Glorious Patchwork: More Than 25 Glorious Quilt Designs

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Internationally renowned textile and fine artist Kaffe Fassett has been inspired by flowers his entire life, and he has been incorporating them into his artwork for nearly as long. In Bold Blooms, for the first time ever, he shares a behind-the-scenes look at his fascinating creative process, shedding light on how he creates the vibrant fabrics, quilts, needlepoints, ribbons, floral displays and paintings for which he is celebrated. He follows with a passionate ode to flowers in the form of eighteen quilts and seven needlepoints designed for bedgnning to advanced stitchers and divided into seven colour moods, ranging from neutrals and soft pastels to rich, dark tones. 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 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. In his contemporary take on these amazing quilts – the 15 chosen span three centuries of quilt making and are featured in his introduction – he breathes fresh life into their eye-catching patterns and geometry, from hexagons to log-cabins and from complex medallions to simple strippies. He has invited five of his team of designers to make their own versions of five of them, creating yet further layers of interest.

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. At the Dubai Quilt Show I finally had a chance to see and meet him in person. Most everyone at his opening lecture and in fact at the quilt show itself, was there to see him specifically. Yet despite this popularity he accepted the adulation with grace and humility, patiently signing quilt books and posing for cell phone photos with the attendees. 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. In 2013, the solo exhibition ‘Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour’ at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, featured over 100 works including knitwear and throws, patchwork quilts and a tactile installation for visitors to touch so that they could get a better understanding of the structure behind his work. In 2014, ‘Kaffe Fassett: 50 Years in Colour’ Exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery was extremely popular, and later toured to Norway in 2015.The 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. 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. For over 30 years, Kaffe Fassett has produced some of the worlds’ most successful knitting designs. Now, for the first time, ‘Kaffe Fassett’s Pattern Library’ brings together in one place a collection of over 190 of his most brilliant creations. We finished with a show and tell as Kaffe and Brandon went around to each quilt and evaluated the final results. Here once again, Kaffe’s colorful vocabulary came out as he described with sincerity and passion what attracted him about each quilt. This final discourse was as much a critique as it was another lesson in the language and the concepts of Kaffe’s color world. Final class review of quilts with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley His bold Graphic cushion, in just two blue and white fabrics, or his Brilliant Squares cushion in eight subtly different fabric squares, are ideal for those new to patchwork. His 3D Shadow Box cushion, playing with juxtapositions of dark, light and bright fabrics, and the subtle changes of pattern in his Marble Tile cushion, on the other hand, offer more of a challenge.

Learning paper piecing the Judy Niemeyer way: Learn Paper Piecing With Judy Niemeyer Classes as A Quiltworx Retreat in Kalispell, Montana You could say I’ve known Kaffe for about 30 years – though he does not know me. In the mid 1980’s when I was deep into knitting, he came out with his landmark knitting design book. He had made his mark as a designer in the knitting and fashion world when his very first ever knitting project was featured in the Vogue Knitting magazine. My collection of Kaffe Fassett books and fabrics 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 At the end, we all rolled up our designs inside the felt design wall without ruining the layout. Now all that was left was to sew it all together and then quilt it. This would forever be a tangible reminder of the day we spent with the design genius for whom “color was like breathing”. 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’.Being more concerned with colour and design, Kaffe Fassett then worked extensively in many different textile arts, rather than the fashion world, later in his career. He was christened Frank Havrah Fassett but as a teenager decided to change his name to the more artistic sounding Kaffe (rhymes with safe) after an Egyptian character in a children’s book. He freely admitted that he was fortunate to grow up in the 1950’s in an atypical (even for California) home and school environment that supported and encouraged his natural artistic creativity. Besides this quilting class, I have also taken and written about a quilt class with Empty Spools as well as the Judy Niemeyer Quiltworx class that I took at her retreat house in Montana. 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.