Rainbows...

When we moved into our new home, I promised my daughter that I'd make her a new quilt. She'd outgrown the cute pink and purple one I made when she was in Kindergarten, so she was pretty happy to hear that she'd be getting a new, more grown up quilt.

Daughter had this idea that she wanted her bedroom to be "like a garden", so I bought a tree wall decal, painted her walls robin's egg blue, and got a rug from Ikea that looked like grass. The quilt, which is up in her loft bed, is a rainbow.

Of course, stripes are boring, and I didn't want to spend all that time and money working on a quilt that she wouldn't like in a year, so I picked out some fabrics that are more grown up, and somewhere in between pastel and bold...

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The pattern I chose is called Window to the Soul Gypsy Caravan, and it is by Amy Butler. The pattern is free, which is a bonus!

Unfortunately, the pattern makes more of a square quilt. I really need to get more consistent about reading finished quilt measurements! Lesson learned!

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It's next to impossible to photograph a quilt in a loft bed, so these are the best photos I could get of the finished quilt.

Here's some background on the quilt, which I started quite some time ago...

First post, talking about the planning stages...

Second post, an update and talking about my machine...

Third post, another update...

Fourth post, could it be? Yes, another update...

And the final post on the quilt, the finished pillow sham.

Then nothing. I posted nothing further on the quilt. For shame! Well, I'm remedying that now, aren't I?

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The quilt, as I mentioned, turned out more square and was therefore a little too short, so I cut off the binding on the top and bottom edges, and added a band of another coordinating fabric to both ends.

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How did I add the length? Well, the quilt was already finished, so I had to trim off the binding. Have you ever taken scissors to a quilt? It feels so wrong!!! Anyway, that's what I had to do, and I lived to tell the tale. Thanks to my friend Andrea, I learned about the "quilt as you go" method, which I was able to adapt to this quilt. Basically, I used this version of the method, but more or less in reverse. First, I sewed the green and teal strips together, then I added them to the purple edge, which previously had been the finished edge of the quilt. I trimmed the extra batting, and used a decorative binding stitch to ensure that I caught everything on the underside of the quilt.

I had lots of the light green from the center left, so I used that, as well as some teal that I found I did not need.

Now the quilt is plenty long enough for daughter's bed.