Sunday, February 20, 2011

My day with Kaffe and Brandon (and 30 other squealing women!)

Get ready for a long post with LOADS of photos ....

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Kaffe and Brandon are in town and I was lucky enough to get into a workshop they ran today at Amitie, the happiest land of them all!

This image above is of the original bordered diamonds quilt from the book Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts. It was our focus for the day.

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There were so many lovely people there today:

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That's me with Jenny, owner of Amitie

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Miriam, Me (and my chins) and Cathy

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Melissa, Cathy and Me

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Blogless Sue and Judy
And so many other awesome women........

..... who brought with them LOADS of delicious fabric:

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Lisa was obscenely neat and organized.

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We ate well:

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And drank well ...

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But mainly we worked hard!!
There were design walls everywhere:

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Here are some of the wonderful designs that were created today:

Lovely design walls created at the Kaffe Fassett workshop

Here I am hard at work:

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Check out the progression of my design wall:

My 
design wall taking shape

It eventually became this:

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After all the designing (and eating and drinking and singing and laughing and chatting) was done, Kaffe went from design wall to design wall offering insights and lashings of praise and encouragement.

Here he is critiquing my design:

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During the day, Kaffe was generally quiet, measured and a bit serious.

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The only real 'smiley' shot I got of him was standing in front of Linda's quilt ... my favourite of the day:

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Brandon on the other hand ...

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What an amazing day!!
Thank you to EVERYONE who made it possible.

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Andi xx

43 comments:

Annie said...

What a fabulous post - can't wait to hear him this week. Lovely quilts.

Kate said...

What an amazing day - I am a little bit jealous!

flowerpress said...

Love those huge smiles everywhere! And love your quilt, great colours, what did Kaffe say!!

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful day, fabulous fabrics and such inspiration!

Helen said...

OMG Andi! You lucky duck!!!!!! What a great day! So jealous! All that colour! Your combination stood out the most I reckon, loved it!! Have heard that it takes a lot for Kaffe to crack a smile..... And Brandon is a hoot! What a great day!

Maria said...

WOW!! What a fabulous way to spend a day.
all the tops are just gorgeous!!!!
Lucky Ladies.

Anonymous said...

he should smile more often! what a lovely smile he has! you look like you had a blast.... so jealous...

Tania said...

You must be finding it difficult to go to sleep tonight! Right? So, so thrilled for you. It looks like One Very Big Day.

Unknown said...

Ack!! You were in Heaven and am too just reading and seeing all the wonderful happenings of the day!!

cauchy09 said...

omg. i am so jealous!!!

Unknown said...

one day I'm going to kidnap Brandon and keep him as my pet.
Just saying, in case he ever goes mysteriously missing...you'll find him at mine.
Hence, I can never go to a Kaffe workshop. I am quite certain kidnapping is still illegal. *sigh*

Looks like an AWESOME day!!!

alobsiger said...

Wonderful pics, Andi! Looks like it was a fabulous day!! I love your fabric choices, BTW. :-)

Laura said...

Great post! The diamond quilt is the reason I started collecting Kaffe fabrics last summer. I have plenty now. Just need to get going on the quilt!

Leslie said...

wow what a fantastic day!!! i love the pictures. i can not imagine he had much to critique, your quilt looked beautiful on the design wall.

Lisa said...

I'm a little jealous too! hahaha. What great fabrics and colors your smiles say it all! Fun, fun, fun!

MariQuilts said...

Amazing day I'm sure. I'm a huge fan of Kaffe's...heard him speak here last fall...I loved it.

Michelle said...

You are sooooo lucky...I have all of his books and a very extensive stash. This quilt is on my wish list, I started it and then it was put aside but I am reinspired after viewing your post. Beautiful, thank you for sharing your day with us.

imquilternity said...

What a wonderful day! And, you've got a gorgeous quilt to show for it, in addition to all your great photos! I took a class with Kaffe that was eirely similar to yours. Kaffe was working on his own knitting project that day rather than needlepoint, but it was serious, fast-paced and intense. There were sure lot of gorgeous quilts made that day too. Can you imagine all the great "kaffe class" quilts that have been made around the world?

Unknown said...

I am so jealous!
What an amazing day and experience.
Your quilt looks gorgeous.

Rachel said...

wow, what an amazing day!!

bec said...

Wow, you lucky duck! I like there was a pick of Kaffe sewing, and that Brandon looks like a crack up! I've seen a few pics of his workshops now, they look so full and BRIGHT! Love it all!

Miriam said...

Wasn't it the best day!!!! :)
I had sooo much fun! The whole day was a whirlwind of creativity, friends, food and fun!

Cathy @ CabbageQuilts said...

Fabulous memories to last a lifetime! What a day. xo

a very fine house said...

Tired but happy is all I have to say. Lovely to share it with you too. So many beautiful quilts and happy faces.

Lucky Duck Dreams said...

Jealous! What fun!!!

Clair said...

I'm not jealous...really.....I'm not......


*sobs quietly in the corner*

Helene said...

WOW!!!! That's it. Can't say anything else. Speechless. Wow.

meli B said...

Great photos Andi, amazing shots of Kaffe. It was really fun to be there with you. Also fantastic to meet some of the other bloggers and just to be around people as in love with textiles and colour as we are. I was so tired at the end of it all and my mind was so colour saturated but it was a blast.

amitietextiles said...

What a great day. Thank you for taking photos as i didn't get many at all. I had a blast with everyone.

Janet said...

Great photos Andi, fabulous quilts in the making and what a fantastic day you must have all had.

anhaga sae / lisa said...

It was such a great day - and great to meet you!!! Lovely pics - I'll have to show my mum the one of my fabric - me being neat doesn't happen very often! :D

Bianca Jae Makes Stuff said...

Wow! Just...wow!! What an experience!! I'm so glad you all enjoyed yourselves. What a fantastic day! xox

Michelle said...

Fantastic photos and write up! I went to the diamonds workshop in Canberra, and had a very similar experience! (no wine though - just as well. Could have been dangerous!)

audreypawdrey said...

This sounds like an amazing day! I am loving your quilt so far, and I can't imagine how cool it must have been to be at that workshop. Yay!

Jan Quigley said...

Thank you for letting me vicariously enjoy your wonderful day. I love Kaffe Fassett, his style is incredible. I have a healthy stash. :-)
Your quilt looks fabulous.

Katherine said...

Looks like a dream day, Andi. Thanks so much for sharing it! I love Kaffe fabrics - it's hard to resist such delicious colours. Your quilt is gorgeous!

Quilts on Bastings said...

Wow - lucky you! Looks like you had an amazing day ...

Belinda aka beeware said...

I love this post Andi.

Karen said...

I'm so glad I found you blog and popped in. I've been reading other posts about this class and I would love to have been there to hear him critique the quilts. They are all wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Me thinks Kaffe looks tired. I have often wondered how year after year they can travel for weeks and weeks at a time, not just different time zones but different seasons.

Your pictures and thoughts are appreciated as we all are going to make a Fassett some day. And if I do this diamond one I am useing solids as boarders - just lake YOU>

Hi! My name is erica. Would you be my friend? said...

What a wonderful day that must have been! Thanks for sharing! ;D

HalfAsstic.com said...

Wow! I've never been here before, I just saw your quilt on Pinterest and loved it so I wanted to click over and find out who made it.
It's beautiful and I'm super impressed with you and all your friends at the workshop/gathering/drinking party. ;-)
Truly inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

SIMPLESEW said...

Fabulous, Love it, I could feel the fun and I am becoming a fan of Kaffette