There's just something about a rainbow quilt that never gets old. A good rainbow fabric pull can make a quilt feel playful and cheerful, while maintaining that modern aesthetic. A rainbow fabric pull is one of my go-tos when I want to make a project feel extra fun from the very beginning.
In this roundup, I'm sharing some Cotton and Joy quilt patterns that show off that rainbow look in different ways. Some of these quilts use a classic color progression, some lean scrappy, and some take a less traditional approach, but they all show how versatile rainbow quilts can be.
What Is a Rainbow Quilt?
A rainbow quilt is exactly what it sounds like: a quilt that uses a full range of colors across the design instead of focusing on just one palette. Sometimes that means arranging fabrics in a clear rainbow order from warm to cool tones, and sometimes it simply means using a broad mix of colors that creates that same bright, colorful feel.
That's one of the things I love most about rainbow quilts: there's no single way to make one.
You can go super structured with a smooth color flow, keep it loose and scrappy with a mix of prints and solids, or even use colors in a more unexpected layout and still end up with a quilt that reads as rainbow. The patterns in this list all take a slightly different approach, which makes them such a great source of inspiration for your next colorful project!
Cabin Peaks Quilt
Cabin Peaks is such a fun rainbow quilt option because it takes a classic log cabin foundation and gives it a bold and modern feel. The layout has a strong graphic look, which makes it a great pattern for showing off a full range of fabrics and colors while still keeping the finished quilt feeling clean and structured.
The cover version is a great example of how well a gradient rainbow pull works in this design. The color placement creates movement across the quilt and lets each shade stand out in its own row. It's a really satisfying choice if you want a rainbow quilt that feels classic at its core but modern in the final layout.
Midpoint Quilt
If you love a rainbow quilt with a bold look, Midpoint is such a strong choice. The design is graphic and eye-catching because of the long diagonal lines running through the quilt. Because the piecing is minimal, the fabrics do a lot of the heavy lifting here, which makes it a great pattern for showing off a full spectrum of fabrics!
For this Midpoint quilt, I used Ruby Star Society Speckled fabrics and they were such a good fit for this pattern. Ruby Star Society is known for those rich, saturated colors, and the added texture in Speckled gives the rainbow effect even more dimension. Paired with a Speckled rainbow fabric in the background, it all blends together in such a fun way!
Hexie Blooms Quilt
Hexie Blooms is my modern take on the classic Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, and it's such a fun one to include in a rainbow quilt roundup. I've loved the look of those vintage floral hexagon quilts for years, but I knew I wanted a version that felt a little more doable for modern quilters. This pattern gives you that same cheerful, flower-filled look, but with large half hexies, no y-seams, and no hand sewing.
I know this one might not read as an obvious rainbow quilt at first glance, but I promise it is. Just take a look at the fabric pull photo above and you'll see exactly what I mean. Hexie Blooms is a great example of how a quilt can still have a rainbow feel without following a strict RGB order. The colors are spread throughout this design in a less literal way, which gives it that same colorful, happy effect.
Annabelle Quilt
Annabelle might be the most unexpected quilt in this rainbow roundup, but that is exactly why it belongs here. This pattern was designed as a fun, modern cow quilt, and the rainbow version really shows how much personality color can bring to a design. Instead of going in the expected direction with browns or more traditional farm-inspired shades, I leaned all the way into color and made a rainbow Annabelle using a layer cake. That choice gave this quilt such a playful feel right from the start.
Seriously, does it get much better than cute, rainbow cows??
Joyful Stars Quilt
Joyful Stars feels right at home in a rainbow quilt roundup because color is such a big part of what makes this pattern shine. The design is based on a traditional sawtooth star, but the added color tiles "behind" the stars give it a more playful, modern feel. It still has that classic quilty star shape at the center, but the overall layout leaves a lot of room for color to bring in some personality!
For this Joyful Stars quilt, I used Vannesa from V and Co's fabric collection, Fairy Dust Ombre. I mean, how could I not? The fabric descriptors were ombre and metallic stars and that was perfect for Joyful Stars! Because the fabrics are printed in an ombre gradient of saturation, it gives the star tiles some great dimension. Plus, the range in the collection allowed me to use a rainbow gradient from each star block, which was a huge plus!
Squared Up Quilt
Squared Up works really well as a rainbow quilt, especially if you love sewing from scraps. The block design uses larger pieces, so your colors and prints have space to stand out instead of getting chopped into tiny bits. That makes it a really fun pattern for pulling from scrap bins, old project leftovers, and those random cuts of fabric you have been holding onto for the right quilt.
The scrappy rainbow version is where this pattern really comes to life. Each block gets its own mix of fabrics, and all of those colorful pieces come together into the best rainbow gradient! I also love that a quilt like this can feel a little sentimental too, since so many of the fabrics can come from past projects. It has that happy rainbow look, and was pulled entirely from my scraps!
Mod Dreams Quilt
At first glance, this solids version of Mod Dreams might not seem like it belongs in a rainbow quilt roundup, but it absolutely does. When I was working through color options for this quilt, I kept coming back to one specific direction and ended up going with a modified rainbow palette. It pulls in a little bit of everything: pinks, oranges, yellows, citron green, blues, and purples, which gives the quilt that colorful feel without arranging everything in a strict rainbow order.
I think that is why I ended up loving this version so much. Even though the colors are not lined up in a perfect rainbow order, it's still bright and colorful, which makes this rainbow quilt so fun. There is a little bit of everything mixed in together, and because I used all solids for this one, the colors really get to do their thing and show off for you here!
At the End of the Rainbow
I hope this roundup gave you lots of fun rainbow quilt inspiration and maybe even sparked a new idea or two for your next project.
One of my favorite things about rainbow quilts is that there is no one right way to make them. Some follow a more classic color flow, some take a scrappier route, and some are a little less obvious but still full of so much color. And really, that feels a little like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to me: pulling a bunch of beautiful colors together and turning it into something you cannot wait to sew with!