagram or your chosen layout in step 2.  Place right sides together.
 
6.  Sew along the diagonal edge using a 1/4" seam and press open or to the side as you prefer.

7.  Trim to 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" for the baby quilt or 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" for the bed quilt.

8.  Sew the 4 HST for the centre in a pinwheel formation by sewing in rows and then sewing the rows together.

9.  The star points will make up the bottom section of the blocks we made for our middles. The star is set opposite the outer wheel in terms of colour. The orange and yellow points of the star are pointing towards the blues, purples and pinks and the greens against the reds.

Sew the star points to the bottom of your middle sections as follows:

The star points will then be sewn on to the centre block next week when we look at final assembly & borders!

Exploring the Colour Wheel:

Colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel are called complimentary colours - they have the most contrast with each other and in reality clash quite a bit but still somehow manage to go together! If you want to draw attention to something, using high contrast like complimentary colours, will attract the eye. A classic complimentary colour combo is the Christmas Red & Green. I'm quite partial to Blue & Orange though not so much Yellow & Purple!

Orienting our star within our colour wheel this way just adds a bit more contrast to the colour placing and I hope makes for an interesting quilt block!

A split complimentary colour scheme is a variation on complimentary. Instead of using a colour directly opposite on the wheel, use the two colours that are on either side of your opposite colour. e.g. Instead of Red and Green, use Red with Blue-Green + Yellow-Green.

A tetradic scheme uses 4 colours that form a rectangle on the colour wheel and is composed of 2 pairs of complimentary colours.  As such, it can be overpowering if equal amounts of the 4 colours are used! Using one of the colours as an accent in small amounts can be more pleasing!

A triadic scheme uses 3 colours that are equidistant on the wheel like Purple, Orange and Green or Yellow-orange, Blue-green, Red-purple. This can be a really fun combination to play with!

Next week we’re onto final assembly and completing our quilt top!

Remember to link up a photo, Instagram/Flickr post or blog post on your Rainbow Rose progress to win this brilliant prize of a fat quarter bundle from Sew Crafty Fabrics! Click on the blue button below to add your image.



Thank you to all our very generous sponsors.  Please share the love and visit our sponsors by clicking on each of the photos below! 

Click on images below to visit our sponsors shops:
        

Sign ups open for our Summer Swap

------------SIGN UPS ARE NOW CLOSED - Thanks to all who signed up to swap!--------------

Sign ups are now open for our Summer Swap.  Aideen and Cindy have chosen a fun, stress free project this summer - the one hour basket!   The idea is to make a small basket for your partner, big enough to store a few fat quarters  or a hand sewing project.  The pattern is by @Kelbysews and is free to download from Craftsy here!

Extras are great fun and always welcome but shouldn't break the bank.  An extra like a nice piece of fabric, a fat quarter, a favourite sewing notion to the value of €5, a fat quarter worth of scraps or a small handmade item would be ideal.  Chocolate is always welcome but if you are going to send sugary goodies please put them in a plastic bag so as not to melt all over your beautiful creation!

The sign up form is here and as always our swaps are open to all sewing levels and is beginner friendly so don't hesitate to join up!

To participate please make a mosaic of items you like, to give your partner an idea of what to make! Our previous post How our swaps work has step by step instructions to make a mosaic using images from Pinterest.

Sign ups will be open until next Saturday, 25th June, and partners will be assigned by Monday 27th June latest. You'll then have all summer to make your item for your swap partner, and posting dates will be Monday 5th through to Wednesday 7th September.

You can customise your basket with some patchwork or play with fabric choices for a fun project for your partner!  The most important thing is to have fun!

This swap is open to members of Modern Quilters Ireland residing in and outside of Ireland. If you are not currently a member, and want to join up (membership is free) please find the information and link to the registration form here or email us at mqgireland@gmail.com.

Please post your mosaic to Instagram using the hashtags #mqisummerswap.  The sign up form is here.  I hope you will join us in making for each other this summer and thanks to Aideen and Cindy for looking after us as Swap Mamas!

-Ruth