Kaleidoscope Quilt in Novelty Fabrics (#88)

After my first Kaleidoscope quilt (blog post with linked tutorials & tips here), I knew this was the perfect pattern for using up loads of leftover novelty fabrics.  

Ye Olde Sweatshop was a crafty venture started in my hot garage to make & sell preshrunk cotton grocery bags. When each bag used 1.25 yards of fabric along with my time, the reality was they were too expensive when one could pick up a bag for pennies at a superstore. I plugged on for a few years until I admitted defeat and started quilting for fun and gifting quilts to family & friends.

The end result of this failed venture was a trove of bright & beautiful, non harmonizing novelty fabric.  Keeping me up at night was the question of what to do with all this stuff ... enter the Kaleidoscope quilt.

The size of the Accuquilt triangle dies are perfect. Left over scraps from the box corner of a market bag left me with hundreds of 4" squares - these became the smaller HST's. 

The larger triangles are from extra panels and linings of bags never made. 

All these patterns next to each other would be a total mess but the addition of Kona white is the saving grace.  That clean bright separation between the intense colors is perfect. Also important is sticking to the motto "only novelty patterns".  Keeping the theme consistent helps maintain the distinct look of this quilt.

Sewing notes: 

I use lots of starch before I cut, steam iron my seams open, sew a scant 1/4" seam and use a 1.5 stitch length. Most importantly, its always worth making a tester block to see how your fabric reacts to all the steam & starch.

Trim all blocks 10.5".  Layout is 6 blocks across - 7 rows down. (Again, links on how to make & assemble Kaleidoscope quilts are in this post here.)

Personal note:  This year I got a new garage door that fits & doesn't let in wind or rain and best of all ... no small critters with multiple legs.  My husband put in an air conditioner so this make Ye Olde Sweatshop a pretty nice space to hang out and sew.

Materials:
Novelty cotton fabric
Aurifil 50wt. #5007 & #2311 
Warm & White batting
Dimple dot minky in Azurite and Candy Stripe in Azurite from Hawthorne Threads 
Accuquilt dies: Triangle-Isosceles-5"x 6" / HST 3" Finished
Size: 60" x 70"
November 2017

Grand Canal Kate Spain Quilt (#87)

It was my lucky day when I stumbled onto two picture tutorials from Trish at Notes of Sincerity for an "easy square in square in square block".

With a little tweaking I found that 2 layers cakes (42 pieces each) can make this beautiful quilt and there is little waste. The quilt has 30 blocks.  

Choose your outside border fabric FIRST - put aside 60 layer cake pieces.  These will be trimmed down to 9"x 9" and cut on a diagonal.  These triangles are the last round of each block.  

Cut 23 layer cake pieces into 5" squares ... yield will be (92) squares ... you need 90.   
(30) of these will be your starting center - leave at 5"x5" 
(60) of these will be cut on the diagonal and make the
       smaller middle round    
(leftovers: 1 layer piece and a few 5" squares)

Follow Trish's first tutorial here for the first two rounds - and trim your blocks to 7.5" as she recommends. Her second tutorial here is how she ends up with an unfinished 10.5" square. 

The only thing I did different than Trish was to cut my 60 outside pieces to 9"x 9" instead of 7.5".  Then its just the same technique as the first two rounds: cut on the diagonal and attach to the 7.5" block.  When finished, trim to 13" x 13". 

And that's it.  With a little prior thought on what fabric you want in the center and on the larger outside areas - 2 layer cakes works nicely.

I am not compensated by anyone for my supplies but do enjoy Green Fairy Quilts for reasonable pre-cuts - which is where I got these Kate Spain beauties.  Whether it is Trish's way with scraps or this way with layer cakes - the final result is pretty sweet. 

Notes:
Yes, I lost (or wasted) an inch trimming down to a 9"x 9" on that last piece -  but when I used the whole 10" square for the final round it was too big & unbalanced.

Lastly - since I was making a minky quilt and needed to keep it to 60" wide - I trimmed my blocks 12.5" x 13" (instead of the 13"x13" mentioned above).

Materials:
Grand Canal by Kate Spain / Moda / #grandcanalfabric 
Aurifil 50wt.  # 5007, #2000
Warm & White batting
Minky dimple dot / vanilla
Notes of Sincerity / Square in a Square Tutorial
Green Fairy Quilts / layer cakes
Size: 60" x 75"
November 2017