So this weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend a class with Kaffe Fassett. I only really got to go because my friend Anne had booked a place in the class but decided to go to Japan instead (which is a pretty good reason to miss a class even with Kaffe Fassett, if you ask me).
 |
| Image from here |
In the class we were working on the s-block quilt - Kaffe's version of which is above. The colours are much brighter in real life and I like how it's a simple graphic block made interesting by colour play. Now I have enormous respect for Kaffe Fassett and his partner Brandon Mably as fabric and quilt designers, and for the way that Kaffe seems to have brought new life to quilting through his amazing use of colour. That said, I wanted to go my own way with the fabric choices for this quilt, and use my stash (which doesn't include vast amounts of Kaffe Fassett fabrics).
So this is my fabric pull for the quilt. I was very inspired by the purple Echino print which features yellow and grey birds, hot pink and soft pink flowers, and blue, green and turquoise flowers. I decided to aim for a quilt which reads quite purple with splashes of the accent colours featured in the Echino print.
This is where I had got to by the end of the class. The lighting in the room we were working in was not helpful for photography, so the colours are not entirely accurate, but I think this gives a pretty good picture. I'm really happy with where I got to so far - there are a heap of fabrics I love in there, I think it's reading quite purple, and I got great feedback and design tips from Kaffe and Brandon.
I think you can tell from my big old cheesy grin how much I enjoyed the class. It was all about designing the quilt - no sewing involved. Their philosophy is just to get as much fabric as possible up on your design wall and then edit from there. It's a really fun way to work and very effective, because it allows you to really see your work. I was very impressed with how encouraging they both were. At the end of the class we had a critique, where Kaffe went around the whole class and talked about everyone's quilt in progress - what he liked, the design tweaks they'd made as they went along, and their use of colour and value.
So, I say, if you get a chance to go to a Kaffe Fassett class, go! Now I have another WIP to work on, and, because tomorrow is a public holiday (Waitangi Day), I have time to work on it!
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:
