Steps to a Kaleidoscope Block

Playing with novelty prints and the kaleidoscope shape has been fun. I used some Sockey Monkey prints and made several, as well as my friend Jeannine D. Here is one I finished in early 2022 and donated to my local quilt guild's charity efforts. Monkeys and bananas are a fun combo for little kids!

Sockey Kaleidoscope Quilt: 12" blocks

Here's one my friend Jeannine made using my pattern and ruler (which I no longer carry). She has the dancing monkeys in the borders!

Sockey Kaleidoscope Quilt by Jeannine D.

Let's see the steps to cutting and stitching kaleidoscope blocks. I first ran this in 2012 (10 years ago) and figured it might be interesting to cover it again! This is scrap friendly, too. Making these blocks I used both single fabric and stripped fabric. Here are two blocks:

Don't confuse this with the 60 degree Spiderweb ruler. The kaleidoscope is a 45" ruler, and is based on the radiating lines coming out from the center of a circle. Go look it up in your quilt reference books.

Working with the strips (random sizes) I made the height 6-1/2". Then I cut the strip sets with my ruler.

Cutting 6-1/2" high wedges using my ruler

 I cut a 6-1/2" x wof strip of the blue and white floral. This will be my alternating wedge.

Cutting the alternating kaleidoscope wedges from the blue and white fabric

 

Here are the 8 patches arranged on my cutting table.

8 kaleidoscope wedges arranged before sewing

 I sewed a triangle to the end of one of the strip pieced wedges. Then added the blue and white patch.

Patches added; first the corner triangle, then the companion blue/white wedge

 

I pressed the seam toward the blue/white wedge. I made 4 of these.

Press seam toward the plain (unpieced) wedge; make 4

 

Sew the pairs together as shown. The center seam will be the diagonal line.

Two of the pairs sewn together.

 

And how does it look from the wrong side? Nicely pressed seams, of course!

View from wrong side before sewing last seam.

I made another coloring, using plain white in place of the blue and white print. Which one do you like?

12" block using white in place of the blue print

Here are the two blocks together. Hmmm . . . . I can't decide.

Two 12" blocks side by side

I honestly can't find these blocks or remember what I made with them (or anything at all). But my scrap basket is calling to me and I may make a few more.

My 12 page Etsy pattern has instructions for making two different quilts - both 10" and 12" blocks. Check it out!

Maybe you can go look for your own kaleidoscope ruler in your ruler drawer! See you next time with a few more quilts!