Rainbow Over Head: Week 1

let's sew rainbows!

Greetings! After the wintry months of January and February, March whispers spring in the northern hemisphere. In The Netherlands, the crocuses and snowbells are blooming and the sun will be shining all week. Sewing a rainbow feels particularly fitting in this context - a celebration of color and a sign of hope.

Come sew-along! Find out more about the Rainbow Over Head sew-along at the master sew-along post. It’s a digital pattern, so you can grab it in a flash and sew right along.

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Hopefully you already have a copy of the Rainbow Over Head pattern and have zeroed in on a background for your quilt.

Still unsure or resisting the idea of buying new background fabric? Remember, you don’t have to use one consistent fabric for your background. Why not use a variety of blue solids, like Joanie, or all your low-volume scraps, like me. A scrappy background with various takes on a theme creates a very cool look.

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WEEK 1 GOAL

Cut Colors A-J

Ok, let’s get her started! You’ll find the cutting table for your quilt on page 4 (baby quilt) or page 5 (throw quilt). Each color is visually coded for easy reference.

Color A is your background fabric, and you sure need a lot of that. Find yourself some entertainment and set to it. I did a lot of my cutting while talking to a friend. A podcast or music works great too! If you loose steam halfway through this repetitive task, consider leaving half of the color A fabric for next week. Then you can move onto cutting the colors, which I think is a lot of fun.

I’m cutting my plus colors from fabric scraps. As the pattern suggests, I’ve selected solid colors to stand in as my target hues. Then I match scraps to the closest target color to simplify these color decisions.

Note that the pattern indicates how many sets of 4 you need in each color and how many sets of 3 you need in each color. That’s because Rainbow Over Head includes incomplete plus shapes, which are made up of three matching squares rather than the typical four matching squares.

Personally I love this idiosyncrasy. It means that I can still use a print in the quilt, even when I come up short of four squares.

Have fun dipping into these warm, energetic colors. If your day is gray instead of sunny, it may be just the pick me up that you need!

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Kick-off Prize winners!

Everyone who bought a copy of the Rainbow Over Head pattern since its release was automatically entered to win one of our two kick-off prizes.

Congratulations to Joanna Janssen, winner of the prize donated by Art Gallery Fabrics, who ships from the United States.

Congratulations to Karina Marcinkovic, European winner of the prize donated by Floyd the Fox, a lovely German fabric shop.

I hope that each of you enjoys this rainbow of Art Gallery Pure Solids that I’ve composed just for Rainbow Over Head!

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SHARE TO WIN!

This week share a photo of your Rainbow Over Head progress on Instagram or Substack chat!

Your photo enters you into a giveaway for the Nineteen Thirty quilt pattern (€32). Nineteen Thirty quilt conjures a formal garden complete with medallion fountain, elegant flower beds, trellis and garden wall. My version interprets the pattern using a colorful spring palette and the full range of values from pale to black.

Giveaway open worldwide! Winners will be announced weekly in the sew-along newsletter and contacted via Instagram or Substack messaging.

Two ways to enter!

1. On Instagram, share your photo with hashtag #RainbowOverHeadQuilt.

2. On Substack (that’s where my blog lives now!), share your photo in the chat.

It has become increasingly difficult on Instagram to see your photos. On the Substack chat your photos won’t be lost to the Instagram algorithm and we’re finding it easier to connect as a community. Why not try?

Good luck!