HELP! With Kaleidoscope Quilt
 

Happy Sunday!!!!

So this is my second attempt at making a quilt following a pattern ... today I am having another one of those days where I realize why I hate following a pattern.

I've attached three pics so you can see my frustration ...

Any help is greatly appreciated ... I have all these LOVELY triangles ... 5 hours of free time and what appears to be frustration!!!

Thanks so much in advance!

Marion

Oh no. I hope you figure it out!

I have made kaleidoscopes before and have not had that happen.

To get more accurate matching at the seam lines, try going to the ironing board and placing a pin exactly through both pieces at the 1/4" seamline. The pin should be straight up and down, into the soft portion of the ironing board. Then place a *tiny* dot of Elmer's white washable school glue inside the seam allowance and press. The glue acts as a "pin" that doesn't shift when you sew. Afterwards you can peel the seam allowances apart where the glue is (moisten with a fingertip of water if it doesn't peel apart easily -- usually caused by using too much glue).

For the center of your block (last photo), you want to "swirl" the seam allowances so they aren't all piled up on top of each other. To do this you usually need to release a stitch or two. I couldn't find a tutorial that shows how to do it with the number of center seams you have (although I'm sure there are some on the net). This one shows you how to do it with a four-patch:
http://joanne-everyonedeservesaquilt...ing-seams.html

With a block such as yours, the "swirling" ends up looking like a small flower. :)

Edit: Just wanted to mention that your center points are not going to be exact. This is because the cutting and piecing of the individual segments (as in photo 1 above) have resulted in triangles that are not completely similar. If you were using strip sets to cut the triangle segments, check to make sure that (1) all strips are cut evenly, (2) your seam allowances are sewn evenly, (3) measure completed strip set to see if all strips are even and measurements the same throughout the strip after pressing, (4) check the accuracy of your cutting of the strip sets into triangle segments. Inaccuracy with any one or more of these steps will result in uneven triangle segments as shown in your first photo. The inaccuracies show up most in the small center triangle portion of each segment.

Edit2: Guess I am long-winded today! Just wanted to add not to give up at this point. Many small inaccuracies are not noticed at all in a finished quilt. A quilt does not need to be perfect in order to be a great quilt!

I especially like this paragraph of that link: As I said before, this swirling technique is not just for use with four or nine patch blocks. It is especially nice to do when you are matching more than four seams at a single point, like in a kaleidoscope block or a eight pointed star block.

Thank you thank you thank you ... I'm now going to try that ... and I still have 4.5 hours of free time left!!!!

This board is simply amazing!!!!

about 7 minutes into this video she shows matching and pinning. that is what you need to work on. Hope this helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPHKHXVs2oI

After you piece the triangles, double check them all before you start to join to make sure they are all exactly the same size and the angle is correct on all segments. If they are not the same size or the angles are off, they won't go together properly. When you join them pin carefully and make sure you use a quarter inch seam:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...ce-t89997.html

This is one quilt that you need to have your seams be precise. In the top of the block, you can see how the dark and light center points are not the same size. You can draw out the exact measurement on paper and then check each segment for accuracy. Good Luck !!

It's not to bad. This can easily be turned into a beautiful quilt. Don't worry. Fudge a little here a little there and like magic you'll have a gorgeous quilt.

So I tried the swirling ... didn't work ... because I didn't see the other replies (I was too much in a hurry)

Then, I came back on and saw the other replies ...

BIG BIG SIGH ... I had to take them ALL apart because I realized I had forgotten ONE tiny step (which had made a HUGE problem)

The template for the triangle has a flat top (not point tip) ... so I had to undo them all ...

Tonight I will be taking the template to all 8 million triangles (ok, not really 8 million, but a lot) and making sure that they are all exactly the same size ...

Thanks for all of these tips ... i will be sure to read them all before I start sewing everything back together again!