Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 1: Roman glass

Over the past few weekends I've been working on making an album of all my Kaffe Fassett Fabrics. I'm hoping it will help me to compare the colours and scales of prints for projects (and also its so beautiful and inspirational to page through it!) without having to dig through my stash on the shelf. 

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 2-3: Roman Glass, Mosaic, August Rose, Paperweight

I used a scrapbooking album that I had lying about. I cut 3" squares from each fabric that I have using pinking shears. I stick the fabrics to the white mounting paper using a small piece of double-sided tape, so that I can easily remove the fabric to take it out and put it back again. I put the fabrics in chronological order, based on the catalogue number in the Kaffe Fassett Collective. I've shared my whole collection below. Which prints are your favourites? 

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 4-5: Paperweight, Diagonal Stripe, Lotus Leaf

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 6-7: Zinnia, Kimono, Planets, Beach Balls, Cabbage and Rose, Romany

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 8-9: Cloisonne, Flower Basket, Bead Stripe, Shirt Stripes, Organic Dot

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 10-11: Organic Dot, Dahlia Blooms, Floating Flower, Paper Fans

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 12-13: Paper Fans, Guinea Flower

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 14-15: Guinea Flower, Paisley Jungle, Pinking Flower, Minton, Targets, Bekah

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 16-17: Bekah, Spots

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 18-19: Spots, Aboriginal Dots

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 20-21: Aboriginal Dots, Persimmon, Asha, Lichen, Silhouette Rose

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 22-23: Silhouette Rose, Anemone, Daisy, Stencil Carnation, Dancing Leaves, Heraldic, Winding Floral, Clouds

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 24-25: Clouds, Flower Dot, Star Flowers, Asian Circles, Chevron Stripe

Kaffe Fassett Fabric Album, Page 26-27: Big Blooms, Millefiore, Lake Blossoms

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 28-29: Lake Blossoms, Russian Rose, Henna, Bubble Flowers, Kirman, Wood Ear

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 30-31: Wood Ear, Persian Vase, Buttons, Forest of Arden, Mirage Stripe, Suzani

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 32-33: Sprays, Plink, Cogs, Rosette, Pencils, Palm Fans

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 34-35: Palm Fans, Line Dance, Ombre, Tile Flowers, Chard, Oriental Trees

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 36-37: Oriental Trees, Frilly, Peking, Belle Epoch, Jupiter

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 38-39: Flame Stripe, Surrey, Ribbon Stripe, Antwerp Flowers, Lotus Stripe, Cascades, Thousand Flowers

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 40-41: Regency Daisy, Ferns, Dream, Strata

Kaffe Fassett Album, Page 42: Button Flowers, Striped Heraldic

I love the more muted, rich and pastel shades in his most recent collection. The new "Strata" print is stunning; imagine a "shirt stripe boxes" quilt with that!

Pinwheel quilt finished at last!

 

I finished quilting and binding my water-lilies pinwheel quilt this week! It took almost 2 years for me to finish this quilt. I hand-quilted the centre of the quilt and the outer border I machine quilted. It is the first one of my quilts that I have quilted myself. The finished quilt is 83" x 83".

I used a Kaffe Fassett print, bekah in blue, for the back of the quilt. I used another Kaffe Fasset print, mirage stripe in blue, for the binding.

Here is another shot of the quilt on our bed. Unfortunately it has been raining so I can't take a photo of the whole quilt outside. Here is the link to the whole finished quilt top. It feels good to get such a big project finished! Yay!

Summer Star Quilt top finished!

My Summer Star Quilt top is finally finished! I plan to hand-quilt it, once I get the hand-quilting of the huge Pinwheel Quilt done... might be a while still :) 
Now I can start thinking of a new project... Perhaps I should finish piecing the Chintz Quilt, I was getting bored with following instructions and sewing snowball patches, I think that should try and modify it somewhat to make it more original and creative.

Knitted patchwork

This is a knitted patchwork blanket that I started working on when I was about 15 years old. I work on it from time to time, when I feel like knitting (mostly in winter). This is how I taught myself to knit fair-isle using Kaffe Fassett's wonderful book "Glorious Knitting". I never really knitted any sweaters, except for a vest and a waistcoat from "Glorious Knitting"; I prefer to knit sampler blocks to play with colours and patterns. 

I have a whole bag of blocks waiting to be joined, hopefully the blanket will get finished this decade :) 

I'm still waiting to get my sewing machine back from the service agents. I haven't had much time for sewing though, I've been away at a national soil science conference for the last week. It went very well, I got an award for the scientific paper I presented, that is God's unmerited favour!

Pinwheel quilt top finished!

I finished piecing my blue pinwheel quilt yesterday. The quilt consists of 32 large 10.5" pinwheels and 256 small 4.5" pinwheels. To make a small 4.5" pinwheel, one needs 2 light and 2 dark 3" squares of fabric, which must each be cut in half diagonally to make the 8 right-angled triangles for each pinwheel. To make a large 10.5" pinwheel, one needs 2 light and 2 dark 6" squares of fabric, which must each be halved diagonally. One also needs 4 x 36.5" x 4.5" strips of fabric for the center plain bands. All seams must be 0.25". Finished quilt is approximately 88" x 88". 

Now I have to decide on the quilting. I definitely want 100% wool batting. I'm not sure if I want to attempt hand quilting, or if I should rather have it done professionally? Please let me know what you think, I have never attempted hand-quilting so I'm quite keen to try it, but this quilt is huge (225 cm x 225 cm) so I'm worried that I will get overwhelmed and then don't finish it...

Blue pinwheel quilt is underway

My latest quilting project is a square pinwheel quilt that I have designed and am making using Kaffe Fassett fabrics. My colour inspiration for this quilt came from Monet's Water Lilies paintings (see examples). There are actually over 300 water lily paintings by Monet. The purple-blue, green and pink hues create such a tranquil feeling. I have to assemble 252 small pinwheel blocks and 32 large ones. It will keep me busy for a while...

First Kaffe Fassett quilt finished

I just finished quilting my very first Kaffe Fassett quilt, based on his Spring Boston Common quilt pattern from his book "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts". It was quite a mission to get hold of the fabric since a lot of the fabrics in the original pattern are out of print. I had to do a lot of substitutions but I think that it came out really well after all. I learnt a lot from sewing this quilt, can hardly wait to finish my next one.

I backed the quilt with a gorgeous Philip Jacobs print called English Rose in the lavender colour-way. 

I tried to photograph it next to the lavish pink bougainvillea in our garden, but it was a little tricky due to the size of the bushes.