Author: jennifer

Ready for a dose of color?  The Jelly Rainbow quilt pattern is a fun way to play with color.  I pieced my version a long time ago but never quilted and bound it.  During that time, the cute girl I want to gift it to has grown much taller.  So, looking at my quilt top, I decided I needed to make it a little bigger.  This is a different sort of rainbow than my Rainbow Serve quilt.  It’s more a mash-up of color, and I love it.  So here, today, is my Jelly Rainbow quilt top with top and bottom borders added.

This pattern was originally published by Ruby Star Society.  They offered it free through Moda, and you can still find it here.  It’s a 54″ square quilt top you can make with just one jelly roll.  No background fabric required.  So if you haven’t seen this pattern, you might want to check it out.  This is what mine looked like before I added my borders:

I used a jelly roll with a large spectrum of color, which makes the rainbow effect more pronounced.  These fabrics were designed by Lotta Jansdotter, whose work is beautiful.  And thanks to my dear sister,  I have a border that matches the fabrics in the top.  I guess sometimes it serves us well to have a deep fabric stash!  (And many thanks to Kristen!)

I keep looking at that lovely orchid color, and thinking that it’s just so lovely.  And speaking of a stash, how do you manage yours?  Do you periodically go through it and get rid of what doesn’t still inspire you?  I start to do that, but often still see potential for fussy cutting, or English paper piecing, or color blending, or scraps.  So for better or worse, I tend to hang onto even older prints.  When it’s time to mix everything together, I like having those options.  Of course, the down side is storing scraps, and so forth.  So how do you approach it?

I digress.  Back to the jelly rainbow quilt top.  I like that such a simple pattern provides secondary designs for the eye to explore.  And I really like this color scheme – I think it will be perfect for our friend, even though it will come later than planned.

I’ve got several quilt tops now that need to be quilted!  Time to sew!

 

Last week I had the delightful opportunity to teach a class at a favorite Utah quilt shop.  I love teaching, and I really enjoy teaching how to trim half rectangle triangles without a special ruler.  That’s exactly what we did in class, with students working on various versions of my Serve Quilt.  Energized by their projects, I decided to sew together my sample blocks when I arrived home.  Now I have a “floral crush” Serve quilt top.

Some of my students opted to make the Rainbow version of Serve, and others were making the Show Up 48″ version.  All of them were beautiful!  I started mine some time ago for class sample blocks.  I used a Rifle Paper Co floral print with the Kona solid named Crush, which was a color of the year in 2023.  Thus my name for it, a “floral crush” Serve quilt top.  This one is the large, 72″ version.

Kona Crush is a gorgeous, saturated bright that looks lovely next to the floral.  Because of that, I chose a bright Dutch blue floral (a Liberty cotton print) and a deeper rich green solid (Art Gallery Pure Solids in eucalyptus) for my smaller stars.  The contrast is lovely and it adds a dark color to the quilt, which enhances its color value.

My background is another Rifle Paper print a gold star print from their Christmas collections.  I hope it will add a pretty sheen to the quilt.

While sewing this quilt top together, I found myself thinking of other designs for the half rectangle triangle quilt block.  If you could make a quilt with this block, what sort would you choose?  I love the way one quilt, or one quilt block, can inspire more creative exploration!

Imagine my surprise recently when I discovered I never shared this finished quilt!  Years ago Tula Pink released a gorgeous Butterfly quilt pattern full of gorgeous blocks and with incredible quilting.  My sister and I jumped right in.  It was a fun project, and also a good one to stretch our creative skills.  I’m baffled by my lack of sharing because this quilt was a big deal finish for me at the time.  So without further delay, here is my Butterfly quilt.

I used a color scheme similar to Tula’s original version for my own butterfly quilt, though I worked from fabric I had on hand.  Some of it is Tula Pink fabric (including the top and bottom border print), which was fun to include.  It was a time and labor intensive quilt.

Once finished, I opted for custom quilting by the talented Xenia Stirling.  She also quilted my Anchor’s Aweigh Quilt, which is another Tula Pink pattern.  And now I want to talk about that Anchor quilt because I love it so much, and those photos make my stomach hurt with missing another time and place.

But back to the butterfly!

Xenia’s quilting is exquisite, and I’m still so honored to have her work on my quilt.  Such a treasure!

 

Tula Pink more recently remade her Butterfly quilt in True Colors fabrics and also re-released the pattern. You can still find some available online.  I would say it’s definitely a quilt worth making if it appeals to you.

It’s kind of fun to revisit a quilt I made years ago, but also try to see it as new.  It’s clear  that, like the butterfly’s life cycle, we’re always changing.  I made this butterfly quilt, and yet…. the woman who made it isn’t really me anymore.  Looking at the quilt, the fabrics, thinking about that time, is interesting.  I’m a different person.  I’ve been on a journey I didn’t see coming.  And yet, I’m grateful I can still “fly”.