Rainbow Kitty Rows

When I saw Ruth's Rainbow Rose QAL that she was doing at Modern Quilters Ireland, I immediately loved it.  It is such a happy quilt and functional too, as a colourwheel.

Washed and crinkly in the morning sunshine

This is one of the projects on my Q3FAL List which you can find here.

The original quilt has a final 4.5" white border.  It seemed like too much white space to me (ha! really, that sounds odd, since I rather love filling white space with quilting!)  So, I only added a 2.5" border.  It has sat like that since July 5 while I contemplated how to quilt it, and dug through my stash for a suitable backing and binding...

When I found the Laurel Burch backing, a chunk of fabric I have hoarded for oh, about a decade, but did use some on my Merry Cat-mas and Dayna's stocking, more angst set in because I wanted to put some of it on the front.  To border or not to border?  As you can see, the kitties won.  They just had to leap and fly in their rows of 3 around the rainbow rose.  Doing that meant I didn't have enough to cover the entire backing, but the purple cats print by Henry Glass worked perfectly.

I did Angela Walters dot to dot designs with white Isacord polyester in the white triangles around the centre star.  In the centre star I used a Judi Madsen design, one I've also used on Dayna's grad quilt that is fun to do.  For this I used Aurifil variegated in rainbow colours.

Hot off the frame in the remaining light of the day in the front entry

I did a random wavy line through the carpenter's wheel sections of the quilt using that same Aurifil thread.

I am continually amazed at the difference in appearance from inside with natural light on a quilt, to outside in shade, to outside in fairly bright sunlight.
Below you see it in the shade before heading to the washing machine:

The Legacy polyester batting I used is to die for.  Quilts like butter, gives good definition and is light and airy.  I first used this last summer in the guild wheelchair charity quilts.  The charity quilt committee had been given a roll of it.  I loved it.  When I was in Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota this past winter, she had some quilt batting remnants and I scored two long and narrow pieces of it, one 17" the other 25" but by something like 84", for $2.50 for the two.  Yes!  So the batting in this quilt cost less than $2.50!  There is a join about 2/3 over from one side.  With this much quilting in the quilt I have no fear of it separating.

In the kitties border I did a Christina Cameli design that I've now used at least three times, and I just love it: waves with three "e's" every so often.  The binding I've had for quite some time. When I see a good stripe, I grab at least a half metre/yard since I love stripes as binding.

In the white background around the wheel, you can see I did three different quilted border designs.  Kathleen does this on lots of the quilts she quilts and I love the effects.  I love the idea of the quilting going behind the piecing.  So I did skinny figure 8's, ghost geese, and figure 8's again.  The white is not Kona Snow!  It's Maywood Studio's Whisper Whites from Charlotte Sewing Studio.  I've used this twice now, and it is a terrific fabric, doesn't fray as easily as the Kona either.

Ahh, love that texture. Yep it feels as good as you think it does when I pet it.  :-)

Here is the label:

Yes, I did my binding by machine again; it's just so much faster, and I am improving.  Only had to go back in on 3 spots this time!  Applying it to the front, folding it to the back, and stitching it down from the front in the ditch is my preferred method, and nicest final appearance IMHO.

Love me a good folded up quilt, but there is definitely an art to it, to get that rolled look...I opted for the folded look as you can see

Hot as Hades here as it seems to be in the east, with little to no rain in our area.  We did get a lovely quiet thunderstorm (oxymoron, but it was quiet as in not violent) with quite the downpour that went on more than 5 minutes!  The lawns are so brown, and I noticed the massive Catalpa tree down the street has many yellow leaves... Our hydrangea paniculata, aka PeeGee Hydrangea trees are glorious, so I had to get a shot of Rainbow Kitty Rows under one of them:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Rainbow Rose by Ruth Bourke
Size: 38 X 38 3/8"  (like how?  must shrink more one way than the other? It was square before quilting and washing...)
Fabric: scraps from my stash; backing is Holiday Collection by Laurel Burch for Clothworks, binding is from David Textiles (other info is cut off)
Batting: Legacy polyester scraps
Quilted: on Avril the Avanté; 96, 138 stitches
Threads: pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Isacord 0015 40 wt and Aurifil variegated Marrakesh 3817 50 wt; So Fine in the bobbin

Linking up with
Modern Quilters Ireland
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at What a Hoot Quilts (hey! Lynette is where I first heard of the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge!)

and also with Leanne at She Can Quilt for the Q3FAL.