Pastel Rainbow Quilt Tutorial

Quilty friends! It's been a while since I've been in this space. The world has changed a lot! It actually hasn't changed too much around these parts, and to be honest the changes have all been good. We love having "home school", we love having dad home, and we love spending lots of time together at home. Can you tell I love home? We feel extremely lucky to have the luxury of being home and safe.

That's not to say that we aren't very concerned. I've got 4 sisters having babies in the next few months (I know! It's some kind of record!) and that makes me so anxious, and my parents are currently living in a country where the healthcare is iffy at best. We also have a kiddo with asthma that flares up like crazy when he gets respiratory sicknesses. So it's not all sunshine and roses, but we are being extremely careful and looking for the positive in this very interesting time. I pray that you are all well- physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.

Let's not linger on that too much since it's all we ever hear these days. Let's talk about springy quilts! Many of you probably have more time to sew now, hooray!

This is part 3 in a free rainbow quilt series I've done for the last couple of years, it has become a springtime tradition. First there was the Muted Rainbow quilt (twin size), then the Bright Rainbow Remix with two kinds of baby quilts from the same cuts as the first one. Those two are interchangeable as far as bundles go. This time we're doing pastels, but reducing the number of colors and moving the cut size up to half yards. Ready?

Fabric Requirements:
9 half yards colors*
1 1/4 yds white fabric
2 1/2 yds wideback backing, or 7 1/4 yds regular
5/8 yds binding fabric

Makes a 78" x 92" quilt, or generous twin size.

(I used Riley Blake Confetti Cottons in Peaches and Cream, Mango Tango, Honeysuckle, Sunshine, Celery, Peridot, Songbird, Sky, and Wisteria.)

*Simply Love Fabrics was carrying bundles but I don't know if she's out, if I find an exact link I'll definitely add it here! UPDATE: she only has 3 more!

First, cut your background fabric to (17) 2.5" strips. Sew them end to end, trim the selvages, and press the seams, doesn't matter which way. Try to keep your loooong strip in an orderly back and forth pile as you press it so it doesn't get to wrinkly and tangled. Here's mine before I clipped the threads from chain piecing. Be careful that you're sewing the right sides together and not twisting it! 

Next, cut your color half yards to (2) 9" x WOF strips each. Trim the selvages on one side of each, and sew together with a 1/4" seam (always in this project) and press. Again, doesn't matter which way. Do this for each of your 9 colors.

From here, I trimmed my color strips to 78" wide so that my quilt would be an official twin size. You can just trim the selvages if you want to use all the fabric and have an even wider/bigger quilt! (You'll need a little extra white, binding, and backing if you do that.)

Now, sew a white sashing strip to the top of each color. You can chain piece all of it, and then trim up the white on the edges afterward. Press away from the white.

TIP! With so few seams on this quilt, it's easy to get the "right sides"mixed up. You can see above that on the dark pink and aqua- I accidentally sewed the white to the side with seams on my first try, and had to unpick. This probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't trying to time myself and make the whole thing in 1 hour while my kids were at a playdate :)

I also learned making this quilt that not all solids have a right side and a wrong side, but some do. I'm no expert, but from experience I'd say that Kona solids work either way, but Riley Blake Confetti Cottons have different sides. You can tell on my orange strip that there is a slight difference on either side of the seam, though it's from the same cut. So proceed with caution!

If you've been following on Instagram, you know that I drew a garden scene on the wall in this room. You can check that out in the "Flower Wall" highlight on IG for more details. Also, if you're wondering where I got the bed frame, pillows, nightstand, paint pens for the wall, or polka dot sheets, you can find them linked in my Amazon store. Just scroll down and click on "Guest Room". Everything else is from IKEA (lamp, shelf, clock, glass box, plants), or I don't know because I've had it for so long :)

Alright, continuing on! You can probably guess from here, it's not too tricky. Sew the strips with their white sashing in order and press toward the white again. Trim up the sides, and you're ready for quilting!

Now for the very exciting part for me! I loaded this baby on to my new (very old, used) longarm and went to town with flowers and leaves and swirls. It was so much fun! And also took a very long time. My longarm is not automated so it's all done "by hand", moving the needle around free motion, kind of like drawing with thread. This is the 4th quilt I've tried on it and I still make mistakes! But it's so much fun to learn, and exciting that I can finish big quilts at home, especially without basting! :)

I used Chasing Rainbows by Andie Hanna for binding. Don't get mad at me if that link runs out of stock, there isn't much left of this on the internet!

Don't you want to just hop into this photo for a nap? So glorious.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you are well and safe.

Note: I am not able to respond to blog comments for some reason, so use the Blogger contact form, email me, or hop over to Instagram if you have any questions! Thanks!

How to Sew a Scrappy Trip Block with 2.5" Strips

1

Start with 8 2.5” strips that are half the length of a Jelly Roll, or about 21”.

2

Sew strips together with a 1/4” seam.

3

The edges will be uneven, but don’t worry!

4

Press the seams alternating directions.

5

Fold in half lengthwise and sew the top and bottom edges together, creating a tube.

6

Flatten the tube and line it up on the mat. Trim one end.

7

Cut 8 2.5” tube segments.

8

Unpick one seam on one of the segments.

9

Unpick the next seam over in the next segment.

10

Continue with all segments and sew strips together. Seams will nest nicely! Press rows one direction

Check out my other content @woodberry_way on Jumprope.

Scrappy Trip Quilt Along Update

Hello Scrappy Trippers :) Welcome back! If you've kept up the last two weeks, you've cut all your strips and made the first 4 blocks. If you're like me, you got excited and sewed more than that. Haha! This next week we will be sewing 4 more blocks (bringing us to 8 total) and then every week after that we will be sewing 3 block until we are finished.

I decided to finish this version for the sew along, rather than the Christmas one, which was feeling stale this time of year. Don't worry, I still love it and I'll get back to it! Maybe we'll do another sew along in the fall. I am loving this springy version with Riley Blake Sunshine background, Riley White accent, and Granny Chic by Lori Holt. I can't wait to make more of it.

If you're new to the party (never too late, always welcome!) you can read the Scrappy Trip Quilt Along Introductory Post here.

Schedule (start dates):
Jan. 6- Cutting
Jan. 13- 4 blocks
Jan. 20- 4 blocks
Jan. 27- 3 blocks
Feb. 3- 3 blocks
Feb. 10- 3 blocks
Feb. 17- 3 blocks
Feb. 24- assemble quilt top
Mar. 2- last prize

I'll see you back here on the blog in 3 weeks for some progress shots and thoughts, and to announce some really great prizes! Meanwhile you can get frequent updates on Instagram. Here are the prizes for the last 2 weeks:

The winner for week 1 was @leah4837, who won a $50 gift card to The Quilt Spot and specifically their awesome line of sewing-related jewelry and accessories. So fun!

The winner for week 2 was/is @quilting_grammy, receiving a free pattern download from I Sew Stuff, as well as a hand dyed-mandala from Traveling Dye Co. 

There are some amazing prizes coming up to be sure to post your progress on Instagram with the hashtag #wwscrappytrip so I can see it. That hashtag is turning out to be AMAZING. You guys are the best! See you back here soon.

Scrappy Trip Quilt Along: Cutting and first blocks

Hello again and welcome to the official start of the quilt along! This week and next we will be cutting our fabric, and then making the first 4 blocks. So many of you have excitedly worked ahead, which I understand completely! There have been a lot of questions that I've struggled to keep up with between the holidays and visitors, so thank you for your patience with me. I am doing my best to explain a lot of different concepts. Let's all remember that it's free and it's for fun :)

Side note: I do not know why ads have starting showing up within posts, and I do not know how to make it stop. I hate them and I'm sorry!

Many questions can be answered in my last blog post, or on Instagram highlights, and I hope to answer many more today. If you're still wondering about fabric requirements, or schedule, or any other details be sure to check out the Scrappy Trip Quilt Along post from last time. 

Now for the cutting instructions!

No matter how you go about it, in the end you need (160) 2.5" strips that are half the WOF, so about 21" long. This is for the 64" x 80" quilt, with 20 blocks. (If you are wanting to make a queen size, you'll need to make 36 blocks, which is nearly double the fabric at 288 strips.) 

-For those of you using 2 jelly rolls for this quilt, your cutting is super easy. Just cut every strip in half! Your pieces will be about 21" x 2.5". You don't need to trim off the selvages, they will get trimmed later in the process. (Unless they really bug you, you can go ahead!)

-If you're using 12 FQs and background, you'll need to cut (7) 2.5" strips from each FQ. Make sure you're cutting from the length of the FQ, not the width, so your strips are about 21" long. If your FQs are cut without any extra, you only have 1/2" of wiggle room, so cut carefully. Once again, no need to trim the selvage unless you want to. You need 80 total, so you'll have 4 left over in the end. 

-If you're using yardage for background, cut (40) 2.5" strips and cut those in half. If you struggle to cut straight strips, I've shown how I do that in the "More Tips" highlight. 

-From 24 FQs, same thing! 7 strips from each, there will be just a few extra in the end. 

-If using an accent diagonal, cut (10) 2.5" x WOF strips, and cut each in half for 20 total.

Now for the blocks:

If you don't know how to make the Scrappy Trip blocks, watch this video. If you can't see all the words on the bottom, click on the icon in the lower left corner to make it bigger. 

Each version has only 2 blocks that alternate, so 10 of each type. Each block starts with (8) 2.5" x 21" strips, whether that be 8 scrappy prints, 4 prints and 4 background, or an accent substituted in there somewhere. 

If you're doing full scrappy, either with 2 print Jelly rolls, or 24 FQs, you have a lot of wiggle room. Start unpicking wherever you want! Just make sure half of them have the diagonal stripes going up, and half of them going down, with rows pressed up and down accordingly, if you want your seams to all nest. 

You do not need to make your colors match up as I've done in the diagram, unless you want to. When I made this quilt below, I didn't really plan at all. Since there isn't a lot of contrast in the fabrics I used, it mattered even less where I chose to place colors. 

This is my niece Isla. She took this quilt home with her to Utah today, and we miss her terribly already!

If you're doing a background fabric for every other row (with no accent), your two blocks will look like this. Make 10 of each. 

In my first blog post about my Gooseberry with white version, I talked about starting with either a print or a white in each corner, but that was only for making blocks with diagonals going all one way, and then rotating every other. Since then I've found it much easier to always start with a print in the upper right corner, deliberately go up or down with the diagonal each time, make sure rows are nesting by pressing opposite directions, and build the quilt as you go. You can wait until the end to decide block placement, but then you'll be tempted to rotate things around, seams won't nest, and headaches will ensue :) Believe me, I've done it both ways a few times.

Ok- here's where we throw a wrench in the works! The accent diagonal (totally optional) can either be put in place of a print, or background. In my birthday Ombre Confetti version, it was in place of a print, so I had 4 background strips, 3 prints, and 1 accent. In the Granny Chic version I've started this week in stories with background yellow, the accent is in place of a background strip, so I have 4 prints, 3 yellow, and 1 white accent. Either way, the accent is always going to be located in the same place in your 2 blocks, like this:

Accent diagonal in place of prints, so 3 print strips, 4 background, 1 accent-

Accent diagonal in place of background, so 4 print strips, 3 background, and 1 accent-

Notice that either way, the accent is in the same spot- from corner to corner descending in Block A, and ascending starting 2nd spot up from the bottom in Block B, with one square alone in the lower right. 

This will ensure that you have a continuous chain throughout your quilt, though it won't line up in all the corners of your quilt. If you want to just do it from corner to corner in each block, you will have 4 accent squares meeting at the corners of each block, which is also a fun look. 

Tip! It's easy to start unpicking on the accent square for Block A, but for B it can be confusing. Start by unpicking the accent square first, place it in the second row up, then figure out what goes below it, then build above it. 

I hope that clears a lot of things up. Prizes will be announced in Instagram, picked from participants who use the hashtag #wwscrappytrip. I don't really mind what stage you're at along the way as long as you're participating to win a prize. I'm not going to be counting anyone's blocks! I won't have blog posts here every week, so make sure to check in with Instagram. 

If you have any further questions you can email me at woodberrywayblog@gmail.com, and I will probably share the response on IG so everyone can benefit from it. Thank you for your excitement in doing this quilt together, I can't wait to see your blocks!

Scrappy Trip Quilt Along!

You guys, this is so exciting. We are doing a Scrappy Trip Along! For years people have asked about this, and it is finally happening. I love this quilt design as you know- I think it's a really fun method, and I love the look. You can check out all the different version I've made if you're interested.

Red/White/Blue Classic Scrappy
Gooseberry Enlarged Block with White Background
Planned Diagonal Ombre with Gold Metallic
Pink and Blue Enlarged Block Scrappy

There's going to be lots of hand holding for those of you who have concerns :) I've already started posting to my Scrappy Trip Highlight circle on my Instagram profile. There are quite a few videos there with all sorts of thoughts and tips. I really recommend checking that out if you have questions about the pattern or process at all.

#1 FAQ- Where can I find the pattern? If you are feeling confused as to where to find the pattern, you are not alone, because there is no official pattern! I know, annoying. But never fear.

Scrappy Trip is a technique that I learned on Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville where she has a tutorial. I have played around with that technique quite a bit because I love it. For this quilt along we are doing a larger block in order to maximize Jelly roll and Fat Quarter sized strips. I first used that technique on my Gooseberry Scrappy Trip. Because the technique was not my idea, I am not going to publish any sort of an official pattern or download for it. But because Bonnie's tutorial is also free, I don't feel bad adapting it and sharing how I do it. Like I mentioned, I have endless tips and tricks on the Scrappy Trip Highlight circle on my Instagram profile.

You can watch a video here to see how to make the blocks:

Scrappy Trip Block Directions

This time I am using Riley Blake fabric- Granny Chic by Lori Holt for the prints, and Confetti Cotton in Sunshine for the background, and an accent diagonal in Riley White. I've not historically been a yellow person but it's really been growing on me the last few years and I'm always down for trying something new. I have high hopes for it!

I've also started a Christmas version, and I may do that instead for the quilt along. I haven't decided!

#2 FAQ- How much fabric do I need?

This part is flexible. You can mix and match according to your needs.

Option 1-  1 print Jelly Roll and 1 background Jelly Roll, or 2 print Jelly Rolls

Option 2-  12 FQs of prints and 3 yds background, or 24 FQ prints

You can switch these around, for example, 1 Jelly Roll and 3 yds of background would work, and so would 12 FQs and a background Jelly Roll. Make sense? At the end of the day, you need (160) 2.5" x 21"ish strips of fabric, or (80) 2.5" x WOF (to be cut in half).

This is for a 64" x 80" quilt, 20 blocks total. Your choice whether it has a background like this one, or all prints. I love doing it both ways!



Here is the schedule we are going to be following. It's a nice easy pace so if you need to start after the holidays and catch up, no worries at all. Blog posts will go every other Monday, and all weekly prizes will be announced on Instagram.

Sign up for emails HERE!

Schedule (start dates):
Jan. 6- Cutting
Jan. 13- 4 blocks
Jan. 20- 4 blocks
Jan. 27- 3 blocks
Feb. 3- 3 blocks
Feb. 10- 3 blocks
Feb. 17- 3 blocks
Feb. 24- assemble quilt top
Mar. 2- last prize

Of course work ahead if you'd like! I'm not stopping you :)


Now for the PRIZES! That's what makes it so fun, along with doing it all together. There will be a prize every week for participating by posting on IG with the hashtag #wwscrappytrip. Here is a sampling of some of our prizes. I am thrilled in advance for the winners, so much fun! I've included some photo examples of their work or products that I thought were lovely.

$50 Gift Card for sewing themed jewelry at The Quilt Spot

Free Pattern download from I Sew Stuff


Free digitized longarm quilting from Taralong Dotted Lines Designs



Smitten Jelly Roll from Crimson Confection

2 patterns and a coupon from Briar Hill Designs

$35 towards quilting fees from Dixie Creek Quilting


A beautiful hand dyed mandala from Traveling Dye Co. 

A half yard bundle of pastel Riley Blake solids from Simply Love Fabrics

Starlit Quilts to be announced here! 

Thank you so much prize donors for making this fun! 

Let me know if you have any questions. The best way to reach me is email woodberrywayblog@gmail.com.   

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and I will see you after the festivities!           

Rainbow Fabric Bundles

Hello dear fabric lovers! I have some rainbows to share with you today. This is my latest rainbow, made of all basics from Riley Blake. I love to get particular about colors and thought some of you may want to know the names of each, because I sure would!

Confetti Cottons (solids): Peaches and cream, Mango Tango, Crayola Melon, Sunshine, Celery, Peridot, Songbird, Aquamarine, Sky, Wisteria
1/8" stripe: Aqua, Lipstick
White Swiss Dots on: Lavender, Coral, Lipstick, Cayenne, Yellow, Green, Mint, Scuba
1/8" Small Gingham Check: Teal, Coral
Small Dots: Rouge, Yellow, Green

I don't have a plan for them all together, though they do look pretty that way!

Here are a few other rainbows I've created over the years, some shops still have kits for them if you're interested.

The first one was my Muted Rainbow bundle with Fabric Bubb and accompanying striped quilt pattern.

These ones are all Kona, and the names are:

Pale Flesh (now called Shell I think?)
Dusty Peach
Rose
Plum
Deep Rose 
Gold
Curry
Wasabi
Pickle
Lime
Celadon
Seafoam
Fog
Delft

After that I did a brighter, cooler rainbow with another free pattern, this time for two smaller quilts and a pillow from the same cuts. I called it Rainbow Remix!

The names of these ones are from different manufacturers. I am very persnickety about colors and often can't find the ones that I want that work together from just one maker, so finding this particular bunch is a bit trickier.

Free Spirit Sapphire 
Moda Bella Regatta 
Kona Jade Green 
Tula Aegean 
Free Spirit Julep 
Free Spirit Cricket 
Free Spirit Pear 
Tula Limeade 
Kona Grellow 
Free Spirit Persimmon 
Tula Hibiscus 
Kona Punch 
Moda Bella Shocking Pink 
Kona Cerise

I also have another bundle with Fabric Bubb that is a sort of rainbow that I used for my Shiny Brights quilt. 

Next up, I've been wanting to do a pastel rainbow, but like I said, it's hard to find the right thing all within one brand. I think I'm close though! These are Riley Blake Confetti Cottons and I've got a new free pattern coming up with them in the Spring. 

Wisteria
Sky
Songbird
Peridot
Celery
Sunshine
Honeysuckle/Apricot Blush?
Mango Tango
Peaches and Cream

I love making rainbow pulls with prints as well, you can see some of them at #wwfabricpulls or #wwrainbowquilt.

I hope that helps you with any rainbow-inspired projects! I'll be back soon with details about the upcoming Scrappy Trip Quilt Along. Hooray! 

Best of luck preparing for the holidays. See you soon!