Shannon Fraser Designs: Rainbow Plus Quilt

Rainbow Plus Quilt | Shannon Fraser Designs | Modern Wall Hanging | Mini Quilt | Frolic Fabric Collection | Michael Miller Fabrics | Hand Quilted

Oh, the wonders of quilting project fabric scraps. They hold so many possibilities – you’ve just got to let your imagination go and think outside the box!

And when your scraps are this pretty, how could you resist?

I had triangle scraps from the flying geese I made for my Spring is in the Air quilt. You know me and those triangles…I just can’t throw them away!

After sewing the triangles together and playing with layouts. I wasn’t entirely convinced and felt the quilt blocks needed a little more oomph. A few small squares and some stitching and my HSTs had been snowballed 😊

They looked really good together in pairs of fours, but while thinking about my design options, I had a visual of plus signs. Small ones for the corner blocks featuring the HST layout and a larger central one to unify the pairings. I’ve been wanting to make a plus quilt for quite awhile now, so I guess this is my foray into the realm of pus quilt designs!

I was working on this in March and the weather was anything but Spring-like. We still had snow storms and below freezing temperatures going on. It was a welcome relief to get to play with such gorgeous fabrics! They reassured me that Spring would be here soon bringing its sunshine and flowers.

You know me and my love for straight line quilting and that’s exactly what I went for in the large central plus sign. Instead of just going from top to bottom, I echoed the corners of each block so that I wouldn’t have any intersecting lines. I was hoping this would further emphasize the plus sign as well as give it some nice quilty texture. I think I succeeded!!

For the corner blocks, I decided to have some fun with the quilting. I opted to use not one. Not two. But three different coloured threads. I would have gone for four, but I don’t have any green thread on hand. Clearly a sign I need to expand on my quilting thread stash 😉

The machine quilting was perfect for anchoring the quilt down, but I really wanted to add some extra texture. So, I added a little pop of yellow with the big stitch hand quilting using Aurifil thread in 12wt. Only a couple of lines in the white background, but I think it finishes it off perfectly.

I love the Tresse fabrics in Frolic fabric collection. They are perfect for binding! I used Tresse in Citrus for my Spring is in the Air quilt. And since I love all 4 colours, I decided to feature them all and go scrappy. Scrappy bindings are so fun and in these colours, it’s just perfection!

And to finish it off...a little homemade quilt label 💓

Haven’t a clue where I’m going to hang this, but I know she’ll look amazing and bring such vibrancy to the space once I find her a spot!

Some of my favourite projects have been created just based on my fabric scraps. I think it’s quickly becoming one of my all-time fav ways to play! So, give it a go and see what little beauty you create!

Oh, and don’t forget – the entire Frolic fabric collection designed by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller Fabrics hits your local quilt shop this Thursday!! Hurry and snag some for your quilty stash!!