Time to update you my progress of the poinsettia Kaleidescope quilt project. I am far from complete but am feeling really good about this process. I am already planning my next quilt. If I complete the quilt without too many issues I want to do the same idea with sunflowers.
Here are pictures of what I have discovered. I bought the design wall and it came as a 2yd piece of felt. Had I know this, I would have bought a 2 yard piece of white felt at Hobby Lobby when they offered a 40% off sale instead of spending $50. You really need the design wall but this was a live and learn moment. I have a picture of how I am starting to layout the quilt pieces.
You need the 60 degree ruler. Jen at Shabby Fabric advised trimming the ends off the triangles. I found that I would rather trim the triangle ends after I piece the block. When I tried to trim the ends first, I got variations that where hard to deal with as I was constructing the triangles into half kaleidoscopes.
When I started to piece the blocks using the narrow seam allowance suggested, I was having issues with my machine sucking up the threads at the start of the seam. This did not work for me. I took some pre quilted fabric and cut them up into 1 to 2″ squares and used them as starters. I started on the quilted piece and them pieced my triangles and them used the starter block to finish the piecing then kept going…I was able to string piece. Just feed in a starter piece, them a triangle, then a stater, then trim off then beginning starter and begin again. It is so easy now to string along and adds speed to the process…no trimming long threads. See my pictures to better understand this method.
Pressing is also aided by using a sleeve roll.
If you would like help making a kaleidoscope quilt just email me at jennyssewing@gmail.com
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