Rainbow Wheel Quilt

Back in the spring I was very busy making quilts for magazines and now a whole bunch of them are being published at the same time and I can finally show them off! So expect plenty of finished quilt posts over the summer.

First up is my Rainbow Wheel Quilt featured in Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue 37, which is out today.

Love that cover quilt by my good friend and Stitch Gathering teacher, Julie (Forest Poppy).

Plus those cute FPP dogs are by Juliet (Tartankiwi), another SG teacher whose coming all the way from New Zealand to teach. If you are not going to this year's retreat you can still take a class with Juliet at our studio in September. Check out Juliet's beautiful butterfly class here (and book while there are still places available!)

With this month's magazine comes this fantastic Kawaii Hexies supplement - how cute are they?! I've never seen anything like them before and I sense a new craze about to start (someone needs to do some Pokemon Go versions and then they'll really take off!). Even though they look ridiculously fiddly I still fancy having a go!

The idea for this quilt pattern came from this Scrappy Wheel cushion below. Last summer I spent some time using up old class samples and this was made from four 'Fan' blocks from my Modern Sampler course. The cushion was a big hit so I decided that a full sized quilt would be a good idea.

I chose a limited palette (for me!) of turquoise, pink, orange and yellow and went through my giant scrap bag for suitable pieces for the 'fans'. I decided on a dark background for a change, one of my favourite fabrics, Kaufman's Spot On in Pepper.

I extended the scrappyness into the 'piano key' border, including scraps made out of the background fabric to break it up a bit. I think the 'floating' strips of colour make the whole thing look a bit more modern.

And then I decided to have another go at an overall feather pattern for the free-motion quilting (I've only used this once before, on my feather quilt and that was two years ago!) but this time with added 'echo'. I chose a variegated turquoise thread (Aurifil 50 as always) and it's had quite an unusual effect, giving extra texture to the background especially.

I wasn't sure about it to start with (the variegated thread effect). I thought it looked a bit like the quilt had gone mouldy! But now I think it gives it a more velvety look.

I forgot to take a photo of the backing (these photos were done before it got sent away) and I can't remember what I used now! So that will be a nice surprise when it comes back to me.

I think this quilt is going to live in the Tiny House my husband has built. He has taken my Squaring the Circle quilt for styling the sleeping loft in his photography, but it could do with being a shade bigger to fit the bed. This quilt is 69in square.

I plan to post all about the Tiny House once it's completely finished (bathroom still to go), but in the meantime you can see it here.