Glorious Patchwork: More Than 25 Glorious Quilt Designs

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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’. 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.

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. Kaffe’s current passion and idea of heaven is creating cloth for patchwork, yet he continues to lecture and tutor knitting workshops. His excitement for all his chosen crafts shines through and his company is exhilarating and exciting for knitters and non knitters alike. Kaffe says “being the dinosaur of patchwork and knitting guarantees that people will come and listen to me”.

Ehrman

Kaffe’s Color Lecture was a brief prologue to the all-day class that was in store for us the next day. We would each be working on designing the Green Diamonds pattern from Kaffe’s Quilts in Ireland book. Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley stand in front of Kaffe’s Green Diamonds quilt 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 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.

Talking to many of the other classmates it was clear the majority were attending this quilt show just so that they could take this workshop with Kaffe. Attendees were here from many different European countries, as well as other areas of the Middle East. One of my table mates had only just started learning to quilt 10 days before this trip because she was such a huge fan of Kaffe’s work. Kaffe Fassett’s fabrics, with their trademark range of colourways in each pattern, are the perfect choice for his 20 different patchwork cushions in this book. He has created a cornucopia of eye-catching designs, with something for every style and for every level of patchwork skill, using both his sumptuous florals and his neat geometric prints to great effect.

Making a Kaffe Fassett Quilt

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’.

Easy-to-follow, illustrated designs with close-ups and a detailed colour chart to enable you to copy the pattern 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. 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 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.

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. Kaffe turned his hand to printed fabric design when working with Liza Prior Lucy in USA on new patchwork designs, publishing his book Glorious Patchwork in 1997. Since then, Kaffe has produced many hardcover books on patchwork, as well as working on over fifteen Patchwork & Quilting books annually for Rowan Yarn/Westminster Fibers.