Free Motion Quilting adventures

Our days are a kaleidoscope. Every instant a change takes place in the contents. New harmonies, new contrasts, new combinations of every sort.

Henry Ward Beecher

When I first encountered kaleidoscope quilts, I loved how a single fabric could create a completely different images that no one would ever guess had been created from the same fabric.  A change of perspective, a new viewpoint, and an entirely different space was born.

One of the old projects I found when I went into my quilting  and reorganizing frenzy this fall was a kaleidoscope quilt that was pieced, sandwiched and partially quilted.  Apart from the main kaleidoscope motifs, there was a lot of black background that I decided to use to improve my FMQ skills. I have always loved FMQ and have been using it on many of my quilts, but it is especially prominent in this one. Now it is just waiting for a binding.

Here’s a look at how it turned out.  The circles are lightly quilted so that they pop relative to the heavily quilted background.  A few motifs in the circles are outlined in green thread that blends into the background, but they make star patterns on the back of the quilt (should have taken a picture of those).

Kaleidoscope Path

And a closer view of some of the quilting.  Each brick in the background has a different motif, or if a motif is repeated, a different thread is used.  Had I stuck to only reds, greens and golds, it might have made a good Christmas quilt, but I started trying out different threads and ended up with reds, greens, reds, blues and purples.

Kaleidoscope Path, quilting detail

and a bit more detail:

I drew on quite a few motifs from the Free Motion Quilting project.  It is great to have a resource with so many patterns to try out!

Linking this up to Free Motion Mavericks.