As I sit here writing this post, the snow is coming down outside. That is to be expected since it is January, but 2 days ago we had 55 degree weather. The weather here is nuts! And that is where the inspiration for this quilt ended up…with the weather. Here in central Ohio, we are considered one of the cloudiest cities in the country averaging 283 cloudy days per year. Those clouds make for great filtered light and picture taking, but also a longing for sunny skies and color!

When I first sketched this quilt, I was unsure about the palette. After coloring the sketch and playing around with it, I decided to use rainbow colors and try solids from Art Gallery Fabrics. I ordered a color card to help me choose fabrics.

Intense, saturated colors were what I first pulled, but I wanted those balanced out with some softer shades too. As I began making the quilt, I really loved the colors I chose, but realized that I needed one more dark in the green/blue family so I ordered a teal to add to the mix.

The background is Essex linen by Robert Kaufman. I used Essex linen in my Great Granny Squared quilt and loved the look. I ordered a metallic but changed my mind and ended up at my local quilt store, Sew to Speak, to pick out fabric with all of my AGF solids on hand to make sure I liked how they looked together. I really wanted the background to be a soft, grayish blue that represented those cloudy skies in Ohio. The Essex linen in chambray is subtle and compliments the rainbow palette. I enjoy the mix of two different textures of fabric in this quilt.

By using Quilters Dream Wool Batting, the greater loft provides more depth in the center and around the perimeter where the quilting is not as close. Prismatic Chill was backed with Carolyn Friedlander’s Crosshatch in Pacific. Quilt was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 2600.

As a side note, while I was making this quilt, I affectionately called it the rainbow quilt or winter rainbow quilt. It’s the quilt’s pet name. Is there such a thing? I like to think of Prismatic Chill as the formal name, the one you would see on the birth certificate that no one really says. Haha!

You can find this quilt and the pattern in the Winter 2017 issue of Modern Patchwork.

Happy Quilting ▶︎ ▶︎ ▶︎