Patchwork: Over 25 Glorious Quilt Designs

Product Information

Kaffe Fassett, one of the world’s foremost decorative artists, brings his dazzling colour sensibilities to the art of quilting. Fast forward many years later when my interests moved from knitting to quilting. During those years, Kaffe’s design world also expanded to encompass needlepoint patterns, mosaics, fabric designs and quilt patterns. I found his first quilt design book, Glorious Patchwork, to be equally innovative and inspiring. And since I also love bright colors, I am always instinctively drawn to his fabric collections. Kaffe Fassett autographs his books at the Dubai Quilt Show saw a variety of exciting commissions, projects and publications. Exhibiting quilts at the Textile Museum of Canada, involvement at the Yokohama Patchwork Festival in Japan and Kaffe’s contribution to two group shows, ‘The Artist and Radio 4’ at the Bankside Gallery and a painting exhibition at the Catto Gallery, London saw the year end with a prestigious invitation to design and decorate the Victoria and Albert Museum Christmas tree in collaboration with Kaffe’s latest book publication ‘Kaffe Fassett’s V&A Quilt’s’. For the 1985 UK TV programme ‘Pebble Mill at One’, Kaffe launched a needlepoint project, inviting anyone across the country to needlepoint an image of their favourite thing, no bigger than six inches square. Over 2,600 entries were sent in, forming the ‘Pebble Mill at One’ Heritage Tapestry, which was displayed at Chatsworth House then Harewood House. In the same year, the British Crafts Council invited Kaffe to present a BBC daytime television series interviewing leading UK crafts people.

In this special edition in Kaffe’s Patchwork and Quilting series, Kaffe has taken inspiration for the 20 new quilts in this book from some particularly glorious quilts of the past. Kaffe has taken 15 quilts that caught his eye from the Quilter’s Guild Collection and worked his magic using his current range of fabrics to give them a wholly new dimension, bringing together his passion for textile making with, as he says ‘the ingenious discoveries of past quilt-makers’.Past meets present in this dazzling collection of new quilts from design genius Kaffe Fassett. Drawing inspiration from the textile treasures of the Victoria&Albert Museum, London’s world-famous decorative art museum, Kaffe has created 23 gorgeous new patchwork designs. Each is a sympathetic interpretation of an antique source, using updated colour schemes and contemporary sewing techniques. All the designs are easily accessible to today’s quilters. Since then Kaffe has been involved in an ever expanding range of activities, charitable as well as artistic. In the 1990s he teamed up with Candace Bahouth to work on mosaics. In 1993 he designed costumes and sets for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘As You Like It’. In 1998 he designed Hillier’s garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. He is constantly on the move teaching and lecturing around the world and in recent years a growing proportion of his time has been devoted to expanding his range of fabric prints for the patchwork market. He can never resist a new challenge and shows no sign of slowing down. A list of the best quilting classes and retreats: My Wish List of Unique Quilting Classes, Quilting Workshops, Quilting Retreats and Quilting Holidays to Inspire Your Next Creative Adventure

The patchworks fall into three categories. First come Utility Quilts, employing large, simple patch shapes cut from charming prints. Traditional pieces follow, encompassing popular heritage quilt formats reborn here in fresh, modern colourways. Finally come the irresistible Showpiece Quilts, incorporating appliqué to create breathtaking showstoppers. A large part of Kaffe’s output is now an expanding range of fabric prints for the patchwork market along with the Indian stripes fabric and shot cotton fabric range distributed worldwide by Westminster Fibers, USA and Rowan, UK. In 2013, Kaffe was awarded the Turner Medal. This is awarded by the Colour Group (Great Britain) to a distinguished artist or art historian, honouring Britain’s greatest colourists. The ‘Ancestral Quilts’ Exhibition at the Quilt Museum in York in Summer 2015 showcased Kaffe’s new stunning quilt designs inspired by the Quilters Guild’s historic collection of antique quilts from 1780 to 1949. This successful exhibition promoted the original antique pieces as well as the inspiring new pieces by Kaffe, as well as a section to inspire creativity and interactivity for visitors. This Exhibition is travelling to 3 venues in USA from Autumn 2015 called ‘Blanket Statements’. A comprehensive list of where to donate quilts: Be a Quilt Volunteer – Where to Donate Quilts to CharityThe glorious array of designs featured in Kaffe Fassett’s Quilts in Italy are all made using classic as well as new fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett Fabric Collection – subtle or bold, simple or complex, all of the designs come together with emblematic Kaffe Fassett flair. Choose from the delicious ice-cream colors and traditional piecing of Kaffe’s own Lacy Log Cabin, the bold and contrasting colors and forms of Scaffold, the almost dizzying complexity of Chiaroscuro, with its four-in-one style piecing, and many more eye-catching designs.

In 2015 Kaffe became a Patron of the Shetland Peerie Makkers, set up with Brough Lodge Trust, to teach hand-knitting to Shetland youngsters, to nurture Shetland’s wonderful culture of hand-knitting for future generations. Kaffe Fassett was born in San Francisco in 1937. Kaffe started as a fine artist, winning a scholarship to study at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School when he was nineteen. He left after three months to paint in London, and he still continues to exhibit his paintings. After settling in England in 1964, his passion for colour led him to knitting and designing knitwear for Missoni and Bill Gibb amongst others, and his hand-knitted garments are now in museum collections all over the world. He later took up needlepoint and patchwork, creating both his own works and designs for others to make.

Ehrman

Anyone who loves colour needs no introduction to Kaffe Fassett or to his rich and vibrant fabric collection. In this book he creates a terrific range of small projects for your home, for yourself or to give as gifts, from his specially chosen fabrics. The projects are ideal for anyone who wants a touch of the Kaffe magic with a fraction of the time and effort involved in creating the large-scale patchwork quilts for which he is perhaps best known. His Autobiography ‘Dreaming in Color’ was published in September 2012 and has proved to be extremely popular and sold worldwide. Whether in the form of a cushion or a table runner, a mini-quilt or a tablecloth, a kimono or a tea cosy, or a stole or shawl, Kaffe’s 20 small pieced designs in this book – ranging from the most simply stitched to the m ore intricately pieced – mix bold flower patterns with strong geometrics in a mouth-watering range of colours and in palettes that range from the sizzingly hot to the cool and delicate. In the midst of all these activities his needlework designing is a constant. He has been the most important and consistent contributor to our catalogues for 40 years, without a break. Kaffe is recognised as one of the world’s leading textile designers.