Kaleidoscope Twins and FREE Pattern

Forget stopping with twins! I typically make 3, 4 - even a dozen of a particular pattern if the fabrics are speaking to me. This is true with my Kaleidoscope pattern. This is a traditional, vintage pattern that is made so much easier with a set of acrylic templates. There are several on the market these days.

When I taught this class for the Sewing Expo in 2010-11, I had my own rulers laser cut. I no longer sell them, but here's what you can do with them. First, a simple block. The large triangles are 45 degrees at the tips. The blue corners are your average, run-of-the-middle half-square triangles.

Kaleidoscope Block

But they are TWO different angles and you can play around with color so you get some amazing visuals going on. What do I mean? Do you see curves with the center blues?

Kaleidoscope in traditional browns

How about one done with novelty prints? This was done by my friend Jeannine using my pattern and templates.

Sockeye Kaleidoscope by Jeannine D.

Then I did one for Benartex. I used the Katie Collection. And it's FREE!

Merry Go Round: 48" x 48". 12" blocks (9 blocks)

Here are two blocks I made, playing around with strip piecing those 45 degree triangles.

And a table runner I made for Autumn:

Kaleidoscope Table Runner

Then I was playing with 1930s prints. What do you think?A terrible photo due to poor lighting, but I asked a guild friend to quilt it and it was donated to a local charity.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all these variations of the Kaleidoscope! Don't forget to get the free pattern above (with the Merry Go Round quilt).