Rainbow Friday

Happy Friday! We're bringing a little rainbow action to celebrate the end of the week! The beauty below, Staggered Strips, is a gorgeous and easy-to-piece quilt by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton, and it was recently featured in Quilts and More magazine. 

 "Designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton. 

Used with permission from Quilts and More® magazine.

©2017 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved.” 

 We asked Joanie to tell us about the Staggered Strips quilt. 

Tell us about working with the Zentastic fabrics.

The colors appealed to us, definitely. They’re not your typical colors—it’s a very contemporary palette, so it was a challenge to make them work together without a focal print to tie them together. We viewed the whole line as the focus and worked to put them together.  

How did you develop the design?

We wanted to keep it simple—a beginner quilt, but with a contemporary feel. As we started working with the prints, it became more about getting a cool design without a lot of piecing. We created that with the color wave concept that moves from side to side.

As the design was coming together, we decided there needed to be something to break up the rows. My son Zack, sat down with me and together we started moving colors for the horizontal bands. It was his first quilt designing experience! The bars in the center rows create a visual break.

How does the quilting enhance your design?

Our quilter, Naomi Polzin, quilted each color grouping differently. She followed the curve of the colors, changing the design in each band, which helped enhance the purposefulness of the design.

What do you like best about the quilt?

I like the way it all came together. And that it’s got a very contemporary feel to it.

Tell us about the skinny blue rectangle on the left.

It really adds a pop of color that works in the design! We originally tried the gray-blue over there (which would have continued the ordered pattern), but it just mushed—it didn’t work. The blue really pops against the greens.

p.s. Wouldn't this quilt be fabulous in some of the Bali collections we've featured on the blog this week?!?!

Click here to see the Zentastic collection.

Click here to visit Melanie and Joanie's website.

Click here to find the Summer 2017 issue of Quilts and More.