Sunday, February 9, 2014

Kaleidoscopes

I love intricate complexities.  I love doing kaleidoscopes.  I began the following quilt before the "Stack-n-Whack" craze started.  Enter that in your search engine and you will find lots of directions and at least one book.  I tried one once and was not successful.  My daughter has made several and they are beautiful.  Strange as it may seem, I am happy to work with a template and fussy cut each triangle like Paula Nadelstern directs in her "Kaleidoscopes and Quilts."



Many of the blocks of this quilt were created from the border print that surrounds the center.  I spent one whole weekend at quilt camp putting these together and never tired of it.  Each one turned out so cool although I liked some better than others.

I can't see how I quilted it and since my quilts are buried by more snow I can't get it out to look.  I think it is probably quilted in the ditch.  If I were to do this quilt today I would stitch a pretty design into the light blue border.  That would settle the puckering down.  Each kaleidoscope block would be perfect for interesting flowers, all different from each other.  I probably would have quilted around the motifs in the the border.  However, we have to start at the beginning to get better.

TIP:  How to fussy cut the kaleidoscope triangles:
1.  Cut a triangle template from clear template plastic, including the seam allowance.  The measurement of the triangle depends on your final shape.  A hexagon uses six 60º triangles.  An octagon uses eight 45º triangles.
2.  Move a hinged mirror around the fabric until you find a spot that makes a nice design.
3.  Lay the template over the chosen part of the fabric and make marks with pencil on the plastic so you can line up the template on the same part of another, same motif for the next triangle.  
4.  Line up the template on the fabric and mark around the edge with a fine marker.  Move it to another place on the fabric to the same motif and repeat as many times as necessary.
5.  Cut the triangles carefully on the marked line.
6.  Sew together carefully by hand or machine (that is another lesson).



1 comment:

  1. Wow! I looked through your blog and all your work is just gorgeous but this one is my favorite. Unbelievably beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete

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