Bloggers' Quilt Festival 2017 - Tussie Mussie

Once again it's time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side.

I love this quilt festival because the quilters don't need to put hanging sleeves on their quilts or send them away in the post, and the viewers don't even need to get off their sofas to see a wide range of beautiful quilts.  That's a win, win as far as I'm concerned.

I'm entering two quilts this year and the first is my Tussie Mussie that I finished a few months ago.

I made this quilt using a pattern in Kaffe Fasset's Quilts in Italy book.  It was quite simple to make because it's just big half square triangles.  I used some of my stash of gorgeous purple and green Kaffe prints.

I usually like to hand quilt my quilts, but I've got a bit of a backlog developing so I had this one quilted by Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilting in Wellington, New Zealand.  I chose a swirly pattern and I'm really pleased with the finished result.

These pretty photos were all taken in my mum's garden in Auckland.  I even used Kaffe Fasset's extra wide backing on the back and I love the smooth silky texture of it.

You can read more about this quilt in my earlier blog post here.  

My second entry in the festival is my Holiday Homies quilt and you read about it here.  

Please pop over to Amy's blog and look at some of the other great quilts in the festival.  The system is a lot simpler this year because there's only one category for all of the quilts.  There won't be voting either - just prizes awarded to contestants on a random basis.
 

I hope you enjoy visiting some new blogs.  Please try to leave a comment for the bloggers, even if it's just "I love your quilt".   

My Tussie Mussie

Tussie Mussie is finished and I'm using it on my knees on these cold winter's nights in New Zealand. The pattern is from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy book. I took the quilt to Auckland a few weeks ago and photographed it in mum's garden.

I love seeing all those gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabrics together in one place.

Although I do love hand quilting, some time there just isn't enough hours in the day to do everything, so I got this quilt quilted by Sue Burnett of Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Lyall Bay, New Zealand.  I chose an overall swirly design which I felt suited the fabrics well.  It certainly looks great on the back with the Kaffe Fassett wide back fabric.

I asked Sue to use Aurifil 40wt on the top, and 50wt on the back.  I chose one of my favourite colours - Aurifil 1243 - Dusty Lavender.

 

You can see earlier WIP photos here if you wish.

My quilt is 60" x 60" because my half square triangle blocks are smaller than the ones in the pattern.  It makes for a perfect lap quilt because I chose wool batting.

Tussie Mussie - a finished quilt top

Last weekend was our Queen's Birthday holiday weekend.  It wasn't the Queen's real birthday, but in New Zealand we always celebrate her birthday on the first Monday in June.  Unfortunately the weather was wet and cold, but that was a good excuse to stay inside and quilt!

I joined up the last few rows of my Kaffe Fassett Tussie Mussie quilt and now I have a finished quilt top. (I'd started this quilt back in February - you can see my first post about it here.)

I was going to use a big piece of Kaffe wide backing I bought for another quilt and didn't use, but when I realised this top was only 60" x 60" and the backing was much bigger than that, it seemed like a waste.  So instead I pieced a back out of some of my bigger remaining purple and green Kaffe pieces.  I'll show you the backing when the quilt is finished.

This pattern is from Kaffe's book Quilts in Italy.  I modified the size of the blocks because I had a 6" Bloc Loc HST ruler.  The Bloc Loc rulers are great for trimming HSTs neatly. You can read more about them here.  Lots of local quilt shops stock them.

Tussie Mussie

I couldn't resist any longer - I started the Tussie Mussie quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy.  I've collected a lot of beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabrics over the past two years, and I had enough purples and greens in my stash to make this lovely pattern.

I remembered the things Kaffe and Brandon had told us at the class I attended a year ago, and just used whatever fabrics I had on hand.  I didn't try to match my fabrics to those in the pattern. If I really like a fabric, I cut more of it.  Those I wasn't so fussed about, I used less of.

I have a Bloc Loc HST ruler for 6" finished blocks, so I made my blocks slightly smaller than the pattern. My quilt will be 60" x 60" rather than 80" x 80" (unless I decide to add more blocks).
 

In my mind this was going to be a green quilt, with purples in the background, so I laid out the blocks by pairing up the green fabrics (see below) . I knew it wasn't looking as good as I hoped, but I couldn't think why after a long day making 100 HST blocks.

I sat down to relax and immediately realised that I should have paired up the purple fabrics because they were stronger colours. The next morning I tried again and was far happier with the layout (see below).  It looks much cleaner now that the focus is on the purples.  The greens still glow in natural light, but the purple diamonds work far better this way.

I've now started joining the rows, but once again I've had to pack it all up because this is my kitchen floor and we need to eat! It's bringing back memories of when I made my Tropical Hexagons quilt and had the same problem.  Must be a thing with Kaffe Fasset quilts.