Scrappy Unicorn Rainbow Sprinkles

Prepare yourself for some color.  My inner 90’s child just wanted to bust out my Lisa Frank stickers and Trapper Keeper when I started these blocks.  In all transparency, I do have a Lisa Frank calendar on my desk at work to look at and enjoy.  You’re not here about obnoxious desk decor, you’re here for the fabric and blocks.

I hit the mother load of scraps during our Indy Modern Quilt Guild Winter Retreat.  Lisa and Erika were gracious enough to just let us go through their scraps.  Take whatever you want.  Lindsay Conner was working on blocks and was just tossing the left over half square triangles away.  I knew they would could be reused in a scrappy project.

I like big blocks and I cannot lie… #imqgretreat

A post shared by Lindsay Conner (@lindsaysews) on

There were so many from her 12 blocks, plus all the other scraps that an idea came to life.  I had 7″ squares left over from finishing the solids string quilt.  Let’s make a scrappy quilt that looks like rainbow sprinkles.  YES!!!

fabric sorted and ready

Sorting through the scraps again was more fun.  I had an idea in mind and could start seeing the palette emerge.  Orange, green, teal, aqua, purple, pink, white and of course gray.  The mix plays so well together.  I made a couple of test blocks to get started.

They felt right so I kept going, unsure how many I would make.

Around 15 blocks I started to get a little bored.  The blocks seemed to be repeating themselves, though each one is different.  I made a few more and decided to test a layout.  Maybe that would be the catalyst forward or the stopping point.

A couple of design options started to flow.  Keep going until there are 42-56 blocks completed for a totally scrappy quilt.  Egh, I wasn’t really feeling the work involved.  The blocks didn’t take long to make.  I was running out the yellow and orange scraps.  Second idea was to add six more blocks and get to 25.  Maybe put them on point and surround with a solid.  White?  Gray?  I remembered a bolt of Kona Robin’s Egg Blue I had in the back room.

The color coordinated well with the blocks and I had lots of it on hand.  New plan was to finish the next six blocks and then finalize a layout.  The last six blocks took forever, I couldn’t seem to get them finished.  Final block count of 25 was all I had in me for this project.  It was enough scrapiness and it left options for negative space.

During an open sew day for an IMQG meeting, I was able to get the blocks sewn together and start ripping off the papers.  Ripping off the paper when paper piecing is annoying, but soothing at the same time.  I even found a few errors that was too late to really fix.  Did you see this gem on Instagram?

Some inappropriate words were said, but I knew I could fix it later.  I added big borders to the top and called it a day.

As the top was being pieced I just kept thinking about rainbow sprinkles.  That’s what the blocks looked like to me.  With the half square triangle in the center, I was thinking unicorns.  So the name, Scrappy Unicorn Rainbow Sprinkles, was given to this quilt.  I think it’s perfect and I’m crushing on this quilt pretty hard.  Not quite New Kids on the Block level, but close. Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite 90’s song I can jam to while quilting this over the weekend?  Leave your suggestion in the comments.


Linking up with Oh Scrap! & I May Have a Scrap Problem

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