Whoop whoop Fridays

 Just a note to say I am linking Tuesday's post about my 7th quilt finished to
Sarah Craig's Whoop whoop Fridays on her Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Don't you love my husband's legs poking out from underneath the quilt?

7th quilt finished!

Yesterday I finished my 7th quilt of 2016.  It's a Baby Quilt which I have called Strawberry Patch.

In the next three months I know of three babies on the way - one is due any day now.
So, I have been busy making baby quilts - four in the pipeline, one of which is Strawberry Patch.

Here it is:

 

The finished quilt measures 42" square and consists of alternate 4" Crumb blocks and 4" fabric squares.

I hand quilted in the ditch.

I love striped bindings and just had enough of this bright pink and white fabric to bind my quilt.  I literally had a 3" piece of binding left!

 

The backing fabric was a piece I bought at last year's Festival of Quilts. I love owls and couldn't resist this one. However, when I came to use it for the backing I discovered it was unusually narrow, nowhere near the normal WOF and once the selvedges were cut off  it was not wide enough to back my quilt.  So, I decided to put a pieced strip off centre down the length of the quilt.

I used some 10" squares of vintage sheet fabric I had bought many years ago at a Table Top sale at my NZ Group.  I have been steadily using these squares in my projects this year but still haven't finished them all.

 

 

 

And a couple of Close-ups to show some of the variety of fabrics I used up in this quilt.

 

I am pleased with it, it's really bright and cheerful. Stimulating for a baby I think and lots of opportunities to play "I Spy". 

So, if Fiona's baby is a girl, this is for her.

 

Kaffe Fassett excitement

I love Kaffe Fassett!  I have been a follower for many years: having been lucky enough to hear him speak,attend a couple of 'Show and Tell' type of evenings when he discussed various pieces of his work, visited two of his exhibitions (in London & York), and bumped into him on several occasions over the years.

As Kaffe is originally a trained artist he views colours and patterns with an artist's eye, so different from my view of the world as I am definitely NOT an artist. I love art and can appreciate it but I cannot draw or paint.  My cousin Paul is an artist - as was his father, my uncle - and years ago I marvelled at how he remembered our living room, how it had been many years ago, now altered and looking quite different.  Paul reminded me that he looks at everything very carefully - he "observes" and those ideas are locked into his head.

So, I was very excited to catch Kaffe's tour of his Gallery at last week's Festival of Quilts.
The collection of quilts comprised quilts and quilt tops that Kaffe has purchased over the years.
He picked out some which had been the inspiration for new quilts which are in his new book
Bold Blooms.
Kaffe walked us around the Gallery, pointing out the things in each quilt which fascinate and excite him and lead him to create a new quilt design.

For instance: Handkerchief Corners Quilt

 

 

 

The aspect of this quilt which jumped out at Kaffe - and his audience once it had been pointed out to us - was the high contrast between the rounds of the log cabin blocks.  The blocks have been assembled in rows to emphasise that: light, then dark as the outer row as you look along the row of blocks.

So, he ran with that idea to create High Contrast Squares:

 

 

 

Floral Octagons was inspired by a French quilt:

 

 

Lattice with Vases is another new quilt from his book "Bold Blooms":

 

Now a few of his collected quilts which particularly appealed to me:

Pastel trip Around the World

 

Pink Spider Web:

 

Satin Hexagon Quilt:

 

and a Close up

 

Pastel Lozenge:

 

 

 

Kaffe drew our attention to this quilt which he essentially sees as "grey" with the amazing small pops

of colour which bring the quilt to life.  He particularly loved the use of small scraps of striped fabrics.

 

And lastly the most amazingly coloured and busy quilt I have ever seen. 

 Kaffe says although he has studied this quilt endless times he still hasn't figured out how the blocks were constructed, what the pattern actually was. And I'm sure I couldn't. He described the quilt as "madness" but so appealing.  I agree, you could look at it for ages and still see new things which you hadn't noticed before.

 

Kaleidoscope: Wacky & obsessive with a swirling palette of colours:

And a Close up. Kaffe pointed out the symmetry of the flowered fabrics, the flowers cut in half and positioned either side of the torpedo-shaped detail:

 

 

Thank you for "Making my Day". Kaffe. I learned a lot.  Check out Kaffe's new book Bold Blooms

which features his glorious flowers so bright and cheerful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Festival of Quilts 2016

I am very lucky to live near the NEC, the home of the Festival of Quilts. For the first 9 years of its existence I was a Quilt Angel, for some of those years a Team Leader. I enjoyed opening the packages, logging the Competition quilts, being part of hanging the quilts and getting the show ready for the judges and then the visitors. Now I enjoy being a visitor and seeing all the lovely quilts, galleries, personalities and looking round all the stalls. A little bit of Retail Therapy too!

Thursday was First Day of the Show and I took my sister. We always enjoy our day out together, marvelling at the quilts and marking our favourites in the catalogue.

Today, Friday, I went with my neighbour who is just beginning her quilting journey.  We bought basic equipment and looked at quilts as I pointed out some of the standard blocks. I enjoyed this as she was a great pupil, lots of questions and interest.

I also took lots of photos.

I was very excited to see 2 quilts made by my New Zealand quilter friend Jennie.
Firstly, "Labour of Love".  Well named as it took Jennie 4 years to hand sew this quilt.

 

 

 

She also showed her quilt called "Melinda", a quilt for her Grandma, Melinda, who had breast cancer. Jennie said" Despite surgery and being "patched up" she was still beautiful in body and spirit. The background is pieced in blues and greens to represent water as at times a cancer diagnosis can feel like drowning.

 

I had seen this quilt in NZ, didn't know it was being entered in the Show, so it gave me a lovely feeling to see it and know who made it!

Another NZ Quilter is Juliet who blogs as 'The Tartankiwi'.  She gave the heads up about the quilt she had entered in the FOQ this year, called "Hunted".  Lovely to see the actual quilt, Juliet!

 

 

 

So many other quilts I loved, so here are a few of the ones which caught my eye:

"Bullrushes" by Hilary Beattie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Walled Garden, Broughton Castle" by Australian quilter Dorothy Clee:

 

 

"Never Again" by Anne Hill:  This was a wool applique quilt.

 

 

"I want to live here" by Laura Armiraglio:

 

 

"Rainbow Lorikeet" by Helen Godden:

 

Lots more, but I need to finish here and get to bed, ready for tomorrow, my last day at the Show, looking at everything I haven't yet seen.