Translate

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A clamming I will go!

I'm not even sure where or when I purchased Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts book but I'm sure I bought it because of the colors of the quilt on the front cover! This has been one of those quilts that will not go away and I've finally given in. I'm going to make it or maybe I should say, try to make it! He calls this a "challenging quilt" which should tell me something, shouldn't it?!?


My version will be made from both my stash of the past 30 years and from contemporary fabrics some of which are Kaffe Fassett fabrics. When I first saw his fabrics, I thought they were so ugly! I was especially turned off by the cabbage and roses fabric. Ugh. BTW, fat quarters of both the yellow and purple color ways of this fabric are now in my posession. I've decided I like the intensity of the colors. I'm not sure yet how well they will play with the dusty rose and sunflower fabrics from my crafting days!

I've been busy cutting out clamshells and preparing them for putting together the diamonds. Because I took the "Process Pledge", I've decided to take you along on this journey so my next post will show you how I've been preparing the clamshells.

I've made over 700 of them so far so please (!) don't tell me I've done it wrong! I still need to make around 500 more but I've decided to start putting together the diamonds first. Does the amount of time spent on making something with that many pieces scare you? I found this quote on Journey of a Quilter's blog.

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish
something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will
pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to
the best possible use."
- Earl Nightingale

To help keep me motivated and encouraged, I've joined the Clamshell Club a group of bloggers working on clamshell projects! If you'd like to see our progress, click on the button in the upper right hand column. Click again on the end of the month updates (top of the page) to see a list of bloggers who are sharing what they've accomplished on their projects.

Spiderweb Selvage Quilt update - I've found some wider bright selvages so I can make more blocks! I'd really like to finish this top before Christmas.

7 comments:

Sue-Anne said...

HI Mayleen, Welcome to the Clamshell Club! I am dying to see your Kaffe quilt grow and boy, have you been busy preparing all those clamshells!!!! Love the quote and I think I need to adopt it as my mantra!

Marie said...

1200 clam shells - now that's a goal worth obtaining. One can never have to many clam shells. I'm going to watch closely for awhile to see how I would do with the clam shells.

Hugs - Marie

PS I love Kaffe Fasset

Canadian Kristin said...

I have never heard of clamshells for quilting, but you are amazing and I am inspired to watch you on this and cheer you from blogland!

WoolenSails said...

I have never seen a quilt like that, it is going to be beautiful.
I thought hexagons were intimidating, but once I tried them, I love it.

Debbie

FlourishingPalms said...

You are tackling a big one! Good for you! And thanks for the great quote. I'm keeping that one.

Barb said...

OOOH, I'm so excited to watch you make this. What a stunner and your clam shells look so pretty all lined up -have fun

denise said...

Hi Is shell shocked a pattern of yours? Is that its real name? Its beautiful! Denise