A Kaleidoscope Calendar

Have I ever told you how I am surrounded by very creative and talented quilters up here in North Bay?  While I am.

I have shown you my Kaleidoscope quilt before.  Here it is again. 

My reason for doing so, is to introduce the 2016 Kaleidoscope calendar that the day guild that I belong to (Near North Quilters' Guild) has published.

What a beauty it is!

We had a bunch of close-up shots of all the kaleidoscope quilts that the members made and it was decided to have them shown on the cover and placed in oval shapes to replicate our logo shape.  Looks like Easter eggs, eh!

A calendar was sent to Ricky Tims (we used his book:  Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts).  This is the letter and explanation of how this calendar came to be.

Dear Ricky,

Our day guild, Near North Quilters’ Guild thought that you might like to have a 2016 calendar showing off our wonderful collection of kaleidoscope quilts.  We are so proud of our accomplishment! 

How did we get started on this project?  Back in the summer of 2013, our then president, Natalie, thought what a great project this would be.  The Program Committee asked the guild if they would be interested in doing a challenge, doing something really different.  They agreed. 

I won’t lie, the pattern was a bit difficult and some members even swore that if they had known what they were getting themselves into, they would never have started.

Started they did.  Thirty members bought your book, Kool Kaleidoscope Quilts and away we went. 

Our books were purchased through a guild member that has a store called The Cottage Quilter (http://thecottagequilter.ca/).  The place where she buys her books from wanted to know why we were ordering an older book.  It didn’t matter how old the book was, we wanted it to complete our challenge.  To us it was NEW.

At our December 2013 meeting, we got the members drawing up their templates and then they went home to study the layout in their books that they liked the best.  At our January 2014 workshop, members came to the meeting with their fabric and sewing machines.  What a grand day that was.  There was some confusion, some frustration but gradually we looked around the room in awe.  Their kaleidoscopes started to take shape.

Meeting after meeting, members were showing off their kaleidoscope tops and then quilts.  This was a magic time.  It was time to put Natalie’s other vision of having a calendar and writing cards into action.  A professional photographer was brought in and photos were taken.  It didn’t matter if they were quilts or tops, we wanted them all. To accommodate all the tops and quilts, two photography sessions were arranged.

After all the photos were taken, it was time to take stock and see how many we had.  Twenty-two photos in total.  How in the world do we take all those photos and put them into a twelve month calendar?  We had to become creative, without insulting any quilter by not giving them proper viewing.  Can you figure out how we did it?

Two quilters that appear in the calendar have blogs.

Deanna (October) has her blog at:  http://www.scrappynanna.blogspot.ca/  She has posted about her Kaleidoscope quilt that she made.  Please go to her post on Monday, March 3, 2014 and scroll down to see all her posts about this quilt.

On my blog (www.appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com) I have posted a few times about the making of my kaleidoscope quilt.  Sadly, for the calendar (Rose Marie Castonguay, July), it was not quilted, but it has since been completed and hanging on my wall.  If you are interested, please visit my blog Applique ‘n Patch Quilting and scroll down to my Labels until you see Kaleidoscope.  Click onto that word and scroll down to the bottom and then read up.

So, enjoy our calendar and thank you for giving us a challenge to remember.

If you want to see some of the kaleidoscope quilts, go here and scroll down.

Below are the writing cards that we produced as well.  One pack (on the left) has all of my Kaleidoscope quilt (we could have all of the same quilt in one pack) and the other pack are assorted.

I wonder what else we will come up with next?  Yep, we are very proud of this project!

Have a great day!