Patchpieces: Kaleidoscope Star & Nine Patch Quilt

Kaleidoscope Star & Nine Patch Quilt

In May 2005 someone on the Info-EQ list posted a link to a vintage quilt top that was up for auction on eBay. As usual <grin> we wanted to figure out how to draw this quilt in EQ5. The actual quilt was not made up of square blocks, but the maker had hand-pieced a house-shaped patch to join the Kaleidoscope Star blocks with the on point Nine Patches. This page will show you a workaround so you can make this quilt in EQ5.

The original quilt was said to measure 80" x 80", so we're going to make the star and the on point nine patch 9". In order to get that odd house shaped patch between the blocks, I decided it would work best to design a new combination four patch block that contains two each of the star and nine patch. To get the completer rows on the right and bottom of the quilt I also made a half block to use in a block style border only on those sides

First, we need to make the Kaleidoscope Star block. This is not the official name, but I dubbed it this because it's made similar to the Kaleidoscope block found in the EQ5 block libraries. If you have BlockBase2, there is a similar star block called Arkansas Traveler or Cowboy Star, but the diamonds are not 45 degrees.

1. Copy the Kaleidoscope block from the EQ5 block libraries. You'll find it under Classic Pieced>Eight Point Stars. Retrieve the block from the Sketchbook and place it on the worktable.

2. Draw an on point square in the block, save to Sketchbook. Now, draw two lines from each corner to the nodes established where the on point square intersects with the long triangles of the Kaleidoscope to create the 45 degree diamonds. Delete the unneeded lines to create the block on the right. Save to Sketchbook. To create our larger four patch block, we'll use this same block, so be sure to save the star before proceeding!

3. Go into the Drawing Board setup and change the Block size to 12" and on the Graph Paper tab change the divisions to 12 x 12. Leave the snap to grid points at 24. Making these changes will make it easier to draw our block.

4. Now, Select All (CTRL+A), right-click and choose Resize from the context menu. Resize both horizontal and vertical to 50% and click OK. Move the resized star to the upper quadrant of the block, taking care to make sure it snaps neatly into place. While it's still selected, clone or copy the star and move the copy to the lower right quadrant of the block. It should now look like the following:

5. Next, draw the on point nine patches as illustrated below. The base square is the same size as the one in the star. The graph paper divisions will guide you where to draw the lines for the nine patch -- no partitioning necessary! Save to Sketchbook.

6. To make a half block for our completer borders: Delete the star and nine patch on the right. Select All to select the remaining star and nine patch on the left, right-click, choose Resize and change the horizontal and vertical sizes to 200% x 100%. When you go back to the drawing board the star and nine patch will look squished, but that's what we want. While the block parts are still selected, move them so that they snap into place inside the block outline. When we place this block in the completer borders, it will look fine.

7. Color all our new blocks: the single Kaleidoscope Star, our new four patch combination block and the half block. Hint: Color them in grayscale for now, later you can recolor on the Quilt worktable.

8. Now for the quilt! Switch to the Quilt worktable and on the Quilt menu choose New Quilt>Horizontal. Click on the Layout tab and change the Number of blocks to 4 x 4, the Block size to 18" x 18", no sashing.

9. Click on the Borders tab. By default, their should already be a 1" border around the quilt. If not, delete any existing borders and then add a new one. Change the Border style to Blocks. Under Adjust size, uncheck all the options (L+R, T+B and All) so we can size the borders independently. Set the border size for the Left and Top to zero (0) and the Right and Bottom to 9". Change the number of Blocks in Border to 4 horizontal and 4 vertical.

10. Click on the Layer 1 tab. Set the combination block in the 4 x 4 quilt center spaces, set the half blocks in the 9" right and bottom borders (you will need to rotate the bottom border blocks) and set the single Kaleidoscope Star in the remaining corner space of the border. You can add another border if you like. Be sure to recheck the options under Adjust Size so you can size all sides at once.

There you have it! I am going to leave it up to you to figure out how to piece this beauty! If you print templates, be sure to print them from an 18" block so you will have the correct sizes.

All that said...if I were to make this quilt I would take the easy way out, create the three following blocks and set them in an on point layout. Same look, easier piecing!

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