First New-FO of 2021: Kaleidoscope Grad Quilt for Anders

Alright you guys, I know you've heard me sing this song before, but THIS time I mean it.  THIS is the quilt I'm making for Son-the-Younger's upcoming high school graduation:

77 x 99 Kaleidoscope Quilt in Blues, Greens, and Purple

Some of you are raising your eyebrows at this, recalling my previous announcement about a year ago that I would be making Anders a version of Karen Kay Stone's spectacular Cinco de Mayo quilt for his graduation, but that idea has been abandoned for the following reasons:

1. Graduation is only 5 months away, and I have customer quilt commitments that will demand my attention in addition to my own ongoing projects.
2. While I still love the elaborately foundation paper pieced New York Beauty blocks in Karen's design, I know that all of those seams add up to a stiffness that is fine for a wall display quilt, but not so soft and snuggly to sleep under.
3. It bothered me that the New York Beauty blocks were too similar to the curved flying geese arcs in my older son Lars's high school graduation quilt, and I wanted Anders' quilt to be completely different.
4. Most importantly, I think, is that I just don't want to devote such a significant block of time to recreating a version of someone else's design right now.

So I may (or may not) end up making a quilt like Cinco de Mayo someday, but it's not going to be Anders' graduation quilt.

We were all watching Lord of the Rings movies on New Year's Eve -- well, Bernie and Anders were really WATCHING the movies, whereas I was sort of listening to them and glancing up occasionally as I flipped through a quilting book and then revisited some of my Quilting Inspiration boards on Pinterest.  I have always loved kaleidoscope quilts, but have never made one before.  Once the idea of doing a kaleidoscope quilt for Anders' graduation popped into my head, I had this weird feeling of an energy surge.  MOTIVATION!!  The idea I'm most motivated to pursue is the one most likely to be finished on time!  Other reasons the Kaleidoscope is a good pattern for this quilt: 

1. Although the kaleidoscope pattern has a cool illusion of curves, it's all straight piecing.  Most blocks will have only 12 pieces.  This feels reasonable, given the time constraints.
2. I got two AccuQuilt GO! dies for Christmas that will speed up the cutting considerably -- the 5" x 6" Isosceles Triangle die and the 3" HST die.  That's all I need to make 11" finished kaleidoscope blocks, and with blocks of that size the quilt should❉ go together fairly quickly.

Anders requested "blue, green and purple" when I asked him what colors he would like this quilt to be, which sent me scampering off to the Hand Dyed section at eQuilter.com, where I filled my virtual shopping cart with the following goodies:

Fabrics from my eQuilter Shopping Cart, Destined for Kaleidoscope Blocks

Won't these be FABULOUS?!  As usual, I probably bought enough half-yard pieces to make five or six of these quilts...  I am definitely NOT on the bandwagon for any New Year's resolutions about not buying fabric.  Instead, I consider it my personal mission in life to ensure that my favorite fabric companies stay in business...  😏. I especially love those hand dyed stripe fabrics, which I've used in several of my quilts before.  I think they will be especially effective in my kaleidoscope quilt.  And yes, I did check my stash this time to make sure I didn't already have any of these, but the ones I'd bought before have all been used up in other projects.

The second stop on my online shopping list for this quilt was Marjorie Lee Bevis's Etsy store where she sells assortments of her hand marbled fabrics.  The pictures do NOT do them justice!  I used Marjorie's hand marbled fabrics for the sawtooth stars in my Paint Me a Story quilt as well as in my pineapple log cabin quilt.  (And yes, I DO plan on quilting both of those tops at some point in 2021!). I replenished my supply of marbled blues, greens and purples and I cannot wait to use them in my kaleidoscope quilt.

Assorted Hand Marbled Fabric in Green, by Marjorie Bevis

As far as the background fabric, I'm deciding between either pure black (which I have on a bolt) or else a really deep, dark, inky navy solid, which I would need to order.  I think I'll wait and audition some possibilities once my feature fabrics arrive from Etsy and from eQuilter.  I'm in North Carolina and I believe both of those sellers are shipping to me from the West coast, though, so it's not like they'll be in my mailbox tomorrow or anything.

❉ Oh, did any of you notice that little hot pink asterisk back there, when I predicted that my Kaleidoscope quilt "should" go together fairly quickly?  That's because I'm contemplating mixing in a few more complicated blocks to spice it up a bit.  I've got so many leftover blue and green strips from my pineapple log cabin...  What if I pieced some of those strips together, pressed and starched them nice and flat, and THEN ran them through my GO! cutter to cut them into isosceles triangles for my kaleidoscope blocks?  There are also those fancier kaleidoscope blocks that I included in my EQ8 rendering that I may or may not make.  That's one more thing I like about this design -- its flexibility!  I can incorporate more or fewer variations on the basic kaleidoscope block, depending on how I'm feeling (and how quickly I find myself running out of time!).

Have YOU started any new projects so far in 2021?  

I'm linking up today's post with my following favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter