Lots and lots of stars

It's a start. This is another quilt from Kaffe Fassett's V&A Quilts book that I have on the go. It's for Keira, she picked some colours for me to start with and I've tried to make it work with lots of bright fabrics so it'll be nice and cheerful. I can't tell you how many diamonds you've got to cut out . . . I really must be crazy!! I keep saying 'just think how great it'll be when you've finished'. But really, omg it's a lot of work!!

On another note, my thoughts are with Mary at the moment who has suffered a terrible loss. She is being very brave.

Patchwork Tuesday

Today I plan to go to my patchwork class for the first time in quite a while. I started going to classes half way through 2006 (I think) and they've been invaluable for learning the basic techniques and for gaining an insight into how fabric can look so different on bolts in the shop to when it's cut up and stitched together into a quilt.

But not long ago the shop that I was going to closed down (very, very sad) and the class transfered to a different shop in a nearby area. Same teacher and most of my classmates, but a very different feel to the whole thing. The lady who owns the new shop is lovely and has great intentions, but the room where we work is very cramped now that two classes have been combined and it's kind of dark and I just wasn't enjoying the afternoons there as much. So I've had a little break, (also due to school holidays and other commitments clashing with when the class is on) but today I want to go back and try to get back into it.

I love the quilts I've started, one each for all our beds, and even though I don't really need too much tuition as such for my current projects I do need the time assigned to the class to keep them ticking over. It can be difficult to find the time to pick them up at home.

In the magazine, Lantliv, that Nina sent me, I spotted these two lovely quilt ideas. The first has some great cross-stitching on it which reminded me of how I 'sign' my quilts. The S above, is on the back of my first quilt that I made for my son. All the hand quilting isn't finished yet but it's together and I'm pleased with the way it's turned out. The top of a matching one is almost ready to be sewn together to go on his bunk beds.

Also love this yo-yo quilt idea. Could be a good way to use up scraps all sewn onto a neutral background. It's good to be able to store up ideas on this blog for the future, because right now I really need to keep saying to myself - "Must not start any new projects, must not start . . ."!!

A day with Kaffe

It's been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write about the workshop I went to last week with Kaffe Fassett in Sydney. I can't tell you how excited I was leading up to the day! I particularly admire Kaffe's way with colour and pattern and love his V&A Quilt Book. I had already planned (and started collecting material) to make the Leafy Snowball Quilt as it is in the book for my bed, so when I found out this was the quilt we would be doing for the workshop it was too good to be true.

The day was organised by Material Obsession and it was fantastic. We were told to bring our own fabrics, not to copy Kaffe's, this way we would get the most out of the day. Kaffe and his assistant Brandon helped us with the placement of the squares and our colour choices. The whole day was really confidence boosting, Kaffe kept stressing a "have a go and see what works" approach. I was quite nervous, I'm fairly new to patchwork and stress way too much about whether it'll work or not. So this way of working - we had a flannel sheet up on the wall to put the pieces onto as we went - was quite liberating. It was also fantastic to see all the different fabrics going up around the room and the way they looked in different combinations.

I chose mustards, browns, rust, greens and a bit of purple! (The photos are really bad, they don't show the colours properly, but never mind.) I plan to make the quilt as a throw to go over our brown lounge. I also plan to use my new sewing machine to make the whole thing, so it might actually get finished this year!

This is the gift we all received from Kathy and Sarah at Material Obsession, lovely perle 8 cottons for feature quilting, embroidery needles, a little badge that says "Carpe Quiltem (Seize the Quilt)" v.cute! and smarties that of course are long gone!

The highlight of the day for me was at the end when Kaffe walked us all around the room stopping at each persons quilt and going through the decisions that were made to get to the final design. He said the most wonderful things about everyones' quilts, made us all laugh, kept making suggestions, it was fascinating, inspiring and I thought most generous of Kaffe. Brandon also played an important role during the day and helped me a lot with my design - even if he and Kaffe did contradict each other sometimes - something we all had a laugh about, including them! A great day - just what I needed to give me the confidence to trust my instincts designwise and get on with making things!