Kaleidoscope Quilt in Little Ruby (#78)

Kaleidoscope quilts are fascinating. There are so many ways to make them look different and it all hinders on where your put the colored and background fabrics.  I like this way which looks like a 'star'.  It's a winner for me since it requires no prior design work (like keeping track of what color goes where on a piece of graph paper) and it looks like a million bucks when its done!

Using the Accuquilt Isosceles triangle and HST 3" Finished die, cut:
168 Isosceles triangles (focus fabric)
168 background Isosceles triangles (white)
168 half square triangle pieces 3.5" (focus fabric)

Sew the triangle top to the isosceles piece. Using a SCANT 1/4" seam ... start at the tip (or point) & chain piece with the colored triangles on the LEFT and the background fabric to the RIGHT.  (trim bunny ears or fabric tags before block assembly)

Each block has 4 colored triangle units and 4 white pieces. This makes a 'star' when everything is assembled. Trim to 10.5" square. (Always make a tester block first before you start assembly line sewing or trimming.)

Kaleidoscope quilts can be very intricate, not so with this star motif.  Put your fabric into 42 piles, balance the colors and have fun sewing one block at a time. When it's layout time - flip the blocks around so no two similar fabrics are touching.

Simple quilting with a wavy line stitch in Aurifil 50wt. white using a #14 needle.  It's normal that a little of the darker minky pulls through to the top but when the new owner loves red ... you gotta use red!

The heart tutorial came from Karin Jordan Studio which I made using 2" squares.

Thanks go to a "quilt along" hosted in 2011 by Elizabeth Dackson of Don't Call Me Betsy. I couldn't have done it without her pictures and instructions (Elizabeth even has a printable template).

I love this pattern.  The simple design is so effective and works with a variety of fabrics.  The hardest thing about it is spelling the word Kaleidoscope!

Materials:
Little Ruby / Bonnie & Camille / Moda
Marmalade Raspberry stripe / binding
Aurifil 50wt. white #2024
Dimple Dot minky / Red
Warm & White batting
Accuquilt  Triangle-Isosceles-5"x6" / HST 3" Finished
Size: 60" x 70"
May 2017

Four Patch Quilt (#77)

To  make a quick child's quilt I used some left over Lecien Retro 30's jelly roll pieces and RJR Pixie Strips.  Color scraps went on a white strip and then cut to widths of 2.5".

I sewed them into four patches and should have stopped to trim them all the same size - I didn't. 

There is always some distortion with pre-cuts and slight variations with different brands.  They didn't look too wonky but in the final assembly my seams were off in some rows.  No amount of tugging was going to match them.  But some careful trimming around the quilt top and a border fixed everything up nicely - whew!

I like the whole idea of pre-cuts just not the fact they vary in size a lot of the time.  Happy with the final result since no one is going to get upset with a few unmatched squares and using up scraps is great ...win/win. 

Materials:
Lecien Retro 30's jelly roll
RJR Pixie Strips / Supreme White
Warm & White battinga
Dimple Dot minky in Azurite /  Hawthorne Threads 
Aurifil 50wt. #2311
Binding: Marmalade Stripe Raspberry / Moda
Size: 41" x 41"
May 2017

Heart Quilt (#76)

There are lots of different ways to make a heart quilt.  This time I wanted one BIG heart that could use up lots of red stash fabric.

It's fun to see how versatile half square triangles can be for the same motif - both quilts were made using the 4.5" finished Accuquilt triangle die.

To offset all the white on the top and bottom, I choose red minky for the back. The only compromise you have to make when using a dark minky on the back is that some of the colored minky may pull through and show on a light fabric top because it is so 'fuzzy'. A little color show through is a small price to pay for an overall great soft minky quilt.

Quilted with Aurifil 50wt. #2311 (muslin) in a wavy stitch, I followed the seams first and then sewed down the middle (right to left & top to bottom) to create little "pillows" that are about 2" square.  

Once it is all washed and dried these little quilted pillows create such a nice texture.  After making more than 30 quilts with minky backing I find simple grid quilting works well. 

Materials:
Various scrap fabrics
Warm & White batting
Dimple dot minky / red
Aurifil 50wt. #2311
Accuquilt 4.5" finished HST die
Size: 60" x 70"
April 2017