I Know I'm a bit Slow

Last Sunday was so much fun. 30 excited women packed into Amitie for a class with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably. It's taken me a week to actually find the time to blog about it.
Everyone had their own design walls layed out like a concertina down one side of the store. We all worked in a frenzy because Kaffe said not to think - just cut! Fabric was flying everywhere.

26 people chose to use Kaffe's and Brandon's fabric yet every design was different.

This one is mine. I didn't have enough of their fabric and am trying to restrain myself from buying so I bought lots of my old retro, kids fabrics to work with.

I met bloggers that I have been chatting to on line....

That's me on the left with Cathy from Cabbage Quilts and Andi from Patch Andi .

I have a video of the intro we got from Kaffe Fassett. It was taken on my iphone and I lost the sound for a bit but it really gives you the gist of what the class was about.

  

Brandon was the life of the party and really got involved with everyone and everything.

Kaffe was more serious and took himself off to the corner to work on his tapestry or have a cuppa every once in a while.

 It really was a wonderful day.

Now I have to finish the diamonds!

Capers with Kaffe

The moment is nearly upon me. Tomorrow is the day when I get to spend some time at Amitie doing a class run by Kaffe Fassett. I think I booked this about 3 months ago and of the several 100 applicants, only 30 were chosen to be part of the action.
We have been told that we will be doing his bordered diamonds class and a list of colour choices were suggested. Not so much the colour but the intensity of the colours. This threw me into a spin. Should I use his fabrics and what does tone on tone, low contrast in lightness and darkness really mean? In the end I decided on lots of bright, naive fabrics because I had lots of them and I wanted my quilt to be totally different from his.
I am happy to listen to the theory and hopefully learn from the guru of colour and pattern - after all that is really why I am going but I just couldn't dare to attempt something that might be compared with his work. Chicken? Yep.
I bought a triangle ruler as per the supply list, which I have never used before so hopefully I will pick up on what to do with it.
So now all I have to do is finish my packing of ruler, cutting board, machine, threads, scissors....
I think I will have more stuff to carry than when I went to overseas.

Cleaning does Pay.

We have a cabinet maker making cupboards in a few rooms of the house. He is a bit like that guy O'Reilly from Fawlty Towers. He is totally unreliable and disorganised and inclined to make mistakes. He has a very strong Irish accent and half the time I don't understand a word he is saying. So a job that should have been finished before Christmas is dragging on and my house is like a jumble sale with cupboards waiting to be filled and rooms piled with mess.
In the meantime my eldest son has moved to Sydney to do a short course at NIDA for 6 months. His room is not part of the cupboard tragedy but it probably was in a worse state than the rest of the house. So with no ability to control the house mess I decided to fumigate his bedroom. Hours of cleaning, washing, throwing out and dusting has been well worth the while and his room is spick and span and looking fabulous.
So what has this got to do with patchwork? Well I found, packed away in a box, an old dress of mine that I bought about 30 years ago. It was from an African Shop in Surfers Paradise. I hardly ever wore it but I couldn't bare to give it away.
It yielded metres of fabric, once it had been pulled apart, and it put my stripy log cabins together very nicely.

So apart from the satisfaction of having one clean room in my house, I also managed to make this almost entirely from recycled clothing and scraps.

PS I am sorry about the quality of my photos lately. I miss my little Sony. It's touring Japan with my middle son and won't be home till March.

Just Before School Starts

Last weekend was my last weekend of freedom before I went back to school for the start of the new year. I knew I would be wrecked by the end of the week and I was not disappointed. I can still barely move. That's what 25 darling seven year olds can do to a grown woman who has spent the last 5 weeks indulging in personal pleasures. I need to toughen up.
So last week, knowing what lay ahead, I decided to make a quick project with some of my scrap fabrics and I put together 12 autumn colour blocks.

I am so glad I did this because I don't think I will be playing with my sewing machine today.