My inFASSETTuation with Kaffe

This time, not a post about finishing a quilt, just sharing a thought...

Last week was a very great week for me--starting with the birth of my first grandchild/granddaughter, Micah Rose, and ending with registering for a class with Kaffe Fassett.  It doesn't get any better than this for me--two dreams happening in one week.

When I started quilting twenty years ago, Kaffe was my first man crush in the quilting world.  I know at that time there was only Dwight the Quilting Cowboy and John Flynn; Mark Lipinski and Ricky Timms weren't accepted by me until later. I've made many quilts with Kaffe's fabrics, the above is just a sampling.  Not shown are the three which still needs to be quilted, several finished quilts which I don't have a photo of, i.e., the one I made for my dearly departed cockatiel, Chipper, who loved his Kaffe quilt (no, I didn't bury the quilt with him) and the one I gave my daughter-in-law when she was just my son's girlfriend who was then leaving to spend nine months in Israel (now if that doesn't say Mom approved when you receive a Kaffe quilt from me).  I do have one project planned in 2017 with Kaffe fabrics but wasn't planning on doing it until later this year.  I thought it would be good for me to take a break after completing the Kaffe Fassett Champaign Orange Yo-Yo quilt (you can read about it here) last year.  Also, it's been several years since I purchased any new fabric to add to my two bins of Kaffe fabrics or any new books.

To prepare myself for the Kaffe class in October, I purchased some yardage and his book "Quilts in Italy" since the project for the class I'm taking is the Cool Zig Zag Quilt which is one of the quilts in this book.  Let me tell you, this book is chockfull of wonderful quilts, truly inspirational and it renewed my love for Kaffe Fassett.  But, I just realized something after oohing and studying all the quilts in this book.  Besides Kaffe's influence on my love for large prints and simple patterns to showcase the fabrics, the quilting is very simple and quiet, which is my kind of quilting.   Some of the quilts are quilted with simple lines and not very pronounced and I had to look really close to see if it was even quilted.  For me the quilting plays a minor role in the quilts; the focus being on the fabrics, colors and design. I now know Kaffe is also an influence on my quilting style.  Most of my quilts were sent to the longarm quilters, but now I'm ready to tackle the ones still waiting to be quilted or to be made.

Do you know what my most important preparation for this class is going to be--pronouncing his name correctly:  Kaffe rhymes with Safe and not how I've been pronouncing it for the past twenty years--sounds like Cafe'.  I have over six months to practice.

BTW:  I normally post on a Friday so I can link up with Crazy Mom's Finish it up Friday and Busy Hands Quilts Finish or Not Friday but am wondering if there is a link-up for posts focusing on what you're thinking about in Quilting and not just about what you're making or made.  As a participant in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop,  perhaps I can learn how to do a link-up like "What Were You Thinking Thursday" or "Wondering Wednesday".  But then again if there is already a link-up for something like this, please let me know. Sometimes it good just to share a thought.