Not always. She cuts her seams after they've been sewn, and she presses her seams open, both of which are only suited to machine-sewing.

I've gone for the 15cm (6") mirrors. I suspect that a lot of the time a smaller mirror will be more useful, and if and when I get to the stage of making fancy kaleidoscope quilts, having already played around with smaller mirrors will give me a better idea of which size I want for the larger ones. And they're cheap, so I don't mind ending up with two pairs if need be.

I asked my friends at knitting group if anyone knew how good acrylic mirrors were. One friend said that she'd used them to see her baby's head. I absent-mindedly asked if the reflection was nice and clear. She pointed out that her mind was on other matters at the time, at which point I suddenly realised what she was talking about!

My cheap door mirror got broken in a move. DH cut 2 8x11 pieces, bound the edges and hinged the pair with duct tape. this works fine.

I went to the local hobby store - purchased a package of small rectangle mirrors - maybe 2" x 3", got out my ruler to use as my template to tape them by for the correct degree, some cute duct tape, wah lah - handy dandy OBW / Kaleidoscope mirror to see if any given fabric will offer the twist on designs. I saw no reason to spend any more than a few $ for this. You can develop an eye for OBW / Kaleidoscope fabric but the mirrors will certainly give you a more direct visual of what you're going to get! Would love to see what you end up making!

As a hint .. you do not need a template or mark to get the correct angle .... just stand the mirrors on end, then adjust the spread between the two, til you see the 4, 6 or 8 reflections (or more) you are wanting to check the fabric for.

I asked my friends at knitting group if anyone knew how good acrylic mirrors were. One friend said that she'd used them to see her baby's head. I absent-mindedly asked if the reflection was nice and clear. She pointed out that her mind was on other matters at the time, at which point I suddenly realised what she was talking about![/QUOTE]

Oh my gosh, I just spit water all over my laptop! This is too funny!

I'm planning to do a OBW, my first. Before yesterday, this thread wouldn't have made a bit of sense to me, but after choosing fabric yesterday using the mirrors at my LQS, I plan to purchase some from either the dollar store or the local craft store. The mirrors made it so much easier to imagine what the quilt will look like.

The mirrors arrived this morning, and are fab. They're 6" acrylic, and the reflection is nice and clear. A strip of duct tape to make a hinge and I was away. I didn't need to bind the edges, as they're not glass. Here are a couple of shots of a random fabric I have sitting around. This is going to be so much fun.

http://imageshack.us/a/img843/1148/ln1m.th.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img836/4636/lotl.th.jpg