Thursday, January 19, 2012

Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons

Well, I have already hit the first bump in the road on Sedona Star.  In the ring around the centre star I planned to use a dark and light purple.  I ordered the fabrics, Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, from two different stores, which I now see was a mistake!  You can't compare values in photos from one online shop to the values in photos from another.  Here is what I ended up with:


When you see them in real life there is even less difference than in the photo.  Somehow the photo makes the one on the left seem lighter, which is probably what happened to the website's photo too.

Anyway, it won't do, so I am going to try again and add a couple more purples to my next order.  One way or another, I'm going to get enough contrast there to make the piecing worthwhile.  But it means that I can't start that band, or all the little appliqued circles, until next month.  Argh!  But months 3, 4 and 5 will be pretty fast, with just the paper pieced stars, so I am counting on catching up then!

But I can do the middle star and the log cabin points, which will be in these fabrics:


Apologies for the grainy photo, but the colours are reasonably true.  It has been very interesting to see the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons in person.  They are quite lightweight and a somewhat loose weave.  I was afraid they would ravel like mad in the wash, but they were pretty good.  They do come out of the dryer, though, looking like those broomstick skirts that used to be popular!

They call them "shot" cottons because the warp and weft threads are different colours on some of them.  The bottom fabric in the photo above looks like this up close:


The lengthwise warp threads here are lime green, and the crosswise weft threads are magenta.  If you are a painter you know that red and green mix together to make brown.  This fabric is called "ginger."

I like the way the weave gives some added dimension to the solid colours.  I am a little disappointed that the top two yellows and the rust don't have the same contrast between warp and weft.  I am concerned that the colours will be flat.  I am also concerned that the fabrics themselves won't be flat - they are awfully wrinkly.  Well, I will start with the log cabin points and see how it works out!

The black background fabric, by the way, is also part of the quilt.  Five yards of it!

4 comments:

  1. I have used the shot cottons in piecing, and didn't wash them first. I would starch the heck out of them and press them until there are no wrinkles left. They will press nice and flat and behave better when starched. Looking forward to your finished block!

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  2. I'm afraid you will still be waiting a while, Mary Ellen. Further developments are a foot!

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  3. Thank you for your photo showing the loose threads. This gives a good sense of shot cotton. I appreciate what you warned about sourcing from different websites. i took the time to compare each of the colours I wanted on as many websites as I could find that offered each one. What a total variation!

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    1. You're welcome, Katherine! In the end, by the way, it was too difficult to get the effect I wanted with the shot cottons, so I changed to Kaufman Kona solids. The quilt, however is still a UFO!

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