Tips for My Small World Quilt (Part 3 - The Rainbow, Orange Peels and Clamshells)

If you're like me, you probably finished Section 3 of your My Small World Quilt and, bedazzled by the sweet rainbowy goodness of section 5, leapfrogged over the space on your design wall where Section 4 should go, to work on this colourful little corner of the world in the top left hand corner. 

It's certainly my favourite "neighbourhood" in My Small World.  

I've previously explained how I worked the Half Dresden, the Hexie Hillock and the New York Beauty Arc, but I've left you waiting far too long before explaining briefly how I approached the rainbow.

1. The Rainbow

Once again, Floriani Stitch and Wash Fusible came to the fore. Using the templates for the arcs provided in Jen Kingwell's pattern, I cut out the skinny, curved pieces and ironed each one onto a different fabric. 

Next I cut these into semi-circular shapes, folded back my seam allowances and used my Sewline glue pen to finger press these in place, ready for appliqué. This is how the pieces looked from the back.

And this is how they looked from the front.

I took the second largest semi circle (the large spot in my picture), placed it on top of the largest semi circle (the rainbow stripe), and pinned it in place with my tiny appliqué pins.

After appliquéing it to the stripe, I turned my work over and carefully cut away the striped fabric from behind the spotted one. I repeated this with each subsequent arc of the rainbow, in each case trimming away the excess fabric from behind the appliqué

Finally, this was how the finished rainbow looked from the front.

And here's the back view, showing those strips of Floriani Stitch and Wash Fusible stabilising the arcs.

2. The Orange Peel Blocks

Again, I just traced the petal shapes from the templates in the pattern, and ironed the petal shapes onto the wrong side of the different coloured scraps I was using. Then I cut out the shapes, leaving an approximate 1/4 inch all around. I folded that seam allowance back onto the Floriani and, using my glue pen, I glued them down read to hand appliqué. Very simple.

3. The Clamshells 

Yes, *again* I used the Floriani method, but I only folded back the fabric on those main curved edges, not the clamshell "stems". The trick to success with this block of My Small World is to first appliqué the bottom line of clamshells to the background fabric. Again, there's no need to do anything to those stems.

Once this row is firmly stitched in place it's easy to just stagger the positions of the clamshells in the top row so that they alternate with the bottom ones and cover the stems completely.

Of course there are other methods, but this is what works for me. 

I hope you're sharing your progress pics on Instagram :-)