Autumn Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is DONE!!

Can you feel the excitement?

I started this quilt in August and had to put it aside a few times to finish other projects, but I am so glad to say it is finished!

A lot of times when I'm making a quilt I get to a point where I just kind of want to be done with it and start cutting corners and just quit being excited about it. Not so with this baby. I love it!

We had to run some errands Sunday before soccer so I threw a couple quilts in the car and told my husband we were going to stop at a park and take some pictures. But we ran out of time before the soccer game and afterward my husband really needed to be getting back to the field, so I convinced him to help take a couple pictures as I was dropping him off. Thus, you get these wonderful harvest-y shots!  Unfortunately, I left my camera's memory card in my computer at home so I had to use his phone to take the pictures. 

I was a little stumped about what I wanted to do when it was time to make the back of the quilt. I had lots of smaller pieces of fabric left, so when I saw these scrappy stars that Cinzia of Deux Petites Souris had made, I was inspired to try them.

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As always, I was indecisive about my quilting, until Katie suggested that I simply sew along the side of the seams as she and some others had done on their Kaleidoscopes. Easy enough and it made a neat design on the back as well. This was the first time that I used Aurifil thread in my quilting and I was quite impressed. I was always skeptical when others raved about what a difference it made for them, but it went through my machine so smoothly, never broke, and my sewing machine even seemed to sound happier.

Overall, I am very happy with this quilt. Sure, several of my points don't quite match up like they should and the binding fabric seemed to noticeably fade after the first wash, but I really don't mind. I love the autumnal colors, the fabrics, and the design of both front and back.

 Thank you to Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy for designing and sharing such an awesome quilt. I joined the QAL the day after it ended, but I still had fun going back through the Flickr group and seeing how others had interpreted the design.

ETA: I just figured out how to get pictures from the internal memory on my camera to the card, so I added a few more "picnic" shots.

 I'm submitting my "Autumn Kaleidoscope" to Celebrate Color.

So happy to be linking up with Canoe Ridge Creation's {Sew} Modern Monday, Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday, and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday. Thanks Ladies!