How Tough is a Kaleidoscope?
06-06-2014, 06:24 PM
#11
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Here's one I am working on. This is a Stack-N-Whack from one of Bethany Reynold's books. I took a Saturday class thru my quilt guild. Once you get the fabric lined up and cut, it is pretty simple. The best advice I can give you if you are making one like this is to press your seams open! There are 8 pieces coming together in the center and opening up those seams makes for a very nice, flat center.
06-07-2014, 05:08 AM
#13
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Location: Illinois
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Exactly what I was thinking. Many patterns called kaleidoscope... I think OBW is fairly easy, and Ricky Tims' Kool Kaleidoscope pattern is also easy and fun to do. Most of the S&W are also easy, as long as there aren't more than 6-8 layers. However, I did one type of kaleidoscope soon after I started quilting. It was not easy for me at that time, because of the all the small bits that I had to add on to the corners. I think I could manage it more easily now, but not then. Here it is before quilting on the design wall.
06-07-2014, 05:34 AM
#14
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Location: San Diego
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I made this One Block Wonder after I had been quilting only a year or two. Someone's comment about stacking very carefully is important. I put a straight pin through all six layers very carefully on a very small identical part of the fabric design as I go along. Cut width of fabric strips the desired size for triangles, then the 6 triangles. It really is such fun to arrange the triangles and always have the surprise of, "Oh! Look how this one turned out!!" The other important part that someone else mentioned was the importance of choosing fabric. I've thought that Hawaiian prints would be could choices. . lots of contrast and colors. The one you see in these pictures are Asian, which I also love. There are no Y seams. . two half-hexagons that you sew with straight seams. Lots of fun!!
06-07-2014, 06:26 AM
#16
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06-07-2014, 06:37 AM
#17
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Location: Cincinnati, OH
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I have both Bethany Reynold's Stack and Whack book and Ricky Tims Kaleidoscope book. They're on my to-do list later this year. Glad to hear they won't be too stressful hopefully! I love how all the quilts pictured here have come out.
06-07-2014, 08:55 AM
#18
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In my mind this is a true kaleidoscope pattern....true it is the old version...SnW and OBW are totally different as far as cutting out the pattern pieces and constructing the block...don't know about Ricky rim way. Don't like him.....anyway....way back I did one like pic on this post. Maybe it was an EB pattern, don't remember now, but easy peasy...and a good way to use smaller pieces of fab for a scrappy, but gives the illusion of a kaleidoscope.
Thats a pretty strong thing to say about someone you have probably never met nor how to spell his name. We all have designs we dont care for but would never say we dont like the designer.
06-07-2014, 11:23 AM
#20
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Location: SW Washington USA
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And then there is Paula Nadelstern's Kaleidoscopes
http://paulanadelstern.com/quilt-gallery/index.html
I don't know if it is still true but I read in one of her early books she does all her piecing at the kitchen table on a featherweight.
http://paulanadelstern.com/quilt-gallery/index.html
I don't know if it is still true but I read in one of her early books she does all her piecing at the kitchen table on a featherweight.
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