Blue Squares Finish

I started this quilt back in 2017 by cutting it out at a CQFA retreat, I assembled it in 2019, and had it quilted in 2023 by the fabulous long-arm quilter, Colleen Granger.  I finished it in March this year by sewing down the binding. Just in time to give it to my DH for our anniversary.

Here's a couple close ups to see the great quilting and enjoy the Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I do wish that I'd used a different background fabric, as it doesn't show off the flower fabrics as well as something less forward would have. But as I didn't have as many florals to use as the pattern asked for and substituted in the solids and strips it evens the contrast out. 

Blue Squares Binding

 

A nice large box arrived on my doorstep this week, and inside was the quilted Blue Squares, coming back from the fabulous long-arm quilter, Colleen Granger. I started this quilt back in 2017 at a CQFA retreat, but began assembling it in 2019. 

I'm so excited with how the quilt pattern I chose looks with the fabrics.  And I'm very pleased that I'll be able to gift this to my DH for our anniversary on Sunday.

I mean, wow, look at how the swirls and leaves and flower shapes work with the swirls and leaves and flower shapes. I think the key is the sizing of the pattern so that it's big enough to suit the bigger scale of most of the fabrics.

Once I get the binding sewn down, I'll take an official picture. 

Blue Back Done

 Got the back pieced together for the Kaffe Blue Squares done. Only to find that the binding I made is too short. And I used the last of the polka dot in the upper right hand corner there. Sigh.

I really like how this corner turned out with the stripes and solids.

Finishing Blue Squares Top

 Getting closer to done with the Blue Squares quilt top.

 Next up the top and bottom sashing and final border get added on.

Ahhhh, my second purchase of the Amy Butler fabric doesn't exactly match. At least it's all going around the outside edge so hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

And there it is all done! Once it gets quilted I'll try to take a better picture.

Blue Squares Stages

 Here's a chronicling of continuing to sew the Blue Squares quilt together. I tried to take pictures as I sewed each border onto the quilt.

 It's starting to look like I was hoping for, yay!

 The lighting is so strange in this picture, half of the colors are perfect and the rest are??? I have no idea.

 Noooo, the purples ended up right next door to each other on the right hand side. Gotta switch it up.

That's better. Now to cut the very last border fabric pieces and finish assembling this beast.

Blue Squares Start

 I started in on my Finish-a-Long list by working on sewing together the Kaffe Fassett quilt
 I'm calling it Blue Squares (it's Red Squares in his book, Heritage Quilts) This is how it started, I only had one row sewn together but most of the other pieces cut out and sorted and labelled. (Wow, unusually organized for me!)

When I first cut this out at a CQFA retreat in 2017, I didn't have the central image fabric on hand. As I'm not following the fabric formulation exactly from the book, I did consider using something else entirely, but then I found it in the right color way. I like it a lot, the formality of the still life in the unusual colors is just great, very Kaffe, right?

The border fabric I'm using is an Amy Butler print, and after putting that on the central square, I had to try out fabrics for the larger second interior border. I had the basket swirls fabric in two color ways and one other to try. Time to "Make Visual Decisions Visually".

 

Here's the lighter color way of the basket swirls. I thought it was too light compared to the majority of everything else. I didn't want that much contrast at the center of everything.

 Then I tried this fuchsia/blue large polkadot, it's the right colors...mostly, but it doesn't go with the stripes and solids well enough. It fights too much.

With it filled in more with the smaller squares, I really don't like that fabric as the large border, it jumps out as too different to the rest. I'm going with the first one, the darker basket swirls.
Now back to sewing all these squares together.

Colorful Kaffe

 I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see Kaffe Fassett speak when he visited his exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles. I went with friend Jaye, and we got a chance to walk around the SOFA area and have coffee.




















The purple jacaranda (I think?) lining the streets were in bloom and just gorgeous against the blue sky.  I noticed an old Art Deco era movie theater had been converted over to a gym and took some pictures of the floor and ticket booth glass. Aren't those the loveliest, most luscious curves?

Kaffe was a great speaker, very charming and witty as you'd expect, and he was very inspiring of course. I loved seeing so many process pictures from him, the ones you don't normally see in his quilt books. There were a lot of travel photos too, which showed where he gets so much of inspiration for new fabric designs.  He talked a lot about inspiration and making a space to let it come in and dwell for a while, to let serendipity and oddments that attract your notice lead you to new places.  He encouraged us to stop the flow of negativity that's making you not believe in yourself.

He also had one great comment about white design walls and how they're like staring into a blinding snowstorm, and thus he uses a mid-grey one with a grid which is more neutral. Gosh that makes so much sense! When it's time to replace the white felt on mine, I'm definitely going for grey. I used to have a giant piece of grey polar fleece that I used as a background for quilt photography and that always worked so well. 

Several other artists' work from around the world were mentioned or shown in his slide show, one of which was an artist from Ghana, El Anatsui who makes amazing works out of bottles, wire, aluminum cans, and other found objects.

Two quotes that I wrote down during his talk that I'll leave you with: 

"Don't worry about how it looks on the back, you're not wearing it inside out."

"If you're worried about being "too creative" you're too grown-up"