Basketweave 2

Basketweave 2 is finished.  After I finished Basketweave 1, there were some nagging questions about this pattern that I wanted to explore.  What if I used stripe fabric to show off the weave effect more?  What if I use Kaffe Fassett fabric for the background?  So instead of the busy Kaffe fabric as the weave, I swapped it to the background.  

 I used 2 packets of 6 " charm fabric for the background.  They were the Kaffe Classic green 2011 charms, that I got at the Voices in Cloth show in March.  Because I used this charm fabric, instead of a jelly roll at 2.5 inches, everything is cut at 2 " squares and strips.  Each 6 " charm was cut into 9 pieces.

 Here is a closeup of the shot cotton border.  I used a freezer paper template to free motion quilt the feathers.  I used a 30 wt variegated thread that Betsy helped me to find.  Pretty.

There were some dots fabric and fabric that looked like spider webs.  It was fun pulling all the Kaffe fabric that I have been collecting over the years and finally using it.  I can appreciate the shot cotton fabric that has one color in the weft and a different color in the warp.  The Kaffe Stripes took it to another level of alternating the color in the weft to the same and a different color to make the stripes.  Did I mention that I love Kaffe fabric.  It is expensive.  I didn't have a project in mind when  I bought all this stripe fabric years ago, but I knew that I whatever I put it in, I would be happy with it.

I had a lot of leftover squares and scraps of the stripe fabric.  I started making 4 patches with the squares an cut the stripe fabric into hexagons.  More in my next post...

Basketweave

Basketweave quilt is finished.  I used 1 roll each of classic red and blue Kaffe Fassett 2 1/2 strips along with my own hand dyed fabric.  I was lucky to purchase the Kaffe fabric at our Voices in Cloth show earlier this year in March.  In an earlier post, you can see how it was constructed.  Very free form.  For instance, I took the first strip that was cut into 2.5 x 6.5 inches and pieced them together with my 2.5 x 2.5 squares.  Then I worked on the next strip.  After I used up all the blue roll, I worked on the red roll.

 The Kaffe fabrics are such a joy to work with.  The colors and free form just interplay so well with each other.  At first I thought oh the dot fabric would detract and stand out too much,  there are 4 dot fabrics, but can you spot them from 10 feet away?  no.  Somehow the busy weave (positive space) makes the calming plain (negative space) work well with each other.

 This is a close up view.  I was hoping to capture the metallic thread I used in the quilting.  There is an Amy Butler fabric on the back.   I put Glitter Metallic thread in the bobbin case and free hand stitched the flowers from the Amy butler fabric.  It sparkles.

This is going to be a wedding gift for a good friend who we've known for over 30 years.  This is his first marriage.  He is so calming and reserved and she is so energetic and positive.  Perfect for each other.  Who would have thought?