Look – it’s a president with one of my quilts! Not the current president, but a president with ties to Georgia. The statue is in Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, at Dowdell’s Knob, near Pine Mountain. We had this quilt along with us and I thought he might be a bit chilly.
Following the photographic lead of Kaffe Kassett and Bruce Lundstrom, I decided to take a quilt on a day trip. This bright fall day seemed a good time to bring Kaffe’s Walk Through the Woods. Kaffe Fassett is a California-born artist who has lived in England for the last 50 years or so designing knitting and needlepoint designs. Known for his bold use of color, Kaffe has added patchwork to his textile repertoire, designing vibrant quilting fabrics and using them in simple patterns. His books on quilting are fabulous photographic journals. He takes a collection of quilts to exotic locations and stages photos with extraordinary scenes. Bruce Lundstrom is the photographer mentioned in my latest post here.
Kaffe’s Walk Through the Woods is made from one of Kaffe’s patterns that I began while taking a class from him in 2009. The pattern is Diagonal Madness and is the result of cutting lots and lots of squares in two sizes and arranging them on a design wall to create patterns in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows.
My quilting sister Tess and I shared a work table that day and boldly chose to ignore directions. Here is Tess beside her rows of squares.
I thought my work was destined for the trash bin until Kaffe himself gave his critique and elaborated on the smokey, ethereal quality of my color choices. He remarked that he felt like he was walking through the woods with the leaves shimmering on the trees. So I had a title and reason to finish it – if Kaffe himself liked it, it was a keeper! But not right away, of course.
The pieces stayed rolled up in the flannel design “wall” we had used for quite a while. In 2012, I stitched the pieces together and had one of my longarm quilting friends, Kathy Darley, work her magic on the quilting. Just look at her feathers in the closeup – Wow! Click on this, or any other photo, to enlarge and examine details.
On this fall day, FDR enjoyed the quilt, too. At least one park visitor took a photo of a crazy lady warming a statue. I’d love to hear the stories the lady with the camera had to tell friends about our encounter.
The finished quilt measures 56” x 76”.
You can google Kaffe Fassett and “images” and spend the day being mesmerized and inspired by color. This link takes you to a page focusing on his patchwork, fabrics, and books: http://www.gloriouscolor.com. More info including videos are here.
