Diagonal Madness

After having completed this quilt several months ago, I finally got it hung and took a picture. This quilt was begun three years ago in a class with Kaffe Fassett. I have other posts about it and made it to fit in the stairwell going up to my sewing room. I am pleased with how it turned out and now enjoy looking at it every time I walk by. You can see the diagonal lines so much better now that it is hanging! What took me so long???

Diagonal Madness & More

 Diagonal Madness was begun over two years ago in a class with Kaffe Fassett. I eventually got the diagonals completed but it was set aside waiting for those 50+ nine patches in the border. So, this past week I finished the borders, sewed them on and quilted it!! Wahoo!

 Here are two close-ups of the quilting. I used a variegated thread since there were so many colors in the top and a pattern called banana swirls.

 Above is the back of the quilt. And now the binding is sewn and ready to be attached. It's nice to get another quilt of my own finished!

 Here is a quilt top that my mother-in-law began over ten years ago. I had taught her how to string piece on lightweight paper and even though her sewing skills had diminished with illness, she still loved to try new techniques. After she died I took the little plastic shoe box with the blocks she had finished and sewn together. I am going to finish this quilt for her with just a few more blocks being added.

There is a new blog I am a part of called String Thing Along. I will be posting more pictures of the progress of this quilt there. It's such a fun way to quilt with all those strings and scraps we have! Come join the fun and be a part of this blog!

 Here is my UFO project container. By UFO, it is really mostly leftover fabrics from other projects and it is now running over. The lid will hardly close which shows how long since I've played with my leftovers.

 This is inside the box!! I used to enjoy taking the leftover fabrics, add a few more and make charity quilts or smaller quilts with no rules. I hope to attack this box soon. There are so many fun projects that could be made if I will allow myself to play.

 And here is a recent tablecloth, yet unquilted. I went to a retreat in January and sewed this. I already had the strips cut so it was easy to sew and get the blocks made with a group of 50 quilters in the room. Now it is waiting to be quilted. I chose the fabric combination from a quilt I had on display in the fall. So, it'll be a few months before I'll need this one.

 And now for my house blocks!! Two are 3", one is 4", and two are 6". The six inch were much easier to make I must confess. It is fun picking the fabrics from the scrap pile. Hopefully there will be more or enough to make a small quilt before the year is out.

And now, another small project I had been putting off. I needed a little pillow behind my back at the computer. After months of just the pillow form with no cover, I got around to making a colorful pillow case. Now how hard was that?? A 30 minute project that I had delayed for months. Happy Quilting!!

We did get Snow!!

I still get excited about snow in the south! This was late yesterday afternoon after it had been falling a few hours. Isn't it beautiful!

This morning the snow is glistening on the pear tree in the front yard!

Wayne got out in the road for a picture of our house. I just usually take shots from the window or front porch.

And here is my Diagonal Madness quilt from the Kaffe Class in October. Well, I'm not quite finished. Still have 50+ nine patch blocks to put on the border but I worked two days this week just getting the rest of these patches all sewn together. It is easy sewing, but a lot of it.

Diagonal Madness & Cherries Tablecloth

For the New Year, I began working on my Diagonal Madness quilt again - a Kaffe Fassett class I took in late October. It's been on my design wall all this time so I've had plenty of time to see what I think is working and what is not. I have sewn the first third of the rows together which also helps them stay on the board better. I am still auditioning many fabrics. It is hard to get the vertical rows to stand out enough so many squares have been put up and then taken down again. This is a great quilt to do to play with color, which I truly enjoy!

I need to make a new tablecloth for our kitchen and not wanting to go out and buy more fabrics, decided to use some cherry fabrics which I collected from quilt shops in Michigan when we went there for vacation in 2008. I am doing the Turning Twenty Again pattern and need sixteen blocks so needed sixteen fabrics. I did have to add a few more that did not have cherries but I think they will blend in well and help with my goal of 'quilting from my stash' this year! I'll definitely be having more pieced backs, too, as I don't normally buy large pieces of fabric.

More of Kaffe's Class

Here are some more pics from the class. As you can see, all so different, yet interesting! Imagine all the color schemes you could do yourself and all in sewing squares......how easy is that?

We wondered about the turquoise vertical line on the right but all in all, it seemed to blend with the others and make a statement. Kaffe was complimentary of everyone's quilts! Brandon Mabley also assisted Kaffe with excellent instructions.

Much stronger colors above.

This quilt had many polka dot fabrics, including black and whites....very nice!

The lady next to Margaret and I. Said this was totally different than anything she had done but ended up with beautiful thirties looking pastels!

Kaffe Fassett Class

This gorgeous quilt was designed by Kaffe Fasset and in his book, Country Gardens. It is called Diagonal Madness. So, the class was designed to help you learn about color, not to COPY his quilt, even though it's beautiful. We picked a color scheme and cut 4" squares and 2 1/4" squares with the 4" going diagonally up and across the quilt with the small squares going vertically. So many options, in fact, there were 30 people in class and no two quilts were alike at all.

Here is Margaret Hunt's quilt as it is going up. And to think, she did not cut any squares until she got to class. Very beautiful pastels mostly but the stronger colors help you see the lines.

This is my quilt as I brought it home. Kept changing some of the lines. For a while I lost the large diagonals so Kaffe gave some suggestions to bring those back out, for instance the zinnias with lime green and the brown planets - they both made a huge difference.

Here is one shot with some bright yellow dots on the far right. Just too overpowering and had to be changed. You don't know until you try other options and I guess finally you say, okay, it is done and sew all the squares together.