Cassie’s La Passacaglia – fourth update

I have been making some great progress on my La Passacaglia project, especially helped by a Sit and Sew day in Adelaide last week where I was able to pick some fabulous fabric combinations. I am now up to the last half of this quilt, I am working on the third of the four large rosettes next, and then it is time to start looking around at the edge pieces and working out my approach.

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

Here are my stunning jewels for this progress report – all of them from new fabric mixed in with scraps that I already owned. It was a shock to me when I realised how little “true” red I actually owned, so I bought some Bonnie & Camille for this red rosette.

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

My only regret was using my light grey thread to sew the large pentagons together as it is visible in the joins when you look closely. Let’s hope that no-one looks that closely!

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

I had fun with the geometric nature of the outer ring, using Allison Glass and some old Riley Blake stripes I found buried in my stash. It offsets all those flowers I think.

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

This teal rosette was probably one of the easiest I have had to put together, mostly because it feels like half of my entire stash is teal, and I keep buying more! The inner diamonds, the star ring diamonds and pentagons are all Cotton & Steel, although different lines. The middle pentagon ring is a play on the V & Co chevron print, by cutting it and alternating the wider and narrow angles it gave more of a starburst effect. I really had fun making this rosette, I think the whole thing was done in 3 or 4 days.

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

What started off as my most challenging rosette was saved by the sit and sew day – I was able to spend a happy hour (literally!) shopping for the perfect fabric, finding both the bees (a Kokka print from Japan) and the little dot/diamond that I used in the outer row. I wanted a rich plum/burgundy rosette to offset all the lighter gold and teal I had been creating with, and this one fit the bill perfectly!

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

Although this rosette could have appeared excessively dark due to the nature of the fabrics used, the light matchstick print from Cotton & Steel in the centre ring, as well as the movement of the bees out towards the daisies and the lighter diamond prints helps to visually lighten and brighten the overall effect. I am SO happy with this one, I could happily imagine an entire quilt made just out of these fabrics!

 

Edited-4La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

Because I’m generous, here’s a bonus rosette, this is my little rebel. Sweet, flowery, fussy cut and completely out of place in my current La Passacaglia quilt. The jury is out as to whether this sweetheart will become a cushion, mini quilt, pin-cushion or even appliqued onto a bag. I am sure the perfect project/recipient will appear in time. But for now, she can hang out on my design wall and make me smile.

 

La Passacaglia fourth update - Cassandra Madge

 

Here is my current progress shot. As you can see I have filled in many of the complete inner rosettes, and now comes the plan for the outer border. As you can probably tell, the plan calls for cutting a LOT of rosettes in half, or even less. That is not going to happen for me – I can’t imagine a bigger waste of time! I will either expand some of the jagged borders, make the quilt complete and applique it onto a background, or make a lot less of the “trimmed” rosettes so that I am not working just to throw it away. The jury is currently out, but obviously looking at this I am going to have to make a decision, and soon!

 

 

What would you do? Make it all, trim it, or only make selected parts? Vote in the comments and help me decide!

 

 

 

 Happy Crafting - Cassie.

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9 Responses

  1. Claire Alexander

    The rosettes you have made are beautiful! I am especially impressed with the care you took in cutting to feature designs. If I were making the quilt, I think I would sketch out how much I need of a rosette and make only that much. No way would I do all the work of piecing a whole only to cut it. (I do cut blocks on occasion, but not when they were tediously hand stitched.)

  2. Carrie

    I think it depends on where you want to put it when completed. It’s a pretty small quilt already- do you have the perfect spot for it, or could it happily be a bit larger?

  3. Agnes

    I would probably not make a full rosette just to cut it unless I had plans to sew those rosettes together into an improv rosette work. I love seeing your progress! The dark star points really bring out all the saturated colors.

  4. brigitteo

    Coucou, je ferai tout le travail (make it all) et jamais ne couperai les rosettes !! Je suis certaine que ce travail gagne à être placé en entier sur un beau tissu.
    J’adore
    Brigitteo

  5. Gurpreet Kalsi

    Hi Cassie

    Your quilt is looking stunning so far. I wanted to know how you’re putting your progress into the template? I’m curious? I would to see the same so I can decide my layout early on.

    Thank you!

    • Cassandra

      Thankyou so much for your comment. I am probably in a similar boat to you, I really can’t visualise the progress without something more concrete to look at. I am using Photoshop with a copy of the overview from the book and carefully cutting out and re-sizing pictures of my rosettes to make the progress pictures. I’m afraid that my process can’t really be detailed any further, but I wish you all the best with your La Passacaglia work!

  6. Spring

    i would really like to purchase this pattern templates and papers please direct me to the best place so i may join the EPP world
    i thought this was a Tula Pink quilt so i purchased hers but hers is for single large would those templates work?

    • Cassandra

      Spring, I think the Tula Pink quilt you are referring to is the Tula Nova? It’s much larger sized templates and although it is based around a 5 point star, that’s about where the similarity is.

      The La Passacaglia pattern is in Willyne Hammersteins’ book, Millefiori quilts BOOK 1, published by Quiltmania. She has several books out, but this pattern is from the first volume. You can buy it through many quilt shops – for example here. OZQUILTS The papers and templates are sold separately to the pattern, you can get them through many places depending where you live. OZQUILTS also sells them, HERE

      Hope this helps you to source them. Of course, you could just go wild with the ones you already have and fiddle around to make them interlock. After so many rosettes, I realised that anything is pretty well possible with this design.

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