Kaffe Fassett Masterclass (5)

On this picture you can see how big this quilt is. I need a little stair to reach the top. I still need one row of diamonds, so I ordered a "zigzag" fabric" at the 100-rozen in Deventer. My mum will bring it with her on saturday.

Yesterday I started sewing.

Although the diamond pattern seems easy, it's not that easy to sew. You really have to pay attention to your seam allowance. I try to do 1 row every day, so in about 4-6 weeks the top must be ready.

Kaffe Fassett Masterclass (4)

I'm still in a kind of "Kaffe Fassett flow".

Our diningroom has designwall now. Lucky we have high ceilings. Because this quilt will be 2m30 x 2m50. Rob made some curtain rods on the wall. At the Ikea I bought 4 fleece blankets and turned them into made one big curtain. The curtain can easily be removed, or moved to one side. But first finishing my quilt, I think that will take a few weeks!!!!

Kaffe Fassett Masterclass (3)

Yesterday we ended the day with a personal explanation of Kaffe Fassett. This is what he told me about my quilt.

Kaffe Fassett Masterclass (2)

I'm on the sofa, with my feet up. I followed a fantastic but exhausting Masterclass from Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably today.

Using wild and colourfull fabrics with big prints. Life can be very exciting.

MORE PHOTOS

Kaffe Fassett Masterclass (1)

Tomorrow I will follow a masterclass of Kaffe Fassett. I'm very curious and exciting, how will it be.

One thing is for sure, I have bought a collection of fabrics that are totally opposite from my "normal choice". Jeltje from the "100 rozen" (she arranged this masterclass) in Deventer, put a very interesting interview with Kaffe Fassett on her blog, click on the link below.

Quiltshop 100 rozen: Waar komt de naam Kaffe vandaan?

Website Kaffe Fassett

Read more tomorrow about my experiences.

What women want!

A quiltshop?

Dieuwke and I went to Amsterdam yesterday. It was quite some time ago, that we went for Quiltshopping together. I think the last time was Seattle. So we took off a day from work and there we went. Not that we needed anything very urgent, except for some quiltthread and some fabric for a binding.

We ended up only with a few things more then we put on our list, like books and the panel "Three of life".

The Haan & Wagenmaker (owner Petra Prins) is a really nice quiltshop, they got a very special collection dutch fabrics, and a very good collection of reproduction fabrics. We took some of our quilts with us, Dieuwke some reproduction quilts she made, and I some of my antique quilts. So we had a little show-and-tell downstairs. Petra is really interested in antique quilts. Her friend Mary Koval is giving a lecture in august in Zutphen.

We spend two hours in the quiltshop, then went home and spend the rest of the afternoon quilting. Of course I had to try my new purple quiltthread, for my "Spakenburger Quilt".

What's next on the quiltagenda:

25 july, Masterclass Kaffe Fassets in Deventer

28 aug, lecture of Mary Koval in Zutphen

14-16 october, Sewing Expo Rotterdam

september 2011, St. Marie aux Mines

Grandmother's Flower Garden

There is my 'new quilttop" hanging in our diningroom. Grandmother's flower garden what a lovely name to give to a quiltpattern.

I bought this quilt in the USA, and it was delivered a few days ago. I'm very happy that it arrived safely. And it looks fantastic.

I would date this quilt around 1930's, because it got lots of feedsacks in it. Can you imagine, during the great depression, our grandmothers sewing together, using scraps from their scrapbaskets.

History

The earliest know American made hexagon quilt is dated 1807. These quilts have their roots in England, as far back as in the 18th century, that's why we still call it English Paperpiecing.

Godey's Ladies Book, founded in 1830, published the hexagon pattern in 1835. It is thought to be the first pieced quilt pattern published in America. All things English were emulated by cultured American women during this period and making hexagon quilts was very popular in England.

Godey's Lady's Book was one of the most popular lady's books of the 19th century. Each issue contained poetry, beautiful engraving and articles by some of the most well known authors in America.

How dutch can you be?

A Spakenburger Quilttop, a visit to Kinderdijk and orange flags.

Explanation:

Orange (oranje) is our national colour. The dutch Soccer team is playing the World Champion Final on sunday eve. Almost the whole country will be in front of the TV, except for some quilters? (The last final we played was 32 years ago).

Wednesday afternoon I finished my Spakenburger Quilttop. Here are some details: 143 snowball blocks, finished block size: 4,5 x 4,5. Quilttop: 49,5 inch x 59 inch (1m25 x 1m50). The fabrics (beside the red-white fabric) are all dated between 1900 -1940, and where pieces of the traditional costumes, including two antique krablappen (shoulder part), see the picture above.

Nowhere around the world you can find 19 windmills on such a short area. Kinderdijk has been added to the Unesco World Heritage list. And ... it's only a 45 minute drive from The Hague. I think (well I'm rather sure) that our friends Marne and Elaine have seen more of the Netherlands than we have. Isn't that funny, most of the time we only do "tourist things" when we have friends from abroad. So this visit is to catch up with them.

Quiltweekend!

This is such a fun, spending a whole weekend quilting. Dieuwke and I started on friday evening around 20.00 h, and ended sunday afternoon around 15.30 h. We had lot of plans, doing a lot of hand-quilting, but we both spend all our time behind the sewing machine and the iron.

Dieuwke was working on her "lady of the lake", we found out she had enough fabric to make kingsize quilt.

I worked on my "Spakenburg Quilt". I bought this fabrics a couple of weeks ago in the museum in Spakenburg. They're all from the 1900's - 1940's except the red-white. The red-white is a new fabric, and symbolize the colours the Spakenburger women wear in their scarf. There 143 snowballs in this quilt. It took a lot of thinking how to arrange the blocks, but at the end Dieuwke and I decided that "random" was the best. Unfortunelately Willemijn couldn't join us, next quiltingweekend will be november.

Tip to have a great quiltweekend: go out for dinner, don't waste any time with cooking!

An unexpected suprise in my mailbox ......

.... Margaret from the Crazy Exchange Group send me this beautiful needle-case, siccor-fob and some lovely other gifts. I don't know much about stitching, but she gave an explanation. The stitching is Wessex Stitchery, wich was revived from Britain (Victorian period) by a New-Zeland embroiderer. For the colours she choose the NZ Paua Shell, a shell fish that grows on their rocky coast. Isn't it a very special and lovely gift.

Just needs a binding

This is one of the pieces for "Caro's homeless unfinished old quilts", I bought this piece in the USA, it's 13.5 inch square FEEDSACK QUILT BLOCK, from the period c. 1935. It's orphan block so I decided to make a little doll quilt from. The blocks itself is variety of feedsacks and dress fabrics from the thirties. I added the red border myself.