Wedding quilt

Soft antique looking quilt quilt...hard to take a pic of in the night light in the house...if you look at the top you can see the long arm sewing machine...Harriet the HQ!

Kaffe is in Georgia WOOOT:>>>>

Quilt de jour...the object of our drive...our fabric acquisition...our cutting madness!! Diagonal Madness from Country Garden Quilt book by Kaffe Fassett and friends

Judy, my table mate and quilty friend's awesome quilt...dark rich colors with pops of lime and turquoise

This one is mine....i had not cut one piece of fabric at 10 am...but i did bring almost every scrap of Kaffe that i had....and thats quite alot....i madly cut all day long...slapping fabrics on the wall...we were told to bring 36 fabrics...12 in each of three color ways....i rarely sat all day long...cut and iron and slap the fabrics on the wall...and then take them down when they didnt work...cut some new ones and do it again!! And YES it was alot of fun!!

If i remember right..he called my quilt a happy quilt...

Here is our color guru..the guy we all came to see...driving miles and miles....and he was well worth the trip....this is the tan design wall that he likes NOT a white one...for those of you who dont know alot about Kaffe...hes originally from Big Sur Ca and moved to London at age 29...started in the art world as a painter of interiors full of china and textured fabrics...moved on to fabulous needle points and the worlds most awesome knits...a self taught knitter he knocked the knitting world out with his book Glorious Color around 1990...his books are eye candy...lush fabulous settings for his art work...and his knits are art...

around 1998 or so Liza Lucy once another knit designer talked him into doing a patchwork book and the quilt world saw a new superstar born with his Glorious Patchwork...since then hes gone on to write around a dozen quilt books and establish Westminster Fabrics fabrics full of the glowing colors and textures hes known for...you can shop his fabs at www.gloriouscolor.comAnd so it begins....This quilt was supposed to have a strong vertical row of four patches and a diagonal rows of 4" squares....sounds easy but it wasnt...Darks were to run DOWN the quilt...i managed to get mine running ACROSS the quilt...till our fearless leader gently pointed out my mistake..opps...

He asked us to do two things ...not to talk or help each other with colors....and to listen to the tips that he and Brandon gave us...and use them...These two guys were working hard...and they will be in Atlanta today and tomorrow at Intown...call fast ...maybe there is still a spot in the Diamond class!
Brandon Mably, Kaffes assistant and a Rowan/westminster designer in his own right...he studied at the Kaffe Studio and was really quite helpful...
Kaffe and Brandon wandered around the room...helpfully offering suggestions on how to improve the quilts...picking out fabrics that MIGHT work better....and usually did....Kaffe did ask us to go with thier tips...after all thats what we paid for....and he was right...all of the quilts were just wonderful!!

As you can see hes QUITE tall...I would say over 6 feet..but as short as i am its hard to tell:>

strong verticals in this quilt

Kaffe says he likes quilts that are all about the color NOT ...also said his quilts would never win a a quilt show because he is not about the quilting of them....This quilt was supposed to have a strong vertical row of four patches and a diagonal rows of 4" squares....sounds easy but it wasnt...

The room was huge and a terrific huge well lit space for the number of people in the class and facilitating the class.....run by Dragonfly quilts in Watkinsville and a few doors down from their SO charming shop...people carried our chairs around....brought us drinks if we needed one...they treated us like princesses...thanks Deb, Debora and staff...

These are pics of the class review...at the end of the class he does a walk thru of all the quilts making comments on how and why they worked...possibly how they could be improved BUT always postive in his remarks...trying to get done for class review... and here its is done...no more holes!

THink this one was one of his favs...it is gorgeous.... Our neighbor working hard....mine is on the left and Judys is on the right...now someone tell me HOW did they keep their table neat....on the right...and look at my pile on the left....sigh...well i never said i was neat...poor judy...i told her if i covered her side...shove it back!

my neighbor in the corner...interesting combo of non Kaffes....we worked hard in this class..cutting and trying out new fabrics...racing right till the three oclock class review....no one wanted to disappoint the teachers!!


Some people had neat tables...a secret i did not discover all day....wait my fabs still crammed in the car:> not folded i mean CRAMMED

Nary a scrap on this table...maybe they have cleaned up?

strong vertical rows

A consult from the color guru

Kaffe called this one a red white and blue quilt...i get the red and blue but? HMM white...guess its in the details?!

Yummy golds!

Lots of contrast....

strong vertical rows

more strong vertical rows

love the colors in this one

so why is it that pics are crooked....

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it looked straight on the wall...but when i tried to crop it ...quite evidently crooked..this is one of the quitls i have finished this week....last nite...and now i have to rebind it....the inny corners are a little lumpy...and when i was binding another one i remembered the last one i did like this was only one layer of binding not a double binding...so back to the drawing board....but its getting entered SOMEWHERE and soon....so it needs to be perfect in its imperfection:> its all a little wonky by nature and design....thought it fit the ladies and their falling old tin roofed house...the baptist church fan quilting is a tribute to these ladies who were big in their churches...baptist of course


I think i bought my first Kaffe Fassett book 20 years or so ago...knitting...so when he combined his love of color with patchwork..well of course i was hooked...when Glorious Patchwork came out i bet i made dozen of his diamond quilts with my best friend who made another dozen or so herself...we made them in every concievable color way...red pink brown green floral christmas a blue and yellow one...you name it we made it...

so of course i had to make another one when i went to Intown home of all Kaffe last summer with my friend Judy Lockhart....pink and lime green...yummmm and i finally quilted it on the long arm last week...or was it two weeks ago...it was the one I was quilting when i cut my toe....and here it is all finished bound with a sleeve....waiting to go be washed and fluffed so the quilting will show better...of course i quilted it to death...you can only see it if you are looking at it closely...but who cares I know its covered with roses and leaves and dragon flies oh and ribbons...much fun to quilt this huge thing...its about 84x 84"

detail of the quilting-of course you can see the quilting right?!!:>

so the Rising Star center is done

i was informed by my friend Anne Copeland that this is actually a star of bethelhem NOT a lone star. A lone star is six pointed...hmm does that mean it would have been easier to make?!! only six points to sew...

ok here are some stats you might want to consider before you tackle one of these babies...
there are 648 2 1/2 inch diamonds in 17 rows...nine strata were required to build it..thats strips sets...all sewn on diagonal...i pinned more than 1800 pins ...three at each diamond intersection and sometimes one in the between to hold the wandering bias...yes all of those last rows were BIAS...as Susie says...blow on Bias and it stretches....

Fabrics required...17 i had half yard cuts of Kaffe Fassetts and a few martha negleys...all Rowan/Westminster fabrics ...some i had a yard of...all cut into heaps of strips to make the stars for the corners...

OH all the 1/4 " seams were pressed open...so thats well 4, 736 inches of them...made easier by a very pointed old GE travel iron that someone was going to throw out at work...i rescued it...its so old it has a fabric cord...

favorite pins...clover clear glass head pins...pieced with Aurifil two ply cotton...lovely stuff...so thin never a bump in the seams...

Now for the corners...thinking stars ...NO applique please!! stars take long enough and would like this done in time for the local guild show in October....