Kaleidoscope Quilt

Hubby and I took our second ever quilt class - this one using the kaleidoscope block. It was a one day class. We've only been to two days of quilt classes and already we are "famous" as the "husband and wife quilt team". Seriously, we get treated like some kind of zoo exhibit - in a nice way. The other teachers come by to check out what we are doing. They call their friends into the classroom to look at our blocks. Even the owner of the store stops by to have a look. I think it's partly due to Hubby being somewhat of an oddity in the quilt world - ie. a male - and partly due to the fact that I'm pretty sure no one has ever seen spouses happily quilting together. It's really a funny reaction we get!

Anyhow, here is a look at my second ever quilt top, all laid out and ready to put together. (I did that after these photos were taken.)



This was obviously harder than the strip pieced quilt top we made in the first class. First off - way more seams which show every imperfection in the sewing. All those little triangle points have to join up perfectly! And the sewing machine naturally wants to suck the points down into the needle hole - so you have to pay attention. By the end of the quilt I had figured out how to get everything to join up just right:



I'm pretty proud of how well this came out. I admit I'm pretty impressed with myself for catching on so quickly. I was worried I wouldn't be able to. :)

This photo shows the true colors of the quilt more accurately than the first two:



The main fabric, the print, is "Empress Bouquet" by Robert Kaufman. It was sort of a pop arty take on a William Morris design. It was really fun to sew the blocks together. Each one was a surprise! And really, so fast! This top took me only three days of quilting time. Probably about 24 hours total. It sounds like a lot of time but it feels like instant gratification. :)

Next class is actually quilting the quilt - technically I have only done piecing so far. I can't wait to do the quilting so I can finish my two tops up and have an actual honest to goodness quilt!