Lunebeam: March 2016

This quilt was designed and made for a relative that has Stage 4 cancer. I was heartbroken to hear this sad news, and while there isn't much I can do, I thought a bright handmade quilt may help cheer her up. I wanted to make it lap sized so she could take it to her chemo appointments to keep her warm.

I think the first Moda Love quilt I made turned out beautifully so I was debating about making that quilt again or something different. In the end, the quilt I made was essentially a Moda Love quilt with some minor changes. The center unicorn piece is done using an 8.5" by 8.5" square and adding the purple onto it. Since I counted my diagonal seam allowance wrong, the block finished out at 7.5" by 7.5" (an inch too small). Thus, I added a one inch (cut 1.5") border of teal with gold around it. I'm using this teal for binding, so I like how it is echoed in the center. The rest of my changes are pretty easy to see. The Moda Love Pattern is free from Moda and can be found here (This quilt is the charm size).

The fabrics for this quilt are a real assortment. Basically I went into a quilt shop I frequent called Thread Bear Fabrics and browsed. They have a huge selection so I had lots of options. I knew I wanted a rainbow of colors so I picked a fabric I liked, and then set to matching it. My husband is a great sport and helped me out through this process!

The purple with gold in the top left was not actually used in this quilt. I went with the teal with gold instead (not shown).

I ended up with the following (from left to right in the picture above):

Tula Pink's Mini Owl from True Colors collection
Chez Moi's Flower collage in buttercup from Mimi collection
Heather Bailey's Summerhouse in red from Clementine collection
Masha D'yans Dandelion from Forest Wonder collection
Jeanean Morrison's Damask in blue from Lovelorn collection
Art Gallery Fabric's Fancy Buttons Purple from Bespoken collection

The white with gold dots is LB Basics by Laurel Burch for Clothworks in the Basic Dot collection. The teal with gold is Artisan Spirit Shimmer by Deborah a Edwards of Northcott.

For all of the 6 rainbow fabrics, I got a quarter of a yard cut. I then cut a 5 inch strip off of each color. Because Thread Bear often cuts generously, the remaining portion was anywhere from 4.5 to 6 inches. I put these aside for the backing. I then cut my 5 inch strip into 8, 5" by 5" squares. This gave me 48 charm size squares to work with. I had a good amount left over.

I also cut two 5" strips and one 4.5" strip from my cream with gold dot fabric. I then cut these down into squares.

The center block turned out a little smaller than expected, so I added a little border to it.
The border is the same fabric as the binding.

I then used my notes to make my blocks accordingly. Please note I took extra care to ensure that all my directional fabrics were sewn so they all went in the same direction on the quilt. This will take some extra time and planning, but it would have bothered me if they went different directions.

The white used is actually a creme colored fabric with gold dots. I am in love with it. To me it is the perfect cream solid/blender. How does every shop not have bolts of this?!

Debating what color to border the center block with and bind the quilt with. The teal on the right won.

The binding is a teal marble fabric with gold on it. It is also gorgeous. I guess I just really like the fabrics with the metallic sparkle to them.

Ready for quilting now

For the backing, I used all my scraps from the rainbow fabrics. This wasn't quite enough, so I added a 5 inch strip of cream with gold dots. I didn't use a ruler to measure my backing before adding the cream and estimated how much cream to add. Turns out 5 inches of cream made the back exactly the same size as the top. I knew I could make this work with careful alignment, but next time I would use 6 or 7 inches.