Kaleidoscope Quilt

by Cathy
(Graham, North Carolina)

I started quilting a couple months ago. My first project was a 5-square block design I found on the web. It came out great, but I quickly realized that following someone else's design was not that interesting for me. So I decided to create my own.

I came up with a 9-square kaleidoscope design that I felt needed some really bright colors. Off to the local quilt shop, where I found the perfect fabric. A local artist had hand-dyed pieces in really nice colors. She sold packages of 20 6x9 squares, each a different color, as well as 1/4 yd pieces.

So, I put the 9x9 design together, and was really pleased with it, except for the bulk of some of the intersections. I couldn't figure out a way to press them to get them all to lock together nicely.

Then the question was, what next? I have been wanting to try quilt-as-you-go, so I made a top and bottom panel, using a row of "diamonds" in each one, and a couple of side panels. After machine quilting all the sections, another lesson was learned. Your quilting design can really change the size of your blocks!

The large 9x9 was 19.25 inches when I started, and 18.5 after quilting. The top and bottom panels were 19.25 when I started, but 19 when I finished. So I had to trim quarter inch off each end of the panels. I lost the nice points on the end diamonds, but oh well!

The process of joining the sections went really well. Then I tried putting the binding on totally by machine, based on a video I found on you-Tube. That was a challenge. I think I need a better machine for that.

Anyway, I love the final quilt. I used a nice soft yellow flannel for the backing, thinking that the quilt might go to the next new baby in the family, but I don't know that I'll be able to give it up!