Kaleidoscope King

I can't think of a better way to kick off the launch of my new blog than with this fun quilt!!  I am over joyed to finally share my rendition of Violet Craft's Jungle Abstractions: The Lion! I have aptly named him Kaleidoscope King, although I really wanted to call it "I am the Walrus" but was afraid there would be too much confusion.

I first bought this pattern at QuiltCon 2016 in Pasadena. I had absolutely NO clue how to paper pieces but I was so enamored with the geometric design and scale of the design that I bought it anyway. Fast forward two years, an FPP class or two, a sparkly bundle of Vanessa Christensen's Ombre Confetti Metallic and voila! a vision began to emerge. I printed off the coloring sheet, grabbed my markers and began matching the markers to the fabrics. The resulting coloring sheet looked like a hot mess but I could see that my vision was going to work.

The biggest challenge when working with a symmetrical pattern and ombre fabric was cutting each mirrored piece from the same section of the fabric. This wasn't something that occurred to me immediately and it was only when I sewed the first two together that it dawned on me how chaotic the quilt would look if I didn't cut with more care. Being the type-A person that I am, I frantically text a few of my close quilty friends all of but one told me it would be fine. I knew it would bug me to eternity, so I got my seam ripper out and taught myself how perform FPP surgery. The piece I wanted to remove was of coarse letter B and it took some serious problem solving to figure out how to remove it without ripping all of the pieces out.  

​Going forward, my solution was to pair up the mirrored sections (rather than sewing them in numerical order) and insuring that each piece came from the same section of the ombre. Similarly, I kept track of where two patches of the same color/fabric would meet and tried to cut them from the same section as well. I certainly made more work for myself in doing this but I think the results speak for themselves.
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For the backing, I used the same black quilter's linen as the front and added some colorful strips using some of my leftovers. When it came time for the quilting, I wanted to go minimal so as not to distract from the gorgeous pattern and fabrics. I choose one inch straight lines with a clear monofilament thread.

​The Orange County Fair is coming up in August and I decided I would enter this gorgeous guy into the competition under the wall quilts category. My entry has been accepted and should be on display in the exhibition hall. I would love to win my first ever ribbon but am happy to have it on display for all to see but wish me luck anyway!!