Kaffe Fassett Class

At last I get to write about the Kaffe Fassett class I took.  In October, a friend and I traveled to NJ to take a class with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ.  The first evening was a lecture which was very enjoyable.  Learning how they make their fabrics and design their quilts was so much fun, as was meeting Kaffe, Brandon, and Liza Lucy!!  That night they also did autographs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Lily Inn in Burlington, NJ, which was a lovely B&B.

The next day we were taking the Mediterranean Hexagon Class from Kaffe’s book “Quilts in Morocco”.  We all showed up with our fabrics that we thought we were going to use and our preconceived notions of what we thought our quilt might look like at the end of the class…..and then had those ideas totally blown out of the water!!!   It was all about working outside your comfort zone and outside the box!!  I am not sure that many of us ended up with a design that was what we originally thought we were going to do.  Brandon  was only able to be there for a short time that day and we had an amazing day with Kaffe and Liza.

Our first project was to tape our design wall fabric up to the walls.  Their design wall fabric is awesome!!!  I ended up buying enough to make my own large design wall at home and just love it!!!

We then had to fussy cut our hexagons using the templates that were designed specifically for this quilt and worked beautifully!!!  Once the hexagons were somewhat in place, Kaffe or Liza would come around and stand back and ponder our fabric choices.  Fabrics would then be moved around and some discarded until  the colors flowed and were catching to the eye.  It was very helpful to stand pretty far back and look at your design or look at it through a reducing glass to see how all the colors/patterns worked together.  Another way is to take a picture with your phone camera and look at the picture.  Any of these techniques made it easy to see if a hexagon needed to be changed out for something else.  It was amazing how a certain color or pattern would stick out and you knew it needed to be changed.

After we had most of our hexagons worked out, then it was time to add your triangles/points.  This took quite a bit of time and for me (and most people there), Kaffe ended up having to take me shopping for more fabric choices for the points.  So much fun to walk across the street to the quilt shop and have him pick out fabrics (not specifically his own either) that would work with the quilt.  I have to say that some people came back with fabrics that we all thought…..how could that possibly work…..but it did!!!!  He definitely has an eye for color and design!!!

Once we all had our quilt layouts to a certain point, Kaffe walked around to each design wall and analyzed  each one for us all to hear.  He is so animated when talking about fabric choices and color!!

So below is what I left with……enough for a start to my quilt.

Once home, I positioned the pieces on my wall and then played around with adding enough to make it large enough for me.  It took quite awhile to get everything to the point where I thought it all worked together.  Here is the finished design on the wall.

It all went together so easily and then it was ready to quilt – my favorite part!!!

I also did a label for this quilt which reminds me of that day spent with Kaffe, Brandon and Liza.

All in all this quilt was way out of my comfort zone as far as color goes, but I have to say that this is one of my favorite quilts and represents meeting three wonderful people (Kaffe, Brandon & Liza), finding a awesome quilt shop in NJ (Olde City Quilts) and spending time with a quilting friend!!

And of course…..as I shared in the last blog post….sharing this quilt with Kaffe and Liza was also a special moment!!

Happy Quilting!!!!!