When the universe speaks...

Listen!

Seriously. A little over three years ago I started working on a kaleidoscope quilt. It was a class given by my friend Marian, based on Ricky Tims book Kool Kaleidoscope quilts. I made (what felt like) yards and yards of strata. The fabrics were a 9 level gradation of grays hand dyed by my friend Natalie. I added a plain muslin as it needed something a little lighter that the lightest grey.  I had named it Dance in the Rain (my son's favorite quote) because the fabric resembled a gloomy rainy day.

Three years this project sat untouched until recently when the universe hollered at me. In less than 30 minutes I had read that quote twice on two different Facebook statuses. No worries universe, I heard you. I spent 45 minutes later that night looking through my massive mess for the project. I found it, opened the tub, and asked myself where the heck did I leave off (as I can't find the book). After a few minutes of fondling all of the pieces it slowly started to come back to me. 

The next day I was wondering through Joann's Fabrics and what jumps out at me but another message from the universe!

Okay, I got it - the message has been heard loud and clear! So that weekend I continued where I left off.

Now, with all the pieces I continued making my pie slice shapes. Well, I pieced three together, and then the other three. Making sure to carefully line up all gazillion (21) seams in each piece. Whew! So with my two halves constructed I continued to make a whole. Hahaha... After five attempts I stopped. You all know I'm much better at machine quilting than I am piecing, right?!!  Anyway, my center is awful. But it's okay, I had planned for a bunch of appliqué anyway -- I'll fix it later and no one will be the wiser -- well, except for all of you!  This is just one of the reasons why I love appliqué. You can solve many piecing woes -- fabric manipulation, it's a good thing!

So here is where the project is now (and don't look too closely at that awful center):

Look at those waves - looks like I'll have some fabric manipulation when I go to quilt this one! And even without having the book in front of me, I know my kaleidoscope isn't constructed the same as the technique in the book. I did not add the wedge pieces -- that's because this entire unit will be appliqued to a background fabric. Well, that, as well as a lot of other applique. And I'm not even ready to discuss the border yet... it's still flying around in my brain.

Please appreciate my sharing this. I get a lot of praise for sharing all the things I do, but I also catch a lot of flak. Some people say that by the time I debut my quilts everyone has already seen enough of them. Others feel I over-share - like that's even possible! Well guess what, I truly enjoy sharing with all of you. This is why I share it all -- the good, the bad, the wins, the mistakes -- all of it.  I shared (hehe) something about over-sharing on my other blog a long while back - click here if you'd like to read it.

Stay tuned for more on Dance in the Rain -- hoping to get a few minutes (hours) to work on it this weekend before I leave for MQS!