the rainbow village

the crazy thing is, that this project started pre-shutdown, and yet ended up representing the 2020 quarantine to a T. what better way to represent this chaos than rows and rows of houses that are likely filled with people at their windows waiting to go outside again.  but we all know that feeling all to well, since we've been living it.

back in february, a local quilt shop (that in a weird turn of quarantine events, i now work for) started to host a weekly "village quilt along" making all the houses for the moda village quilt.  i ran out and bought the pattern from the local shop (caliquiltco, holla!) and then debated my stash 10 THOUSAND times before coming up with a decision.  i figured that since i had so much kona left over from my paper piecing projects, i may as well chop through it to make all my houses and really clear out some inventory.

there were larger chunks of some colors compared to others (for example... red was from the beauty and the beast rose pillow, and greens were from boba fett) so balancing out the quilt was an event to come later on.  in the end, it became very clear this was a quilt i could't just donate and never see again... i mean... JUST LOOK AT IT!

my houses were made with rainbow colors galore... piglet pinks, tigger oranges, zazu blues and so much more.  knowing each of these fabrics came from a variety of projects made the rainbow of homes that much more special.  i decided to do chimneys sporadically on different homes, just to add some variety in to the mix.having all the doors shades of gray helped unify everything, and kept me from going crazy trying to fussy cut something to put in each doorway... because i totally went that vibe with my brain at one point.  the simple white kona helped everything pop... and i just love looking at it. now you see why it was so hard to just give away?  not yet?  okay.  let's look at more.<the crazy thing is, that this project started pre-shutdown, and yet ended up representing the 2020 quarantine to a T. what better way to represent this chaos than rows and rows of houses that are likely filled with people at their windows waiting to go outside again.  but we all know that feeling all to well, since we've been living it.

back in february, a local quilt shop (that in a weird turn of quarantine events, i now work for) started to host a weekly "village quilt along" making all the houses for the moda village quilt.  i ran out and bought the pattern from the local shop (caliquiltco, holla!) and then debated my stash 10 THOUSAND times before coming up with a decision.  i figured that since i had so much kona left over from my paper piecing projects, i may as well chop through it to make all my houses and really clear out some inventory.

there were larger chunks of some colors compared to others (for example... red was from the beauty and the beast rose pillow, and greens were from boba fett) so balancing out the quilt was an event to come later on.  in the end, it became very clear this was a quilt i could't just donate and never see again... i mean... JUST LOOK AT IT!

my houses were made with rainbow colors galore... piglet pinks, tigger oranges, zazu blues and so much more.  knowing each of these fabrics came from a variety of projects made the rainbow of homes that much more special.  i decided to do chimneys sporadically on different homes, just to add some variety in to the mix.having all the doors shades of gray helped unify everything, and kept me from going crazy trying to fussy cut something to put in each doorway... because i totally went that vibe with my brain at one point.  the simple white kona helped everything pop... and i just love looking at it. now you see why it was so hard to just give away?  not yet?  okay.  let's look at more.the colorful houses also remind me of the painted ladies in san francisco. 90's kids... you know the scene from the opening credits of full house that i'm talking about...the quilting took a little more thought than originally planned.  i knew it was going to be light blue, since that's one of my three colors of isocord that i have, and it also blended well with the blues in the quilt.  but the pantograph was another debate.  it could have been puppy paws or hearts or flowers of sorts... but i didn't want it to be too obvious if my lines were off.  i thought i had settled on one (and subtlety asked the decided recipient which she liked) but when i arrived to quilt this sucker, i found this ivy-ish design that reminded me so much of my favorite storybook that i had to use it.  that's right.  madeline has moved to SF and brought her vine covered lifestyle with her.  as usual, i nearly second guessed myself when i stitched out the first row.  after staring at it for a long time and deciding not to rip it out, i kept going and in the end... it is perfection. mind you, that is by my standards, not actual perfection.the binding was purchased after the quilting was complete, and i knew i needed a shade of blue kona to tie it all together.  none of my scraps were big enough, so i called up caliquiltco to see what they had, and blueprint became the color of choice.  so on a tuesday afternoon, which was also the recipient's birthday, the binding was attached and the quilt was complete!
but before we finish, we gotta talk about the back.  this is basically a quilt in of itself.  apparently the term for that is afterquilt?  (or so i was told by karen brown of just get it done quilts)

i was determined to piece this back and use up a ton of scraps and have it look "cool scrappy" not "crappy scrappy"

and my mental image turned out perfect.

i knew i wanted us to have our own houses on the back (mine is blue, hers is orange for the giants) with cats in our yards.  from there, i scrappy pieced low volume fabric to make that row, plus pieced the large chunks of blue and gray to create the bottom.  another chunk of gray for the top row with a hint of baseball to fit the width.  now, i didn't pick blue at random.  i do recall it is one of her favorite colors.  if i had a large amount of giant's fabric, that would have also made the cut... but for now, her orange house must do.  speaking of our houses...i knew these fingerprint cats would be perfect for us to have in our "yards", especially since her cat kyo is in fact an orange chub.  there wasn't a single elroy looking fingerprint cat, so i went with this funny little guy eating next to mine.  seems appropriate enough.i decided this would not just be a birthday gift, but instead be considered an "open adoption" to ease the stress of receiving a handmade gift (her mom is a quilter, so she knows the time and effort that goes in to such a task).  considering the last "quilt" i made her was a dophin rag quilt probably about 10 years ago, it was about time that she got something legit.  as much fun and importance it is to make charity quilts, i just really needed this particular quilt to go to a hand selected home.  and i've already seen photos of it in use, so that's even better.

would i make this quilt again?  probably.  i still have a whole bunch of kona that didn't make the cut for this color way.  it was hard to have owl and kanga brown houses mixed in with the bright colors!

pattern: moda village

quilt count: 133