Category Archives: kaleidoscope quilts

12 Out of 20

by Dawn Posted on February 25, 2026

No, that’s not a test score. If it were, I would have failed the exam. The title of the post refers to the fact I have completed 12 of the 20 blocks needed for my current WIP (work-in-progress) based on the pattern Dandelions at Dusk by Blue Bear Quilts.

I’m having fun with this one! Take a look at my first 12 blocks:

Aren’t they pretty?

There are several elements that add to the interest of the blocks. First and foremost are the four-patch kaleido units themselves since each one is unique. The pattern is designed in such a way that these units appear in different corners of the blocks, essentially rotating around each other. In my view it allows each floral unit to stand out and really shine.

The two sashing fabrics are also an important part of the design. (Sorry to say this photo, taken in late afternoon in a room with north-facing windows, doesn’t show the medium and medium-dark cornflower blue prints in a consistent light.)

I’d be making faster progress if I were more organized in my approach to cutting and sewing. Some quilters cut all of their fabrics first so that every block is ready to be sewn together from the get-go. Alas, I am not one of those quilters. I usually cut just enough of the fabrics to make a few blocks at a time. It’s all about instant gratification. A bit silly, really, but I’ve always been that way. Even back in the days (make that decades) when I made most of my own clothing, it would take me longer to make something because I would literally be trying the garment on every step of the way.

There’s something else going on with this quilt. The background fabric is directional:

Can you see the very subtle herringbone design? It has to be cut and sewn in two different ways for the design to be in the correct position in each block. One really has to pay attention! I confess there has been some “unsewing” and “corrective sewing” going on.

My twin Diane arrived last week for a four-week visit. I had texted her a couple of weeks ago to see if she could come out in March for a week. She replied, “I can come next week and stay for a month.” Oh joy! Today she vacuumed the main floor of the house and mopped the kitchen floor so I could hie to my sewing room and finish the 12th block. I may not let her go home.

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, family, faux-kaleido quilts, garment sewing, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 5 Comments

Dandelions at Dusk WIP Update

by Dawn Posted on February 5, 2026

I’m happy to report that I wound up with 21 4-patch kaleidoscope blocks, of which 20 are  needed for my current Work-in-Progress based on the pattern Dandelions at Dusk by Blue Bear Quilts. You will remember I started with these two test blocks:

Because I didn’t have extra focus fabric to play with, many of my blocks share the same floral element so I arranged them accordingly to get a better look:

(I have a piece of flannel draped over the door to my sewing room for a narrow but easily accessible design wall.  My big design wall is across the hall in the room I call the Annex.)

Satisfied that there’s enough variety in the blocks, I laid them out in the 4 x 5 grid called for in the pattern. After moving individual blocks around over the course of a few days, I settled on this layout:

When it comes time to sew the finished blocks together, each four-patch kaleido unit will be positioned in one of four corners of the finished block — upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right. (Take another look at the first photo in this post and you’ll see what I mean.)

But what about that 21st block, the one that didn’t make the cut? Here it is:

Most likely it will end up on the back of the quilt.

Now it’s time to move on to the other block components — the half-square triangles and the units with sashing strips. I’m off to my sewing room to do some rotary cutting. Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, faux-kaleido quilts, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 4 Comments

Boxed In?

by Dawn Posted on January 29, 2026

Here are the two test blocks for my newest project, using the pattern Dandelions at Dusk by Blue Bear Quilts as my jumping off point:

Take a look at the pattern cover of Dandelions at Dusk to get a sense of how my test blocks would fit into the over-all design:

I love the look of my test blocks and think they would work beautifully in the quilt design but alas, I fear I may have boxed myself into a corner. You see, there are a couple of things I failed to take into consideration when I started cutting and sewing my test blocks.

Both have to do with my focus fabric, identified in my last post as “Jolie Jardin” by the now defunct Lakehouse Fabrics. I had used a chunk of this fabric years ago in a quilt but hadn’t bothered to check how much actual yardage I had left to make the 20 blocks needed for this quilt. Turns out I had quite a bit less than I thought.

Each four-patch kaleidoscope block is made up of four 4″ squares. The finished blocks measure 7½” square unfinished, 7″ square finished. I need 20 of them. After carefully measuring my fabric today, I was able to determine that I should be able to eke out 21 blocks (meaning I have only one to spare) if — and only if — I don’t make a single cutting error. No pressure, right?

The method of making four-patch kaleidoscope blocks is to stack four repeats of fabric on top of each other, pin the repeats very carefully to keep the design elements perfectly aligned, and then very carefully cut the fabric into squares. Here comes the second issue: the repeat of this fabric is not 12″ as I was expecting. The repeat is actually 11⅞” — meaning I have to cut my squares a smidge short of 4″ in order to eke out the number of squares needed.

The only thing to do is dive into the deep end. I’ll go ahead and stack my repeats and cut my squares and see what the resulting blocks look like. Assuming I have enough blocks with enough variety, I’ll soldier on with the quilt. The worst that can happen is I’ll wind up with four-patch kaleido blocks that won’t work for this quilt but will work for another one.

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, faux-kaleido quilts, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 6 Comments

The Joy of Petting Fabric

by Dawn Posted on January 25, 2026

Petting fabric? If you’re not a quiltmaker, “petting fabric” may be a foreign concept but I can assure you it’s a real thing — for me, at least. Earliest this month while thinking ahead to the projects I want to undertake in 2026, I decided to pull some of my most beloved fabrics from my stash to see what I wanted to use and what I needed to add to the pull to get the right mix for the designs I have in mind.

And by “the right mix” I mean that magical combination of color and value and texture that printed designs on fabric bring to a finished quilt. The combination that makes this quilter’s heart sing. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as running your hands over crisp quilter’s cotton (otherwise known as petting fabric) and imagining what beautiful things you can create from it.

I may be waxing philosophically but this past November was a milestone for me. I turned 75 – three quarters of a century! — and I got to wondering how many quilts I have left in me. I have accumulated a virtual (I won’t say literal even though it’s true, ha ha) mountain of fabric, and there’s no way I can use all of it in my lifetime.

So I asked myself: what are some of the fabrics I love so much I want to make something with them before I die? I’m not being morbid here; I simply want to acknowledge the desire to prioritize my quilt projects according to the fabrics I adore the most while taking into account the fact that I am not immortal.

So here’s a short list of projects I want to embark on in 2026. (You just have to promise not to hold me to this list because who’s to say a fabric line won’t debut in the next few months that totally takes my fancy, turns my head, and causes some of the quilts I have in mind to drop down on the list? This is the eternal dilemma for quilters, no?)

At the very top of my list is a quilt showcasing a gorgeous floral print from the “Jolie Jardin” line by Lakehouse Dry Goods:

I’ve paired it with fabrics that I think will go well with the pattern shown, Dandelions at Dusk by Blue Bear Fabrics. That Lakehouse focus fabric has been in my stash for at least 16 years. I know this because I used some of it in a quilt I made in 2010 called Dianthus, which you can see right here:

The pattern is 4-Patch Stacked Posies by HD Designs. Back then I had recently discovered the four-patch kaleidoscope block and was having great fun investigating the possibilities with other fabrics and other settings. At this point I haven’t decided whether I will make four-patch kaleido blocks for this next quilt or cut squares directly from the fabric. My plan is to make a test block or two tomorrow.

I have two quilts in mind for this next group of fabrics:

The first is a true winter version (as opposed to a holiday version) of my pattern Season to Taste. Here you see my spring, summer, fall, and winter versions:

The winter version (far right) was given to my twin Diane as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago so I made a second holiday version for myself this past year:

I’ve been rotating my Season to Taste quilts on a wall in the master bath but I don’t necessarily want to keep the winter version you see above on display during January and February. That’s why I need a true winter version, and I am totally in love with the fabrics in the grouping I have put together that speak “winter” to me. I have already cut out more than enough 45˚ triangles for the three blocks needed for a wall hanging:

The background fabric is a light gray “Grunge” from BasicGray for Moda. Very appropriate for a typical rainy winter in Portland, Oregon but the prints are lively enough to dispel the winter blahs (or is that winter blues?).

And what about the second version with these fabrics? Well . . . regular readers will recall my obsession with the free Ribbon Box pattern from Cloud 9 Fabrics. I made three versions in 2024. (You can see them here in my Quilt Gallery.)

In the photo below you can see the front page of the Cloud 9 pattern. My plan is to transform it into a bed runner. I tested my idea by simply folding the paper to create a quilt with two vertical ribbons and four horizontal ones. By reducing the width of the ribbons from 5″ to 4″, I’ll wind up with a bed runner that measures 28½” wide.

I have a length of very pale aqua fabric with just a hint of texture and sparkle for the background of this quilt. I think it will be lovely!

I hardly know where to start but as Scarlett O’Hara famously said, “Tomorrow is another day.” There is nothing on the agenda tomorrow so I hope to have a test block to show you very soon.

Thank you for stopping by. And by the way, Happy New Year!

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, bed runners, faux-kaleido quilts, home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, picnic quilt, Ribbon Box quilt, table runner, update, wall hanging | 6 Comments

Silver Threads Among the Gold

by Dawn Posted on September 27, 2025

The piecing of my current project, a holiday wall quilt made from my Season to Taste pattern, is complete:

Here’s a close-up of the top block with the accent strips added above and below:

You can probably tell that most of the fabrics in the kaleidoscope triangles have gold metallic accents but what you can’t see is that the background fabric also has a touch of metallic. This particular shade of white “Grunge” by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics has a slightly yellowish cast in places that looks like gold but there are also silver metallic threads running all through the fabric that add even more sparkle. The effect is subtle but sophisticated.

I’m eager to get a backing made and get this quilted. Inspiration hasn’t yet struck on a name. The fabric line is “Enchanted Christmas” by Makower UK Fabrics so maybe I should name this small quilt Enchanted Forest in honor of the majestic reindeer inhabiting it. Just look at those gold filigreed antlers!

 

 

 

Posted in home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, snowball blocks, stitch-and-flip corners, table runner, update, wall hanging | 3 Comments

“Season To Taste” Update

by Dawn Posted on September 15, 2025

The latest version of my kaleidoscope pattern Season to Taste is coming along, albeit at a snail’s pace. Carving out time to spend in my sewing room when the garden is in full swing is a tough row to hoe. How’s that for mixing metaphors?

Here’s a shot of the first block, with my pattern shown for reference:

Finally I got the second and third blocks put together. It took an inordinate amount of time (i.e. a ridiculously long time) to settle on the final placement of the triangles in each block, especially the triangles containing the reindeer. Even though I envision this as a wall hanging with a definite layout from top to bottom, I couldn’t help but consider what the blocks would look like in a table runner. I wanted the reindeer to be well placed no matter whether the quilt was viewed as vertical (as in a wall hanging) or horizontal (as in a table runner). Crazy, I know!

So this is where we are:


No turning back now. I’ve sewn the white corner triangles on the blocks. They’re slightly oversized so I can trim them to exact size before sewing the strips between the blocks.

Here are close-ups of the other two blocks, first the middle one . . .

. . . and then the bottom one:

 

So close now! Let’s hope you won’t have to wait too long for the next blog post showing the completed quilt top.

 

 

 

Posted in home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, snowball blocks, stitch-and-flip corners, table runner, update, wall hanging | 2 Comments

A Near Finish and a Fresh Start

by Dawn Posted on August 20, 2025

My fractured image quilt, now officially named Fractured Ferns and Flowers, is all done (except for the label, that is):

I’m in a hurry to show it to you because I’ve already jumped to the next project (more on that below). Here’s a closer look at the quilting on my fractured image — random wavy lines stitched diagonally from corner to corner with a walking foot:

A close-up of one corner:

Can you tell I used two threads, a pale green and a medium blue? That wasn’t intentional. I started with the light green and quilted two curved lines. Then I tried a green variegated thread that I really liked but took out because it was a heavier weight thread and showed up on the fabric more than I wanted. I decided to test the blue thread after removing the variegated thread. I really liked the look of that and probably would have quilted the entire top in blue if I’d started with it. That’s when it occurred to me to use two different colors. Why not? Every third curve is stitched with blue. Not exactly random but the effect is random. By the way, Fractured Ferns and Flowers measures 31½” x 36½”.

I vowed to finish this project before starting another but . . . my resolve slipped and over the last several days I have been stealing up to my sewing room, cutting 45 degree triangles from the holiday fabrics I showed you in my last post . . .

. . . and playing around with their positions in kaleidoscope blocks:

There is one change from my original fabric pull: I replaced a dark green print with a medium light green print after discovering that three dark green triangles overpowered the block. Sometimes you just have to play around with color, scale, and value to get the right balance. That’s part of the fun — and for me, the challenge — of quiltmaking.

I’m still playing around with placement possibilities but I couldn’t resist going the next step: adding the sashing strips and sewing the the triangles together:

How festive is that??

 

 

 

Posted in fractured image, home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, single-fold binding, table runner, update, wall hanging | 4 Comments

Christmas in July

by Dawn Posted on July 30, 2025

If you’re a quilter who subscribes to quilt shop websites or has been in a quilt shop recently, you probably know that July is the month that holiday and Christmas-themed fabric lines hit the quilt shops. It may seem funny to be thinking about such things at the height of summer but when dazzling arrays of holiday prints start appearing in shops and flooding your phone and tablet screens — well, let’s just say some of those fabrics can be mighty hard to resist any time of year.

I’ve been tempted by several new collections but it’s a line of fabric from 2024 that caught my eye: “Enchanted Christmas” by Makower UK Fabrics. The Dear Husband and I took a little road trip to Walla Walla, Washington in June, which is where I came across these lovely fabrics at a quilt shop called Stash:

I could visualize these prints in a kaleidoscope quilt with the reindeer fussy-cut to show them off to best advantage. But I needed a few more fabrics. Back home in Portland I raided my stash and added these to the mix:

And then just a few days ago I found the perfect background fabric at the quilt shop where I teach, the Lake Oswego branch of Montavilla Sewing Centers:

That’s a creamy white Grunge from BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics — and it has gold sparkles in it!

And the kaleidoscope quilt pattern? It just happens to be one of my own:

I’ve already made a version of Season to Taste with holiday fabrics . . .

. . . but I wound up giving it as a Christmas gift to my twin sister Diane in 2021. Funny, I didn’t remember until pulling up the photo just now that it also has reindeer in it.

By the way, the name of my quilt pattern is a reference to making wall hangings or table runners that reflect the four seasons. Here are my four:

You can probably tell the order of seasons in the photo above is spring, summer, fall, and winter.

I’m so looking forward to cutting into my new fabrics but I won’t allow myself to begin until I’ve finished my current project. And just so you know, quilting has commenced!

Posted in family, home dec, kaleidoscope quilts, table runner, update, wall hanging | 4 Comments

Berried Treasure Is A Wrap!

by Dawn Posted on June 1, 2025

Finally, a finish to report: Berried Treasure, the quilt I started at the beginning of this year:

You can read my first post about it here.

Have a look at the back:

As you can see, I made my trademark round label using a compact disc as a pattern and added a contrasting ring of the bright blue tonal fabric:

A close-up of said label:

Even though I used the “natural light” function on my camera phone to take the indoor pictures you see above, there’s no substitute for the real thing to capture the true colors in the fabrics:

Berried Treasure measures 68″ x 81″ but will shrink a bit after being laundered. After being dragged around the back deck, it definitely needs a trip through the washer and dryer.

Given that today is the first of June, I hope to be more productive during the remaining months of 2025. My mind is already racing with possibilities for my next project.

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, faux-kaleido quilts, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 6 Comments

Berried Treasure Is Back from the Quilter

by Dawn Posted on May 15, 2025

A heartfelt thank you to all my friends and followers who responded with words of condolence and comfort following my last post about our beloved cat Coco’s departure from this world. So many quilters are also pet owners and they love their furry friends as much as the Dear Husband and I loved our Coco. We want you to know how much we appreciate your messages. We miss her so much.

Last week I picked up my Berried Treasure quilt from longarmer Karlee Sandell at SewInspired2Day. Karlee sent me a teaser shot of the quilt while it was still on her longarm quilting machine:

As usual, I am thrilled with the result!

I chose “Embellish” by Quilts Complete as the quilting motif. It’s the fourth time I’ve asked Karlee to use this quilt design; it seems it is becoming my “go to” motif. At my request she used a pale green thread to blend with the outer border. It also blends well with the yellow background in the 4-Patch Wonder blocks and looks good against the vibrant blue in the sashing strips and setting triangles.

Here are a few shots of the quilting:

Notice in the photo above how the quilting goes beyond the raw edges of the quilt top? I always ask Karlee to do that. The main reason is that the quilting stitches hold all three layers together after the quilt is trimmed, making it much easier to apply the binding. There’s another reason: I often cut my outer borders an inch or so wider than my planned border width. That gives me the option to keep that extra width in the final quilt, trim the excess batting and backing right at the raw edge line, or trim the borders to make them a little narrower. I like to have options.

Here’s a look at the back of the quilt with the focus fabric on display:

You can see that I have the binding ready to go. It’s the same green floral print as the outer border. With Berried Treasure I didn’t have enough border fabric to cut my strips a bit wider because I needed to save a few inches for the binding strips. I used up every last bit of that green floral fabric!

Now the quilt has been trimmed . . .

. . . and the binding is ready to go:

Oh, how satisfying it is to pen the words “Binding has commenced!”

 

 

 

Posted in 4-Patch Wonder, cats, family, faux-kaleido quilts, kaleidoscope quilts, update | 3 Comments