It's a great big giant Rainbow Unicorn!!!
Last week I received a message in my Etsy shop from Anna. She was requesting a custom order and wrote, "Hi! I love your quilts and designs. I was wondering if you could custom make me a unicorn quilt in a twin size. Thank you!"
We conversed for a while, "What did you have in mind? Do you want the whole body of the unicorn or just the head? What size of quilt did you want - 70" x 90"? Can you give me a range of what you are willing to spend?"
"I like just the head that you have for sale. I would like it to be on a light pink or light aqua or turquoise background. 70" x 90" would be perfect. Open to prices. I love quilts but haven't had the time to learn to make them."
I went on to explain, "Using fabrics I have on hand would be less expensive for you. I got a good deal on these fabrics because I bought them by the bolt. If we have to purchase something for the background, fabric is about $15-$19 a yard. And you will need about 5 yards for the background. And 5 yards for the backing."
So I sent the following mock ups, made using my EQ7 program. It has taken me a little practice to get the hang of the Electric Quilt program, but now that I have learned how to use it, I don't know what I'd do without it. It was easy to take the Rainbow Unicorn block that I had designed and put it in a layout for a twin size quilt. And then plugging in fabrics to audition was a breeze!
Anna settled on the pink background option and choose the aqua for the backing. And I still had enough fabrics, left from making the smaller versions of the Rainbow Unicorn quilts I shared last week, to make this great big one.
The Rainbow Unicorn pattern provides instructions for piecing blocks in a 10", 20" and 40" square size, plus borders. So for this quilt, I omitted the borders while cutting, and instead drew up a diagram similar to this one, to calculate the fabric needed to place the block in a 70" x 90" setting. Unfortunately, I goofed in my initial calculation and made my top and bottom pieces 23" x 40.5" instead of 25" x 40.5", so my length of the quilt ended up being short. (I think I must have been fixated on the finished size of the block that included the borders.) Then when I was cutting my batting, I made another error and did not make it wide enough. (I think I must not have had enough coffee.) So my finished quilt ended up being 68" x 86". Sorta close to 70" x 90".
All of the fabrics used in this quilt were from Northcott Fabrics, most from the Artisan Spirit collection, so they all play nicely together. I have been working hard on using fabrics found in my stash this year and this custom quilt sure helped me to make a hefty dent!
The quilting was performed using my walking foot to create organic wavy lines with white thread both on top and in the bobbin. And I like how the quilting stands out a little more than if I had used a matching pink. Plus it blends well with all the other colours too, so we don't have pink stripes running across that white unicorn face.
The twin size "Rainbow Unicorn" quilt finished at 68" x 86"
The Rainbow Unicorn pattern provides instructions for three sizes. The blocks are 10" 20" and 40" square and finish at 12", 24" and 48" square including the borders.
The Rainbow Unicorn also NOW comes with instructions to make a solid horn or a spiral horn.
You can find the Rainbow Unicorn pdf pattern here in my shop.
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