This is the completed quilt top, pinned to the design wall. Double click to see the enlarged size - it will open first in a slightly larger format, but if you click on that, you can really enlarge it.
My first quilt was done with kaleidascope octagons and kaleidoscope squares. This quilt is done entirely in hexagons - that allows the cubes to become a part of the quilt, since they essentially make up the same hexagon shape. Optical illusions are fun.
More cubes and kaleidascope blocks.
This is one of my favorite blocks. The original fabric was jam-packed with every animal from an anteater to a zebra. This one was cut to show the skunk on top of the polar bear. Note the pig just below the polar bear's face, and the little tiny animal in the round at the center.
This particular block has a zebra, part of the elephant, and a climbing monkey. The long neck belongs to a giraffe, and forms the center kaleidascope.
Back to zebras and other assorted animals.
This one is partly elephant. This was a fun quilt to make, but for construction, I prefer the octagon format for the One-Block Wonder. There were too many bias edges to work with on this particular quilt, and the planning stage was more difficult, because the hexagons had to be pinned together through the center to place on the design wall. The heaviness of that piece required that it be pinned to the wall. Octogons are sewn together as one unit, with the loose components of the squares in the corners. Designing is far easier, as is sewing the final quilt. (At least, in my opinion, after having done both.) There are more mistakes in this quilt, but we won't quibble about that, right?
