Happy 2022!

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Beth Markel

Happy January, 2022! Apologies for not posting sooner, but C19 hit our household in December and for a number of weeks it was a slog. Very little sewing was happening, but it’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, it’s new year, new day, new goals to be met, and projects to finish.

Last weekend I took a virtual Quiltfolk 2-day workshop featuring Kaffe Fassett. What an interesting designer, quilter, knitter and character! His sense of color, and his work in the fabric industry has been an integral part of the fiber movement all around the world. He has a new line of ribbons, manufactured in France, and they are gorgeous! Much of the interviewing of Kaffe and his partner was done by Jenni Smith, who has worked with Kaffe in designing quilts. Getting a peak into his house was an eye-opening experience. Color, pattern, more color, more pattern, mosaics, knitting, quilts, ceramics, paintings… you name it, it’s probably in his house somewhere in glorious and casual display. From the paintings in his living room to his antique quilts 3 stories above, there is something that grabs your eye in every square inch of space. I’m going to keep my eye open for workshops, as he’s coming to the US later this year. In the meantime, I’m thoroughly enjoying his newest book, “Kaffe Fassett In the Studio: Behind the Scenes with a Master Colorist.” It’s decadent and yummy!

As an update, I’m quilting ‘Chaos’ using stitch-in-the-ditch. After some tinkering, I decided this was the best way to highlight each individual block. It’s a little bit of a slow process, but I believe will be worth it in the end. When I get the first 2 rows done, I’ll post pictures. It’s boring from the back – maybe not boring, exactly, but really just a grid pattern that goes from side to side and top to bottom.

This morning I also finished the next small work in my Jazz series. This has been a really fun diversion from the grid mentioned above, and yes, I really do listen to jazz music when I’m sewing this series. For time management purposes (which I’m trying to work on!) I set aside 2 hours for these small quilts every morning. Yo-Yo Ma and the Goat Rodeo is one of my favorite albums to wake up to, along with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington in the Songbook series, Count Bassie, Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk… and 100 others, all brilliant and inspiring in their own right. It’s been interesting to also read about ‘Kandinsky’ by Helmut Friedel (author) while improv jazz is on in the background. Maybe it’s just me, but improv jazz makes me happy and I think a little more creative when I’m working in a completely improv way.

Jazz 103 was a completed top in December, and Jazz 104 was completed this morning. The Jazz 103 uses a gorgeous orange ombre I had in my stash, but I don’t think it photographs as beautiful as it is in person. The same is true for Jazz 104, although similar, it’s a Cherrywood red, much like a ripe, red tomato ready to pick from the vine and eat while it’s still warm from the sun. It’s difficult to see the design or suade-like pattern that is unique to Cherrywood in the pictures, but it, too, is much more colorful in person than in the pics. Each is 21″ W x 30″ H

Health and happiness in 2022!

Cheers,

Beth

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