Sew the Rainbow Sampler Quilt

Sew the Rainbow Sampler Quilt by Cait Lisle Designs

The Sew the Rainbow Sampler Quilt is a fat quarter friendly baby quilt pattern designed by Cait Lisle Designs. The finished quilt measures 39" x 50", making it a perfect baby blanket or throw. This downloadable PDF pattern is crafted to be accessible for beginners while remaining engaging and enjoyable for lifelong quilters. The design celebrates color through a vibrant rainbow-inspired palette, bringing a fresh, modern twist to traditional piecing techniques.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a sampler-style baby quilt finished at 39 inches by 50 inches. A sampler quilt is a beloved quilting tradition in which multiple different quilt blocks are sewn together in a single project, allowing the maker to practice and explore a variety of techniques and block designs within one cohesive finished piece. The rainbow color scheme — spanning reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and purples — gives the quilt a joyful, contemporary aesthetic that suits nurseries and children's spaces beautifully.

Techniques Used

• Traditional piecing — the foundational quilting method of sewing fabric pieces together with precise seam allowances to form blocks and units
• Sampler block construction — each block in the quilt may feature a different design, making this an excellent learning project for exploring multiple quilting block styles in one pattern
• Sashing — strips of fabric sewn between blocks to frame and separate them, adding structure and visual clarity to the overall layout
• Pressing seams — the pattern instructs makers to press seams in the direction indicated by arrows, a key technique for achieving flat, accurate patchwork
• Binding — the quilt edges are finished with a separate binding fabric, a classic method for neatly enclosing the raw edges of the quilt sandwich
• Quilting the sandwich — the pattern requires batting and backing, meaning the three layers (quilt top, batting, and backing) are assembled and quilted together as a finished piece

Fabric and Materials

The Sew the Rainbow Sampler Quilt is designed to be fat quarter friendly, meaning most of the colorful rainbow fabrics are cut from Fat Eighths (F8, measuring 18" x 11") or Fat Quarters (FQ, measuring 18" x 22") — the small, pre-cut fabric pieces widely available in quilting shops and fabric stores. This makes it an economical and stash-friendly project, ideal for using up fabric remnants or purchasing coordinated bundles.

The full fabric requirements as specified in the pattern are:

• [A] Background fabric — 1½ yards or 1½ metres
• [B] Red 1 — one Fat Eighth
• [C] Red 2 — one Fat Eighth
• [D] Orange — one Fat Eighth
• [E] Yellow — one Fat Eighth
• [F] Green 1 — one Fat Eighth
• [G] Green 2 — one Fat Eighth
• [H] Green 3 — one Fat Eighth
• [I] Blue 1 — one Fat Eighth
• [J] Blue 2 — one Fat Eighth
• [K] Blue 3 — one Fat Eighth
• [L] Purple 1 — one Fat Eighth
• [M] Purple 2 — one Fat Eighth
• [N] Sashing fabric — ½ yard or ½ metre
• Backing fabric — 1½ yards or 1½ metres
• Batting — 45" x 56"
• Binding fabric — one Fat Quarter

The pattern uses a ¼" seam allowance throughout, which is the quilting standard. A swatch chart is included in the PDF so makers