KALEIDESCOPE- problems / woes

[Gloria H.]

I am making Ricky's KALEIDESCOPE and I ran into some difficulty.

Pressing the long steams in the strata.... I have to take the cut out pieces to our retreat and my regular blocks do not travel well...

So how can I keep the seam allowance pressed so they do not flip back and forth when I travel?


Do you think if I glue it with a few drops of glue ( roxanne"s) along the seam line that would help keep everything where I need it?


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I found out the hard way this project does not travel well... but her is a trick I invented that helped.

I do not have a design wall to use.

I made duplicate patterns when I made the master by sewing with an empty needle thorough multiple layers of freezer paper cut to side. I marked them identical to the original.

Using a flannel backed table cloth. ( I tried both techniques and either one will work. )

1/ I can I pinned the pattern to the table cloth used that to keep my quilt top on track by putting the pieces over the pattern.

or

2/ The extra patterns are placed over the cut out pieces to keep them in place when I roll up my table cloth. I also am not afraid of loosing the patterns parts since I have the duplicates to work with.

[Gloria H.]

The gluing is working great ... that helped in the traveling from home to the retreat. The seam stayed where they were suppose to and did not flip making it easier to get the pieces lined up. I only needed a few drops here and there ..... but definately on the ends of the stada.

I am beginning to love gluing especially in complicated multi seamed block patterns. My blocks always look like a wreck this way they will stay neater and hopefully easier to deal with.

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The extra patterns came in handy when I packed up the project to take everything back home. I ironed on loose pieces to the wedges so they would not get lost.

To the sewn wedges I also ironed on the freezer paper to act as a pattern for later triming.


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Tips: I n the future I will mark which is the central wedge and which is th left and right side wedges.... They seem to have a slight slant or differentiation and they go together easier if they are lined up correctly.

Maybe this is due to my sewing style as I did not see Ricky having any problems on the DVD... but he is the master craftman and I am just a beginnger.

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TIME FRAME FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THIS QUILT
NOT COUNTING FABRIC SHOPPING...

It took 4-6 hours to cut out the strips for the starada... mosly cause I kept playing with the colors and changing my mind.
I organize my time sewing around the presence / LACK of MY HELPER... my two year old grandson.... I always get more done when he is NOT around to help.

SEWING of the strada went pretty fast ... 5 sets of pairs in less than 4 hours... again without the helper near by.

I took the parts to the retreat and cut out all the strada into wedges that took 5 hours minus....
Eating with the gal pals... chitter chattering and explaining multiple times what I was doing... Ricky should get some big orders for the DVD from the group.... they all decided they want to try the techinique.


So far I have 5 hours of sewing of the wedges. I figure I have 4 to 5 hours more sewing to do to finish the wedges... maybe less if I have no one around to slow me down.

Desite using the pattern pieces... I seem to get them mixed up and out of order so I spent extra time fussing trying to figure out way a piece when on the kalediscope.



TOTAL TIME SPENT ON THIS PROJECT SO FAR.... 20 HOURS...






Be sure to use A SCANT QUARTER INCH though out the project... anything larger draws up pieces too much and you loose size of the wedge... Since the WEDGE pattern is A FINISHED size piece you need to have the 1/4 inch at the side of the wedge. I know I have one wedge that is small on the seam allowance so I anticipate problems later on in the construction. RICKY MENTIONED ALL THIS IN THE DVD... BUT AS USUAL IT DID NOT SINK IN TIL I DID the sewing and saw for myself..... DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS.


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Things I would do different.....As much as I love my first attemt there are definately things I will do different in the future.

Do not use directional prints... they come out cockied.

Use smaller bands of dark color though the quilt.... Use truely dark colors instead of dark medium. I laid a piece of navy fabric next to my colors and it would have made everything pop.


Number one.... not turn my pattern upside down when I cut them out. There is a lovely seridipity mistake because I cut out one of my fabrics upside down. It came out okay but it changed the way the quilt would have looked.


Sizes of the bands I used could have been smaller. I was afraid not to have enough so I made the a little to wide... let to much wastage. 2-1/2 inches on the both sides of the strada resulted in less wasted fabric, since you turn the pattern pieces to get better angles and placement of color. By having bigger strada I tended to get more horizontal lines.


I want to play with the color placement within the kalidescope next time and use lights on the outside two stradas to see what would happen. I am thinking some kind of halo effect.




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Using your left over fabrics....

I frequently make foundation ( thin pellon) backed string blocks / Mile a Minute or Gibblets and Gravy style blocks and these work great in those time quilt blocks.

[Vireya J.]

Thanks for the interesting comments. This show was one I watched on the free day, and now I want to make a kaleidoscope myself. It is interesting to get the perspective of the non-expert, after seeing how easy Ricky made it all look!