Rainbow Mini {Handmade Birthday Club}

I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m part of the Handmade Birthday Club on Flickr. This has been an awesome opportunity, and I can’t wait to see what arrives for me this month, as my birthday is on the 31st!

Here’s how it works: You have a group of 10-12 or so, and say in January, 2 people have a birthday. So, everyone makes a gift for those 2 people and mail them by the 15th of the month. So, every person who has a birthday in the current month, receives a gift from every other person in the group. It must be handmade and would ideally be along a theme or pattern or color scheme that the receiver is fond of. I’ve posted pictures of my previous gifts on Instagram, but forgot to load them to Flickr, and I’ll see if I can find those to show you! You can also check out all the goodies on Instagram using hashtag #handmadebirthdayclub2014 or for our group, #latebloomersbirthdayclub.

^^ Those are the gifts I’ve mailed out so far, but this month I got to really challenge myself creatively, and I’m so excited to show this off!

Here’s all my squares in rainbow order. These started at 1.5″ square.

Then I pieced them, which made the final square 1″ in size. THAT’S TINY!

Once I had a bunch of blocks pieced together, I chopped it up. I freely cut a curved edge on top and bottom to create the rainbow. Then I had to figure out how to piece it to the white, as I didn’t want to applique it. Wasn’t as difficult as I had imagine and turned out awesome!

The quilting is 1/8″ apart, done by walking foot.

And here’s the final mini quilt! I was so proud of myself for curved piecing, creating my own pattern, and working with such tiny pieces. This was definitely the coolest project I’ve worked on yet!

On the back, you can see how I quilted over the rainbow itself, with various color threads and a paisley design.

Quilt Stats
Final Size | 19″ x 19″
Fabrics Used | Anna Maria Horner True Colors, Kona in White, Riley Blake 1/2″ Black Stripe
Thread | Aurifil 50 wt. in White 2024, various rainbow colors
Batting | Warm and Natural 100% Cotton