Monday make - Alaska rainbow

 

The Alaska Rainbow sewalong with Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket quilts was taken at a nice pace, making four each of two blocks every week. I was pleased with my fabric choices (list at the bottom of this post) apart from running out of the oyster colourway. However I substituted another fabric for the middle blocks and it adds another dimension to the project. There were a couple of mistakes in the pattern and it was difficult to see from the diagrams when to use the oyster and cream backgrounds, but I am pleased with the final result.

I quilted the project on my Handiquilter Avante using Christy Dillon' Fast feathers pantograph which was a new purchase. I wanted an open design without too much overstitching so as not to dominate the quilt pattern.

I tend to gravitate towards striped bindings and asked for help choosing on Instagram. I was also limited by the fabric in my stash as I don't tend to buy much yardage. In the end I went for the Libs Elliott pink to pull the pink in the centre out to the edge and it works. I am a slower binder and set off all gung ho that I was going to quickly finish this project, in the end I scheduled in an hour a day for four days and it was soon complete and allowed me time to work on other projects too without becoming overwhelmed.

This has been a perfect quilt to work on during these difficult times as it is so cheerful and you can work on it in bite size pieces. We are on day 7 of self isolation with our daughter so my husband was available this morning for quilt wrangling duties as he is working from home.

If you're interested my fabrics which are numbered as per the pattern are as follows:

1. Carolyn Freidlander for Robert Kaufman - also used for the backing
2. Kimberley Knight grid 2019
3. Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics
4. unknown
5. Wilmington prints
6. Fossil fern
7. Desert song by Mara Penny for Moda Fabrics #13306
8. Giucy Giuce for Andover Fabrics
9. Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics
10. unknown
11. Giucy Giuce for Andover Fabrics 2019 #9243
12. Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics 2015 #8138 sphere
13. Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics 015 #8182
14. Bernatex 2306
15. Triple S flutter series for Sew Group Int
16. Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics 2015 #8182
17. Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics
18. Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics 2015 #8182
19. Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics 2018 9012 
20. Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics 2018 ornament #9119
21. unknown
22. Cotton & Steel basics spring 2014
23. Miss Kate by Bonnie & Camille for Moda  #55094