Saturday, June 3, 2017

Hey, Macarena!


Hello all! It’s been awhile since I posted a bona fide, start to finish, made with my own two hands kind of quilt. I made this Spider Web, aka Kaleidoscope, in a fabric swap with my "Piecemakers" quilt friends. 


The theme was “pastels” so each of us contributed six yards worth of assorted strips to exchange with the group.



By the day of the swap, three banquet tables overflowed with strips of every color and hue. We paraded around the room to the festive rhythm of “Macarena,” snatching a strip from each table we passed. Between the music, laughter and fabric flying, we looked like a crazy conga line or raucous game of musical chairs. "Hey, Macarena!" 

Some chose their strips at random while others had a particular color scheme in mind. I selected 1930s-style colors and prints for my quilt. 

After sorting and sewing our strips into strata (6 strip sets), we used this 45 Degree Kaleidoscope Wedge Ruler to cut the eight segments required for each block. 





Coordinating the colors within each block was lots of fun... 







but, I liked the scrappiness of mixing random strips almost as much.




Nothing went to waste. My leftover strips found their way into the scrappy border.


I chose a 1930s-style print for the back too and bound the quilt in pink.




Kaleidoscope or Spider Web 
84" x 100"
Machine quilted by Stover Quality Quilting.