Who doesn’t love sewing with a good rainbow fabric collection? Luckily for me (and you), Shayla from Sassafras lane is a master at creating said colorful collections. I first sewed with one of Shayla’s collections a few years ago when I was able to participate in a blog tour for her Foundations fabric collection. Check out the rainbow Hello Pouches I made here, and then again with her Good Vibes Only fabric collection where I made my Modern Half Hexi quilt. When she asked me to participate again this year, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist Shaylas rainbow goodness. Somehow I was able to manage, in the midst of having a baby and learning all about sleep deprivation. This project was a bright spot in my weeks as I strapped my baby on or watched as she slept beside me and my whirring sewing machine. Without further ado, here is my finished quilt, featuring Shayla’s newest fabric collection called “Favorite Things” that she designed for Windham fabrics.

I made a quilt from one of my own patterns called Second Star. I designed this pattern with Peter Pan in mind. Notice the second star inside the bigger star? And the bigger star pointing to the right? Get it? “Second star to the right and straight on till morning.” I had a few friends make this pattern with bright rainbow collections and was inspired by them in making this quilt with Favorite Things fabric.

For this project, I made some changes to the original pattern:

• I left off the accent squares. I thought the floating stars among the great low volume background fabrics might be a fun change.
• I took inspiration from my friend Leslie’s Second Star quilt and made a pieced rainbow border. These fabric are perfect for a gradient rainbow.
• I cut a stop border at 2.5” and then added 2.5” squares in rainbow order for the center border.
• I finished the quilt off with another 2.5” final border.

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Have you ever made half-rectangle triangles? This pattern uses them and I have a method for making two at a time! Here is a picture of how I like to trim them in half all at once. If you need more help with half-rectangle triangles, here is a Youtube video that will have you cranking them out in no time.

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I love how this quilt turned out! I just barely got a new pantograph from Julie Hirt who is one of my favorite pantograph designer. It is called Hippie Dippie. You can grab that in her shop here if you are interested. I wanted a pantograph that had lots of density and was geometrically themed, with lots of lines to match the fabric designs. I think this design was just the right one.

As I was finalizing the piecing for the top, I was struck with some rainbow inspiration. I was pondering what fabric I was going to use on the back of this quilt. I looked up and saw some of the Foundation fabric collection I sewed with a few years ago. I thought, “how fun it would be to make this quilt reversible and throw together a scrappy backing?” I decided to make my Fat Quarter Pile up quilt pattern for the back. I have been wanting to do this for a while now and this was the perfect project! The twin size version of the pattern ended up being just a few inches bigger than the Second star top—which was perfect for quilting. I added a few other prints in the mix to complete the back. This is a seriously fun way to use up fat quarters or scraps lying around if you want to save on buying a backing. And this pattern sews up QUICK with no seams to match

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I couldn’t stop with the rainbow order and the few left over scraps I had lying around. With Valentines around the corner I remembered this simple heart block tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew and thought it would be perfect for these fabrics. So here you go, I turned it into a mini quilt that I’m going to finish up and add to my mini quilt gallery on my wall.

Thank you to Shayla for the fabulous fabric and for the opportunity to create with it! Be sure to follow along on IG to see all the other makers that have also been sewing up some rainbows!