I was listening to Eleanor Burns on TV one day when she presented an interesting variation of the nine-patch quilt block. Once the block is sewn together with 5 inch squares, it is cut in four equal units. Two of those units the oppoosite corners are turned around and then the four units sewn back together. I like to think of this as kaleidoscope since the pattern is turned around in a random fashion.
I thought this would be an easy pattern for my daughter Jamie to learn. She thought so too. We had a plan to give a quilt to a women’s shelter to increase the enjoyment of making it. There are several steps to the quilt.
My goal was to make ten of this pattern. Jamie learned to make this quilt in steps by first sewing row one to row two in an assembly-line manner. We nicknamed this technique flags as you could hold up the units and they look like flags on a ship. Over time Jamie added additional steps to each quilt we made. We are on Quilt 6 and she is on step 5 of putting together the block. It really helps when both of us work on the quilt project.
Each quilt had 24 blocks, which fit perfectly to use a twin flat bed sheet for the backing. As we were not making these for any particular size of bed, the work pretty well for a sofa quilt to snuggle under on a chilly evening while reading a good book or watching TV.
1) Sept 2009 Nine Patch Variation in Primary Colors
Sept 2009 Nine Patch Variation in Primary Colors
Jamie and Joyce teamed to finish a Nine Patch variation in primary colors
2) Purples and Lavenders
3) Light Turquoise with brown
The large white polka dots on brown fabric really make you chuckle when you see this quilt.
4) Medium Blues with Navy
5) Mauves with rose and burgondy.
Jamie and I were moving along so well with our quilt fest that when Stan and I planned a trip to Albuquerque for his sister Irene’s 80th birthday, we hurried to finish this one up for our trip on 11-27-2009. Last time we visited Irene we noticed she had her home decorated in lots of mauves with dusty rose. I knew these fabrics that were from the 1980’s would fit right in.
When we gave this to her she was thrilled and loved the colors. Her new husband, Ben Miller, which she married just a short two months prior to her birthday was so appreciative of the gift. He said his first wife made quilts with much care over the years. She would wrap them up neatly in a pillow case and tuck them into a drawer. He said it with such tenderness, I thought we could go over to that dresser today and have a look at her handy work. Of course, this was in his fond memories of his departed wife.
6) Green with brown – New Years Day 2010
Rachel, my daughter-in-law loves the combination of browns and greens. I had bought some fabrics specifically to make her a log cabin patterned quilt some day. When this kaleidescope pattern came along, I couldn’t stand it any longer and cut five inch blocks from the brown and green fabrics to make this new pattern. As soon as it started to come together, Jamie remarked how it looked like Rachel’s quilt without even knowing my plans.
I wanted to finish it by Christmas for a gift. We decided to travel to Boston over the New Years holiday so I can bring it to them then.
7)December 9, 2009 Pink Baby Kaleidescope quilt
I temporarily put aside Rachel’s brown and green quilt to work on a pink baby quilt made from six blocks for a gift with a Christmas stocking for needy children. Somehow this becomes my quilt tithe. I don’t know who will receive this gift.
Pick with yellow and green Kaleidescope quilt
Christmas stocking was decorated with that same pink checked fabric
It was so nice to think about a family with a little girl about Anya’s age of one years old receiving a quilt and some little clothes and toys. This project is sponsored by the Salvation Army.
On Saturday 12-12-09, three hundred children from baby to age 17 gathered to receive Christmas Stockings that have been decorated and filled with age appropriate gifts. Our office did this project in 2006 with about 20 or so people participating. This year we collected over 80 stocking from several floors at our building. It was so gratifying to see friends and co-workers participate to bring joy to these children’s hearts.
Jamie finished the rest of the 18 blocks for 3 more little girl pink baby quilts.
We don’t have many young women in our office having babies. Tanya Flink was one of the few. So many people gave her and baby to be such lovely gifts at her office shower. I finished up one of the pink baby quilts for her little girl – Maryn Grace who was born 2-25-2010. Tanya was so happy to receive this quilt. She has noticed for years when I bring in a quilt top and show it to my co-workers as “quilt and tell”. Tanya was hoping that I would make her a baby quilt, but was reluctant to ask.
Tanya Flink – Is delighted at the baby quilt for her shower
8) Purples with beige
We love purple so another set of 5 inch blocks have been cut out for the next quilt. I really like the idea of adding other colors to create more interest. This has lots of dark purples and a few light purple fabris that I will add some beige for contrast. As we are digging in our scrap boxes, many of the fabrics have to be ironed before cutting so they lay straight. It is fun to use brand new fabric that are just purchased from the stores and more of a challenge to use up the scraps and pieces that were purchased years ago. This is a great pattern to work in the scraps.
9) Peachy oranges with brown
Jamie wants to do a peachy – orange quilt next. I will need to look through the fabrics in the garage to find that stash of fabric.
Feb 2010 – I cut up lots of 5 inch squares out of the browns and beiges I found in the basement. Some were wrinkly after years of being stashed in a plastic storage container. Let’s see. My Mom died in 2004 and it took me a while to sort through her stash of fabric scrapes. I put like colors in the plastic containers for future use. Some of these fabrics were from fabrics I purchased when I used to sell things to King Soopers in the 1980’s. I would cut 12 inch circles, sew on some lace or eyelet, gather up, stuff and glue onto the outside of a basket. It was a really cute thing to do at the time. I would sell them to the local King Soopers floral department a dozen at a time. There were over 50 or so stores, so you can imagine my delight to buy all kinds of pretty cotton calicos. I had a couple of people helping me make them so I could keep up with the demand. I still have a cupboard full of lace.
Well these are some of the scraps that I gave Mom from cutting out the circles. She used some but more were saved.
Now that it was time to use them up for real, the tedious part begins. Some of the fabrics had to be ironed first just so I could cut them out.
I set up some browns and beiges. Jamie thought the colors were so drab that she didn’t even want to sew on them. I finished up the 24 blocks. I cut up some solid burgondy just to calm down the colors and mish-mosh of patterns that were creating a calamity of dull.
This is the dimest quilt I have ever made. My son thought I should just have a big bon-fire and burn up the ugly fabrics instead of taking time to sew it up. A goal is a goal and I did finish the top in Feb 2010. I added saching of brown/burgundy – yellow plaid but still pretty dim looking.
I guess I could stuff it up and give it to the shelters. Boy what an un-cheerful gift.
Brown 9 patch right before they are cut into four equal units with opposite corners rotated
Dim Brown
10) Peachy Green March 2010
12) Peachy Blue March 2010
Close up the peach and blue quilt top
This will be big enough for a soft throw
12) Peachy Green with lots of patterned fabric.
April 2010
Jamie and I are at wits end working on all the scraps mostly from the 1980s. Some of these printed patterns on the fabrics are just plan ugly. But in an effort to recycle they were added in the quilt tops. I found one interesting fabric in the stash from my Mom that had with a dark grey background and small printed light yellow and dark peach patterns such as cafe umbrellas and the like. This had to be from the 1930s or so. I added it to the quilt just to keep it useful.
I found a light yellow with green polka dot fabric at a garage sale last summer that kind of matched the yellow in that odd 1930s fabric. A German lady had moved on to a home care facility and some friends were emptying out her home. She had a few usable scraps of fabric that I picked up that had been cut for a Christmas tree project. In the quilt they went.
This lady must have enjoyed craft projects and music. I also bought a stack of music for accordion and saxophone. Some of it has several parts for different instruments. Stan and I enjoy playing “Ole Sol a Mio”; him on accordion and me on saxophone. We are not very good, but do enjoy picking through the notes. When I find that light yellow with green polka dot fabric I think the this lady and all the joyful things I found at her sale.
I think we are through with this pattern for a while after finishing about 12 quilt tops. Too many beige/peach/browns. The scraps finally blended together in my head as a mish mash of patterns as if I throw scraps on the floor and then picked them up as a put together quilt top.
On to Monkey Wrench.