Kaleidoscope Star

I had been tossing around an idea of using stripes in a Lone Star quilt when Alison Glass's Kaleidoscope Stripes were released. They seemed a great fit for what I had in mind.

I designed this quilt to take advantage of the Kaleidoscope fabrics. Because of the scale of the stripes, I chose relatively large diamonds (3.5" finished width), producing a star 68 inches across. With the borders, the quilt is about 85 inches square.

I used strip piecing methods to piece the star, alternating between strips cut across the width of the fabric with strips cut lengthwise, so that the stripes go in alternate directions within a strip set.

The background fabric is Essex Speckle Yarn Dyed in Black.  (That's not dust in the photos, that's the speckles which are woven into the fabric.)

I knew quilting with black thread would not show up well on the black fabric. I used iridescent thread (Superior Glitter 109) for selected features, and did additional quilting with black thread anyways.

The quilting is hard to capture in photos, but this view gives an idea of where I used the iridescent thread:

Here's a detail showing the quilting in the border:

The backing fabric is a Ruby Star Society sateen. The dark background and bright accent colors work well with the front of the quilt. The binding is a Kaleidoscope solid.

I didn't get quite the effect I was hoping for with the stripes -- I think a more uniform stripe, or fussy cutting of these, might work better. But I'm still happy with the bright and cheery look of the quilt.