Squirrel: Kool Kaleidoscope

I have so many projects going now it's almost stressful. So I need another one, right? I couldn't resist Ricky Tims' Kool Kaleidoscope quilt along. Check it out here, it's free and you don't have to subscribe or be a member. 

Here's my palette inspiration, my family room rug and a couple of fabrics that coordinate. (sorry for the washed-out photo)

And the fabrics I pulled, including the very last of my Kaffe Jupiter in Ochre, the most versatile print ever. What you see is all there is, less than WOF, less than 1/4 yard. I hope I can make it work. 

My fabric palette was looking a little drab so I consulted with my quilter friend across the street and ended up raiding her stash for a few more pieces, and editing out a few of the ones I had originally pulled. Here are the 5 strata I made. 

The pattern is quite clever and if you follow Ricky's directions carefully it's not difficult to create the templates. The magic happens when you start putting pieces on the wall. Here's the center and the next round

Three rounds: 

I ran into trouble with the fifth, final round. My strata stripes weren't working at all, no matter which way I tried to orient them. I ended up making a whole new strata. Much better. Here are all five rounds on the wall. 

Pretty cool! There's not as much of my precious Kaffe Jupiter showing as I would have liked, but oh well, it is what it is now. 

The next step is to plan for the background and think about borders. I definitely want to use the black batik from the strata for the background, and maybe repeat the green-black-purple from round 1. I don't have enough of the fabrics but I bought them recently from a local shop so I can go back and get more. 

If you are at all intrigued, I urge you to go to The Quilt Show and watch the videos. This is a fun project because it's a mystery how it will turn out. There's no way you can actually plan it. A couple of my new PebbleCreek quilter friends are making Kool Kaleidoscopes too, and we're having fun seeing them emerge from our fabric pulls. 

So even though it's not a finish, it's whoop worthy, so I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 
Also Small quilts and Doll Quilts and Love Laugh Quilt