Wonderlust Benartex Blog Hop & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Wonderlust Blog Hop for Benartex Fabrics! I am thrilled to have the chance to create something with Paula's incredible fabric. The 'prima donna' fabrics are like looking at stained glass, or tapestry, perhaps scrollwork, maybe all three! The 'solids' (anything but!) or blenders remind me of mixing colour into paint; they're saturated, prints with a depth and richness that makes me want to lick them, ha! I knew immediately that I would kaleidoscope these, something I haven't done for a long time, but that continues to call me.

I have loved and admired Paula Nadelstern's work for a very long time. I've mentioned before that I took a kaleidoscope course from a protégée of hers, Deb Tilley, at Earthly Goods in Edmonton back in 2000, and bought her book.

I had the privilege of hearing her presentation at the Edmonton Quilt Guild back in July 2004...

"REMEMBER, when it comes to fabric, more is MORE!"

First of all, this is not going to be a tutorial in how to make a kaleidoscope; for that you really need to either buy Paula's book and work through the detailed instructions to make one, or take a course from her. She is still teaching, around the world; in fact the main fabric, Tapestry, is inspired by a tower she saw in Muscat, Oman, before she taught in Dubai! Go to Sew in Love With Fabric, Benartex's blog, where you can read the full interview with Paula.

I'll show you the basics of what I did: I got to work, using my quilter's mirrors. The main fabric, Tapestry, was stunning. It, as well as another, Electric Slide, both have bi-lateral symmetry, meaning you could cut a triangle on the horizontal or vertical axis and have each side of the triangle identical. This creates the continuous kaleidoscope effect you see in the photos below, Tapestry in the first, and
Good Vibrations, both the centre triangles. I love the names! Another piece of Tapestry is the hexagonal shape below the triangle.

Beginning of kaleidoscope 2

In an attempt to speed up the process of creating a kaleidoscope, something which takes a long time, as you audition different fabrics and let the kaleidoscope find its own way, I tried something I haven't  done before in the construction of these, paper-piecing. (It is not as accurate as her method.) I did make templates for the symmetrical patches I needed though. I love paper-piecing for its accuracy, and thought for some of the sections it might work. I don't sew through the paper. You can find a detailed description of that process here.) For the purple kaleidoscope, you see the parts below:

This results in a 45° wedge shape.

Trimming, using the main template I drafted

Once you determine that the wedge is accurate (you can see where I needed to do a little finessing on mine) you then cut the rest of your pieces and assembly-line sew everything together. Once I had a second one and had tweaked it, I sewed the two together to get a right angle:

Getting excited as to what it will look like!

Here is the same stage of the second one:

This is what the templates and cutting looks like for the second kaleidoscope. The pentagon shapes are what I'd already cut for the first one.

Swiss cheese fabric... I still have a hard time with that! Plastic template has registration marks for accurately lining up the fabric

And after all the pieces for the both kaleidoscopes and the small hexagon, here is what's left of the yard of Tapestry!

Pretty soon you will have your kaleidoscope (centre seam hasn't been sewn because it hadn't told me it did not want to be a table runner but the star of its own show):

To get the octagon to a square shape, I laid it down on my cutting mat to determine the diameter, which was approximately 16.5" across. I then measured what I'd need for a corner, in my case about 5"on the two right angles sides, and cut a bit bigger of a square, two of them, so that I could cut in half across the diagonal and have four HSTs to add to the four corners:

From here, I added 2.5" strips to each of the four sides so that I had a 19.5 square.

I contemplated making a bag, with each one one side of the bag, but they said, no...cushions! Then you can see us every single day.

Both cushion tops complete

I layered the purple one and started quilting, first stitching in the ditch across the seams to anchor the piece and then FMQ-ing with Sulky Holoshimmer and metallic threads:

I was again (was there every a doubt?) very very pleased with the threads, and my darling Bernina, who sews wonderfully with these. I used Aurifil 50 wt in the bobbin at times and Superior The Bottom Line at others.

Here is the back before construction into the cushion cover:

And all done!

It is so hard to get a shot that shows the truly magnificent Sulky threads, glinting in the early morning sun, but I tried a few times...

A little different angle...

Here are the four Sulky threads I used, three Holoshimmer and one Metallic. The Metallic is used for the dot to dot work in the purple border, the Holoshimmer for the FMQ on the kaleidoscope.

The back where I used the Good Vibrations print:

I did the envelope back and machine stitched the binding to the front, then turned it to the back, gluing it down (love that) and stitched in the ditch from the front, catching the edge on the underside. This is my preferred way of machine-applying a binding as it most closely resembles my favourite, hand-stitching it to the back, and there are no lines of stitching showing on either the front or the back.

A close-up of my label😊

and another more detailed note inside!

Think I'm going to have tea with my cushion later today...

If you want something a wee bit simpler, and you just want to play with the symmetry of the fabric, you can make a one-patch hexagon using 60° triangles:

This will grow up into a nice-sized pincushion or a mug rug! Have no fear, the red kaleidoscope is under the Bernina's needle as I madly type, and I'll be sure to show you her when she's all done.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  original design kaleidoscope
Size: 19" square
Fabric:  'Wonderlust' by Paula Nadelstern for Benartex fabrics
Batting: Fairfield Soft n Crafty 80/20 (new to me and I liked it)
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Sulky Holoshimmer and Metallic, ditch-stitched with Aurifil 2600; Aurifil 2600 and Superior The Bottom Line and Gütermann 6217 in the bobbin

This is project #7 on my Q1FAL List which is here!

Giveaway! THE GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED.
If you would like to win a fat quarter bundle of 8-10 of these fabulous fabrics, sent to US residents only please, due to postage costs, leave me a comment below, telling me if you've ever played with the kaleidoscope or perhaps the stack 'n whack methods. Followers of mine can have a second entry simply by telling me how you follow me. New followers welcome! Deadline is Saturday, February 3 at 7:00 am EST. I'll announce the winner on my Saturday post which has the details of the 30 Designs Challenge I'm hosting again this year on Instagram. Please remember to include your email address if you are a no-reply blogger.

The winner was #108 Janine! She has been notified by email.

There are multiple opportunities to win. I hope you will visit the other bloggers throughout this week, as well as visit Benartex's blog, Sew in Love With Fabric, and maybe download their beautiful free digital e-zine, 😉 Modern By the Yard.
Monday: Sew in Love With Fabric (interview with Paula and a look at the Wonderlust line)
Tuesday: Sarah Goer Quilts
Wednesday: mmm! quilts (you are here!)
Thursday: Little Bunny Quilts
Friday: Stitched Together Studios

Tomorrow is the opening for registration for the New Quilt Bloggers Hop! If your blog is more than 2 months old but less than 3 years, I'd highly recommend signing up for this most worthwhile event, of which I am pleased and honoured to be a co-host this year. As a result, Throwback Thursday will be moved this month to Friday.

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF @ Devoted Quilter
Busy Hands Quilts
Dizzy Quilts for the Q1 FAL

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