Here comes quilt number five. This one has gone through a lot of changes. I heard about Bethany Reynold's Stack and Whack method but didn' t have her book. I found a site online that vaguely told how to do it so I tried it out. Here's what my first attempt looked like. Then I went to a quilt show in Winnipeg and saw a couple of Kaliedoscope quilts, which is what this pattern is called. I noticed that they used the same fabric for the kaleidoscopes and the same for all the backgrounds. It makes for a much more cohesive look. So these squares are all consigned to the "to make into shopping bags or pillows later" pile.
I bought all new fabric for the stars. Then I hand dyed the yellow fro the background. I have to thank Heidi Hunter of Runs With Scissors (you can see her work at www.runswithscissors.ca ) for introducing me to this type of dyeing. As she said, it's addictive. All the stars are from the same piece of fabric. I was amazed at the different looks you can get depending on where you cut your original squares for the stars. I have also decided that this blue is too light and I will be using a navy blue that I also hand dyed. Then there will be a border of the red fabric. I am not sure if I will want a narrow yellow border as well, between the blue and red ones. I also have to measure it to see if I have enough squuares to make it a queen size. This one will probably be quilted all in one piece because the small stars between the large ones will make it impossible or at least very difficult to do in sections. Now I want the Pfaff Inspira Quilting Frame. You put your machine on it and move the machine over the quilt. It's less money than a long arm machine, so maybe that's the next big purchase!
This is the look so far. The red border will be wider and I think a yellow border between the blue and red. The next big decision is the quilting. I'm considering some gold stars or moons on the blue border. As for the main part, I will be somewhat constrained by having to do it all in one piece, unless I can figure out how to do it in sections. I'd like to stipple the yellow part or make curving lines on the red stars to sort of follow the swirl of the shape. They say a quilt has three big decisions - the pattren, the fabric and the quilting, all equally important. Time for the third one!