Quilty Zest: Rainbow Cross Quilt

In 2019, I was commissioned to make a quilt to hang at Castle Church Brewing Community in Orlando, FL.

Our family moved to Florida from July 2018 - July 2019 to help start up this brewery and church in one. The building housed both the brewery and a tap room, which included a beer garden that served as the church home. The whole set-up was pretty industrial, which worked just fine for a brewery, but the church needed a little color and love - hence my quilt commission!

I knew I wanted the quilt to feature a cross since it's such a significant symbol for the Christian church. I also wanted to incorporate a rainbow of colors because Castle Church is all about the idea of all being welcome.

I stuck with solid fabrics so it didn't get too busy, and started making slabs of color, with a vague idea of how I'd pull everything together. I aimed for clean, bright colors and used whatever solids I had on hand. I supplemented with one extra red, orange, yellow, green and blue, and several purples - not much of that in my stash, I guess!

Here are my slabs in progress.

Each measured between 6" and 10". I figured as I joined them together, I'd need to add in strips here and there. If you want to see how I do assembly line improv piecing, click here for a tutorial.

Next came layout. I played around with several options and also asked people to weigh in on Instagram.

You know how sometimes, something just clicks? I had my "ah ha" moment with the last layout. The others were all okay, but as soon as I started this, I KNEW I'd nailed it.

Watch my assembly video here: