Quilter Playcation Adventure Sew Along 2024, Rainbow Edition top

50+ weeks, 49 improvisational blocks designed by Cheryl Arkison. Every Tuesday Cheryl would appear on Instagram at 2PM Mountain time, give us a new free block design and show us how to sew it together. Sometimes she had one done and other times she was partly designing (or maybe she prefer to say playing on the spot).

Cheryl made a black and white version from fabric she’d designed years ago and a pastel rainbow edition.

I decided to try using a “rainbow” of analogous colors with occasion pops of a brighter color. I stuck with that color scheme for the 14 weeks of winter and early spring, but as the weather got warmer, so did my blocks!

Every few weeks I’d try to cool down a block or two and then the brights would be right back!

I’m really happy with the way these 49 blocks have come together. Cheryl alternated blocks with a background fabric with blocks of just the colored fabrics. Not having a good sense of where we were being taken, I let my initial blocks be the size they wanted to be. So that meant some additions and occasionally rotating a block when it came time to assemble the blocks. The last 14 blocks are all 9.25 inches finished and the top rows are 8.5 in height and vary in width.

The finished quilt top is currently 64 inches square. Still mulling about the back, but thrilled to have the top done before the end of the year!

Working with Cheryl Arkison every week this year has been so much fun. She had me groaning a few times, but the blocks always got made on time. And I have to say, her scrap bin was always way more interesting than mine, even though we were working on the same project. Still wondering how that was possible!

Happy New Year everyone!