What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 

If you add DARK corners to the outside Kaleidoscope block, the entire "look" of a regular Kaleidoscope is altered.

I added the fused triangles to the one piece border when it seemed the border needed something extra.  Fused triangles are difficult to piece onto other triangles.  Live and Learn.

Backing fabric was perfect.  I'm going back for another 6 yards for another project.  

My "old" Janome 6500 just could no longer be fixed for free-motion quilting, altho is does regular sewing perfectly.  After trying out a number of other machines, until I was just plain discouraged and/or confused ...

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I finished up the painting workshop and although I didn't do all lessons, I feel like I learned so much.

(quilters, the fabric art is near the bottom of this post in case you're wondering! Lots to show)

The painting above was inspired by Tamara LaPorte. She urged us to let go the idea of perfection and acknowledge parts of ourselves we might believe to be undesirable. 

I chose to interpret on this whimsical bird, these three things about my body, plus a roundish shape.

Big Feet... I grew up in the top percentages for height til I ...

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there are many finishes when making a quilt... finish the design, finish sewing together the top, finish layering the top/ batting/ backing and baste, finish the quilting, and finish the binding to finish the edges... finish putting on the hanging sleeve on the back and hang it up or put it on the bed!this week I finished quilting this big quilt, wrestling with it under the arm of my little old machine. I mostly used mylar sprakling turquoise threads, purple threads, and a YLI variegated fall color cotton thread to do that. Mostly used my walking foot, but along ...

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I'm still here - just overactive - am feeling darned wonderful, energetic, going in too any directions at one time.  Above is some playtime after picking up a bunch of strips from the Guild Free table.   I laughed when found that many of the strips had a few inches off the ends.  These Kaleidoscope blocks are surprisingly easy.  Selecting similar values is a bit more fussy.  Corners will have HSTs, medium light or medium dark.  Some blocks, while beautiful, were too bright and bold, so were removed.  My goal is 5 x 5, and each strip makes 2 whole blocks at ...

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My favorite TV show is "CBS's Sunday Morning".  I have long been fascinated by the kaleidoscope designs shown at the end of each segment on the show.  There have also been quiltmakers, with far more talent and patience than I possess, that have made fabulous kaleidoscope-type quilts. I knew that if I attempted that style of quilt, I would have to simplify the design considerably to have a chance to be able to construct it.

I wondered if I could achieve a kaleidoscopic effect by constructing a quilt in small square units rather than in the usual 60-degree units ...

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I have been mostly sewing on the kaleidoscope quilt this week and would rather wait to show you the top finished. So.... these are two little sweaters in the color of the month, sort of since it's hard to identify. I think Angela at rainbow scrap challenge said turquoise or aqua or something between blue and green. 

When I looked it up, I read the color cyan is a mix of blue and green and there is talk of it here

https://colorpsychologymeaning.com/color-turquoise/

My favorite shirt falls in this color range, and I love turquoise  in general ...

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Join us for the most colorful quilt and stitch along of the year inspired by Lori Holt’s newest book, Kaleidoscope!  The Kaleidoscope Sew Along encourages you to go outside your color comfort box and discover new palettes to play with. With this Bed Runner, exclusively designed by Lori Holt for this Sew Along, and the Stitch Along for the cross stitch included in the book, it is double the stitchy fun!

Snip, stitch and quilt along with us during Lori Holt’s latest sew along, Kaleidoscope. Beginning in August, we will be stitching and quilting two projects from the ...

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Being a widow - The title of this post, that phrase, command, order, suggestion to "Make every day count"  has kept me moving forward.   Those were my husband's words.  He was pretty good at being productive.  He also said  "One step at a time", and "Slow, Steady  Positive Progress".   Listening to his good advice has been a good connection with him.   He was a Manager and knew how to get things accomplished.  I'm trying to follow his suggestions and hardly procrastinating any more.   I've been in this new life as a widow for almost a year and half ...

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Still here - just busy with projects, perseverance and a little procrastination.  I'm yakking a lot today!

This kaleidoscope was supposed to be a hand-quilted project, a calming, introspective, thoughtful time of my life.  Nope - wasn't happening.  Problems with manicured hands and long nails,  trying out a Grace stand-up quilting frame, no-fitting or lost thimbles, out-of-practice me, 10 thumbs getting in the way, running out of time, all happened, and this morning after another 2 hours of hand quilting and being unhappy with the result, I am changing my mind and will machine quilt it -- not sure of how ...

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 Hello everyone! How is life in your neck of the woods? We have had a run of just incredible weather for January and it has been a joy to be outside for the last several days. Natives of the East coast here think it's cold, but it's been clear and sunny and in the 40s. Who could ask for more from January?

I have another finish to show off today! I told you I was busy over the break. When you don't have to ride off to visit the family, you can get a lot done. A ...

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Hi all! Just taking a little time from this stupid paper that I'm writing to say hello and show a couple of things that I've pulled out to work on. I usually go to a conference early in June, but that's been cancelled this year, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing right now. Somehow sitting on the deck with a cool drink doesn't feel right.

Last week, when I was feeling pretty low (still feeling that way, but no politics today!) I started going through some of my project boxes ...

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What I've been calling kaleidoscope seems to be "one block wonder" quilts. I can't imagine why because they certainly look like kaleidoscopes. Regardless of what we call them, they are a wonder to watch unfold.

We all remember the kaleidoscopes of our youth--the tubes that had a hole to peek into. You'd turn the tube and the colors and designs would change. If like me, you had to share one with seven sisters, your biggest fear was that it would run out of designs. Not that I didn't share, but I did fret. (I was a ...

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Pretty cute fabrics, right?  I decided to make a favorite pattern for a young girl, a Kaleidoscope.  Easy, peasy, except ... I had forgotten the rules, suggestions of values, and just zoned in on these cute fabrics ... Normally, the circles that should appear when values are correctly chosen, and the circles appear automatically.  hmmmm, not this time.

No circles?  "No problem, the fabrics will carry it thru" was what I heard me saying to myself.. 

Then, during the night, SOMEONE !!! moved some of these rows around, and now I have similar fabrics together.  Perhaps it was one of the garden gnomes ...

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With all this decluttering and learning how my phone works, there was one aspect of my phone that hadn't been done. How to put my pictures in the cloud. Well - now they are in the cloud and off my phone. How did I do that? Well, there are a lot of Google apps that one must learn how to use. So after a gentle push from Ronda to make that happen, the photos are now floating in the cloud. What I need to do now is start deleting some of them. There are loads that I no longer need ...

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