WIP Kaffe Fasset Tapestry Garden - Sunlight through Glass Quilt

 

In May 2007 my dear friend Christine and I attended a Kaffe Fassett class in Wellington.  She has blogged about it here.  It was so exciting to actually get to meet him and Brandon, and have the chance to get a few pointers on each of our quilts.  I learnt and a lot, even though some of the lessons are still being absorbed.

The class was based around the Tapestry Garden quilt first featured in 'Kaleidoscope of Quilts'.

I love the colour blending approach Kaffe Fassett employs, where by placing similar tones/colours next to one another the eye becomes confused as to where one block finishes and the next begins. 

I decided that since the quilt top itself was a learning exercise, I should continue skills building by attempting to free motion quilt it.  The down side of this admirable self imposed goal, was that the quilt top is HUGE, 241cm by 158cm.  Certainly the biggest I have ever tried to quilt myself.

Consequently my enthusiasm for the quilting has waxed and waned!

I finished sewing the top not long after the class, I think it was completed by October 2007.  I think I began quilting it in New Zealand shortly after, then stopped while we moved to Australia.  I started again in Melbourne, sometime in 2008 and did some more in Singapore in 2010 (boy was it hot!  I had air conditioner blasting and still could only manage about an hour at a time!).

Inspired by Christine, who has recently finished hers, I got mine out again, and have spent another 7 hours on it over the last week, while back in New Zealand with family.

While I have definitely made some good progress, it is still not finished.  However, I am enthused again, and my FMQ is improving. Slowly.  Parts of the quilt top are awful...but there is evidence of steady progress.

Given I am now back in Perth for a month, without my sewing machine, there will be no further progress for awhile, but I'm OK with that.  I'll aim to finish it within the next 12 months!