Kaleidoscope Beginnings, and New Kitchen Floor

I have always loved the Kaleidoscope design, especially the optical illusions that appear when corners are added.  Some friends were at the quilt shop when I  bought fabric to blend with what I had, and they were teasing me, wanting to know if I would have it done by next week.  Well, this is a week later, and this is what I have.  While the blocks look complex, they really are not.   I'm aiming for 35 blocks, 5 x 7.   Kaleidoscopes need an uneven number of blocks for best optical illusion.  These strips are cut 2 inches and blocks are unfinished at about 11.5 inches.  Note, the corners are not added yet - they will likely be a pastel blue, turquoise, lavendar.   

Note in the below photo, the pale block in lower left does NOT work.  For me, the best blocks have the darkest and lightest in the same block.  I used a 45 degree ruler.  If I made it again, I'd reduce the size of block because when cutting the wedges I only could get 14 from each strata.  It would be more efficient to get 16, and not have so many leftovers.  Since I am using bits of many colors, I'm only getting 3 -5 of each color combination, even though they all are "blendy".  I'm aiming for balance. 

Most of the fabric is what I already have, so there is a wide variety in my pallette.  So far, so good!

New subject: - kitchen floor

My kitchen is small - that's OK, there are just the two of us.  What a production, but I'm including the subject so I don't forget what a great improvement this made.  The worst part was thinking about how awful the sides of the stove would be where things dribble down between the stove and cabinets.  Of course, I wanted to clean before the floor guys came, but what a job us two oldsters had pulling it out over a variety of boards, different levels, carpeting (!!!) - dust, debris, greasy "stuff", Cheerios and pieces of mail WERE terrible.  Thankfully, no bugs, or dead mice!  LOL.   We've been here 20 years - it was apparent that job had not been tackled by previous owners either.  Both the stove and the refrigerator without it's door had to be moved out of the kitchen.  The floor under the stove and the frigerator are now new and smooth, allowing appliances to be moved for cleaning.   8-)  (This job, when over, gave me a boost of energy, attitude, etc., I believe this led to my ability to sew for hours on the Kaleidoscope project. )