Kaleidoscope in Outer Space II

By Kaelyn Angelfoot

It took almost three hours to settle on a final arrangement for my kaleidoscope quilt. There were problems with the colors. Part of the space fabric was a teal Saturn-like planet surrounded by lavender. Because of the way the blocks were cut out, these teal and lavender creations just didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the quilt. I was unable to come up with a satisfactory arrangement that included them. After removing them from the layout, I came up with the following design which I am very happy with.

 

Final kaleidoscope quilt arrangement

I am piecing the quilt together in long strips, very carefully, as this is not a forgiving block. Small errors result in large issues with combining the various blocks. I was forced to discard a couple of blocks that had errors in the seams which caused the hexagon to be less that 360 degrees when completed. At the top and bottom of each strip I have added a black triangle that I will trim to make a straight edge. I was also unable to come up with a satisfactory arrangement that would allow me to make two quilts - there just aren't enough blocks. This one will be a lap-size when completed.

One thing I strongly recommend is taking pictures (like the one above) of your final layout. I have already had to refer to this a couple times to make sure I'm putting the hexagons in the correct order while piecing. 

Paper Piecing: Tips for Funny Angles

By Kaelyn Angelfoot

My newest project is paper-piecing. I love the space quilt I'm working on so much I decided to experiment with the fabric a little further. I choose a pattern from "101 Log Cabin Blocks" published by DRG. The pattern I selected was named "Vertigo" and can be found on page 26.

First of all, I had to make copies of the pattern. Because the pattern was in a bound book, I decided to cut the pattern page out of the book so that it would lay flat in my copier. The next thing I noticed is that the copier was feeding paper at an angle, so my blocks were printing slightly crooked. I was eventually able to compensate for this. It is very important to check your printed patterns against a square before you begin sewing.

The first thing I learned was that it is nearly impossible, due to the unusual angles of this block, to line up your fabric strips by sight. I ended up developing an easy system to compensate, which greatly reduced both fabric waste and time needed.

As you can see from the picture, once I got to a certain point, it was very difficult to determine where to lay the next strip.

To help me line up your fabric strips, I flipped the pattern over so the back was showing and placed a pin at either end of the pattern line that will be stitched.

Then I flipped the pattern over to the front and placed two pins in the top of the pattern where the pins from the back were showing through and removed the back pins.

Finally, I laid fabric strip so that it lined up with where the pins enter the fabric, then shifted it up to cover the pins by approximately 1/4", pinned in place and stitched!

The final block is 7" x 7", with a half inch seam allowance. I will trim the seam allowance down to 1/4" before I stitch it to other blocks.