Fruity Flavors: A Rainbow Finish

This quilt was simple and so much fun to machine quilt.  It is another class sample for my Free-Motion Quilting Basics class taught at my local quilt shop.  (I talked about my experiences teaching in my previous post.)

I quilted it in Aurifil 50 weight thread in matching colors to the Kona Bright Peri, Water, Lime, Canary, Carrot, and Bright Pink.  (I have a tutorial for piecing the simple quilt top.)

Originally, I was going to demonstrate quilting on it during my  FMQ Basics class.  But due to the time limits (only three hours for the class), I thought it would be more beneficial to have a finished quilt to show in future classes.

Edited to add:  The manager at my local quilt shop and I have decided to split up my original class into two separate classes.  The first class will be all the basic information and quilting on small practice pieces.  The second class will be putting their skills to use on a simple baby quilt.  This simple fat quarter quilt and the simple stripe quilt are what we will be using.  I'm very excited about this change.  

I quilted this quilt to show that you can change a simple aspect of a free motion quilting design to achieve a different look.  For example, on the yellow section I quilted the traditional stipple or meander.

Then on the blue I kept the wiggles going in a horizontal direction.

It looks a lot more like water.

On the purple I quilted what Leah Day calls a sharp stipple going in all directions.

Then on the orange I quilted it mostly going up and down.

While some people see flames, I always see tiger stripes.  ;)

On the pink I quilted a loopy line.

I changed it up on the green by using two different sizes of loops.

Having the  different loop sizes together is super cute and perfect for people who have a hard time keeping the loops at a consistent size.

I quilted this on my domestic sewing machine with a six inch arm, and had to make sure I didn't go too fast and make my stitches too big on the larger circles.  You can get eyelashes on the back when the stitches get too large around the curves.

All together, this makes a really fun quilt which Monkey loves.  When I laid it on the floor, he sat on each square saying, "This one is my favorite" before moving on to the next square and saying the exact same thing.  I still don't know which one is is favorite, although orange is usually his favorite color.  Maybe his true favorite color is "rainbow" like his cousin.   For the picture he had to claim as much of the quilt as possible and laid down instead.

When I tried to get a picture of just the quilt, he snuck his foot in.

He wasn't too happy when I turned it over to get a picture of the backing. He wanted to see the colors.

 (I also have a tutorial for piecing the simple backing.)

I matched the bobbin thread to the top thread for each color, and you can't really tell from the back that there are seven different colors of thread.  (I used light gray for stitching in the ditch.)

I love the Riley Blake wavy stripe for the binding.  Can you spy the one little heart I quilted on the pink?  The black and white looks cute with the rainbow, and pulls out the black and white flowers on the backing.

I added my favorite corner label to complete the quilt.

Cheetah is the one who named it "Fruity Flavors" when we were laying out the blocks on the design wall.  We had to balance the berries and citrus fruit colors in the quilt.

This was a layout we decided we didn't like.  

I love that even simple quilting can give a quilt such great texture.  Here is the unquilted top.

And here is the finished quilt.

Both pictures were taken in front of my house at the same time of day.  (I don't normally take pictures in the front yard, but that is where the sunshine is in the late afternoon, early evening.)

Quilt Stats #125
Quilt Name:  Fruity Flavors
Pattern:  Simple Fat Quarter Quilt
Fabrics Used:  Kona solids (see above for the list of colors)
Binding:  Riley Blake
Backing:  It's a Party by Fabri-Quilt
Amount  Used:  4 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 42 x 54 inches
Date Finished: February 2015
What I Learned:

• Even super simple quilts can be darling and well loved.
• Solids show the quilting a lot, but mistakes can still be not too noticeable if using matching thread.  

I also used this quilt in my spray basting tutorial.  It was quick, simple, and so much fun to make.  

XX,

Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up to some of the linky parties on my sidebar.  Check them out.  There is something fun for every day of the week.

P.P.S.  A big thanks goes to Daines Cotton Shop for providing some supplies for this quilt.