Sunday, August 4, 2013

ALYoF - August Goal

A Lovely Year of Finishes

Ok August. Game on. I am going to make a kaleidoscope quilt out of oranges and blue. I've been wanting to make a Kaleidoscope quilt for a while now. I am not going to use templates - that sounds akin to torture. Should I paper piece? I also found this nifty way to piece them without paper piecing or templates but I am concerned I wont get the accuracy I am striving for plus it generates a lot of weird scraps of fabric. Any suggestions?

The blue is a Kaffe Fasset shot cotton (I seriously wrote Kotton first). The oranges are assorted prints from my stash:


Any suggestions on how to construct it would be much appreciated! Linking up with ALYoF :)

5 comments:

  1. I made a kaleidoscope quilt this summer and bought a Kaleidoscope ruler. It has measurements on it for different sized blocks, and also marks for the corner pieces. Overall, although it required some thought and careful cutting, my quilt turned out great and it wasn't too tough. I'm not really sure there is and *easy* way to make a kaleidoscope quilt. Good luck!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  2. Oh, I've saved a couple things about Kaleidoscopes! There's a free paper piecing pattern here: http://www.craftsy.com/user/1049779/pattern-store; and a tutorial for drafting the pattern yourself here: http://pitterputterstitch.blogspot.com/2012/11/paper-pieced-kaleidoscope-tutorial.html, plus instructions on how to assemble. It seems easiest to paper piece it, but I like using paper piecing for everything haha :)

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  3. In the latest issue of Quilters Newsletter they showed a way where they stitch two fabrics into half square triangle blocks first, then use a kaleidoscope template taped to a straight ruler to trim. It works a treat and gives not too odd offcuts. I was even thinking, if you'd make the HST a bit too big, you could use the offcuts elsewhere in the quilt as they are very regular and come already sewn in pairs.

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  4. Elizabeth had a kaleidoscope QAL a while ago. Did you look at that? That's my only kaleidoscopic experience.

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  5. I love the colors... I made a kaleidoscope mini using templates and it was a bit of a trick. I know you don't want to paper piece, but that is probably what I would do. Helpful right?

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