Paula Nadelstern Workshop: THE FULL KALEIDOSCOPE: SIXTY THIRTY PLUS SUNSTAR©
October 1 -3, 2026
Class runs 9am – 4pm each day.
$495 Public/ $396 NQM Friend
This workshop covers unique machine-piecing techniques, and color and fabric guidelines for creating the complex and mobile reflection of a kaleidoscope. While gaining insight into the nature of symmetry and intricately printed fabrics, students will learn to create a design that sews together successfully and renders a kaleidoscopic image filled with luminosity and dramatic impact.
On Day 1, students learn to draft a perfect angle and the template techniques I use to create complex images by sewing a pattern called Sixty-Thirty.
Days 2-3 will explore more advanced themes (ie: piecing curves, innovative use of fabrics, learning to identify and join divergent angles) while using a pattern called Sunstar. This product and process class culminates in the creation of a unique and fabulous kaleidoscope block. Often effects more wonderful than you imagine occur, making you both the one who makes the magic and the one who is surprised.
Why take a 3-day workshop? Time is provided for both process and product and for setbacks – which often turn out to be the takeaways, the lessons that occur when a misstep needs to be fixed. Skills get cemented and integrated, making the processes richer and layered. Consider time and space to create among like-minded peers a rare gift to be much appreciated. In the classroom context, seeing what others make is almost as good as making it yourself.
Some items from the Supply List & Fabrics will be for sale in class, noted with an *asterisk.
Paula Nadelstern
Paula Nadelstern has achieved international recognition for her innovative and complex designs inspired by the bilateral symmetry of kaleidoscopic images.
Honored by inclusion in the Twentieth Century’s 100 Best American Quilts, her designs were showcased in the American Folk Art Museum’s first one person exhibition highlighting the work of a contemporary quilt artist (2009). Recents solo exhibits included the International Quilt Museum (NE), the New England Quilt Museum (MA), The Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Textiles and venues in Germany and Japan.
In addition to her numerous awards, she is a recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Bronx Council on the Arts. Paula is the author of Fabricadabra: Simple Quilts, Complex Fabric, Paula Nadelstern’s Kaleidoscope Quilts: An Artist’s Journey Continues; Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Workbook; Puzzle Quilts: Simple Blocks, Complex Fabric; Kaleidoscopes & Quilts; Snowflakes & Quilts and Fantastical Designs (a coloring book with selections from her over thirty-one fabric collections designed exclusively for Benartex, Inc.). She makes her quilts in Southold, NY and on the same block in the Bronx, NY where she has lived her whole life.