Sunday, January 24, 2010

A.W.O.L.

Sorry I haven't posted much recently. I have had a lot of things going on which are distracting me. I will try to get back on track. The first thing I need to do is to finish this quilt. I started it back in November, for the nursery wall of my Niece. At the time she was not born but I am proud to say that I am now and Auntie and I couldn't be more excited about it! However the quilt has not progressed much since November. My plan is to get it finished in the next week and send it off to my Brothers home so that when my parents are visiting in February they can hang it up. (My Brother and Sister in Law are not big decorators and leave that kind of stuff to my parents when they come - I can't believe we are related sometimes)

Anyway, I saw a Kaleidoscope Quilt online one day and decided I would make one. It is really fun actually. The first thing you need is a fabric with a nice big print. You need to get enough yardage so that you can find the repeat at least six times. Then you need to cut equilateral triangles out of it making sure that you get the exact repeat six times. You can use a view finder or you can cut a block of triangles out and then lay them over the matching area. At the end of the day I did not have enough fabric to make every Kaleidoscope block 6 matching triangles so I mixed it up and made some of them 3 of one pattern three of another. I also Included some polka dot fabric in matching green and pink colour ways.

The next thing to do was to lay them out on the floor and arrange the pattern - this stage took a long time. What was great is that all the kaleidoscopes look so different from each other, one is almost entirely pink while another is mostly yellow.

Once you have decided the order of the blocks you sew the triangles together in strips, this is so much easier than sewing the blocks together. In the picture above the strips on the right have been sewn but those on the left have not. I have to admit I made a few mistakes at this stage with a triangle turned the wrong way as I sewed it etc. After 1 or 2 unpickings I got the basic quilt made and there it has stayed until this week when I will finish it. Watch this space.

Oh and because I am posting - I was commissioned to make this tiny pom pom heart garland from my Etsy site.

3 comments:

  1. How have you been these days, Ashley? Hope all is going fine! The quilt looks amazing - such spring colours! I miss spring...

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  2. Hi and thanks for your comment! The quilt is quite amazing, Ashley! I love the kaleidoscope idea. The pompoms are very cute too - they look so bright in the snow.

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  3. Love the bright cheerful colours in this quilt. I have always wanted to try kaleidoscope quilt - such an interesting design.

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Thanks for reading my blog and posting a comment...... Drop in any time you're passing! Ashley xxx

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