Glorious Patchwork: More Than 25 Glorious Quilt Designs

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Kaffe Fassett, an accomplished painter and designer of textiles, is widely acknowledged as a visionary in the use of color. There is no one better than Fassett at seeing images and patterns in the world and translating them into knits, e.

His "Red Diamonds Quilt" is vibrant with patches of sunflowers, grapes and a multitude of floral designs. This particular design is photographed in a garden with the table set with china filled with fruit, flowers and confections. One of the surprising comments that Kaffe made at the beginning of the class was that more often than not, he noticed that students would make a quilt in the colors of the clothes that they wore, and he was quite right. For more than two decades, Kaffe Fassett's sumptuously textured, vibrantly colored designs have thrilled readers and inspired them to pile on color and break the rules.

The designs and his unrestrained use of color were so unique and different – he wasn’t knitting – he was painting with wool. This final discourse was as much a critique as it was another lesson in the language and the concepts of Kaffe’s color world.

He highlighted what he loved about each quilt using words that were also emphasized with large, expressive whole-body gestures. I also love the challenge of taking beautiful photos that capture the essence of the location I am visiting. It was interesting to watch Kaffe’s single minded concentration as he focused on each person’s developing design, deciding if the fabric choices worked together and recommending options if he thought they did not. We started by laying out our intended fabric choices and Kaffe went around and suggested improvements. If we did not bring the right colors with us, there were plenty of fabric choices available from the show organizers, including a huge selection of Kaffe’s fabrics.

I'm not a quilter or a sewer (except when I have to sew on a button or something) and I've never made any of these. As he pointed out specific details about the color combinations that he admired in each example, phrases like “love the chanciness”, “otherworldly palette”, “sings out” and “absorbs heat” were combined with positive encouragements like “gorgeous”, “stunning”, “outrageous”, “lush” and “delicate”. By the end of the class, everyone had a basic layout designed for their quilt that they were pleased with, though maybe not all the blocks were cut or put up.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Each chapter contains a range of patchworked quilts, from simple designs suitable as a weekend project for beginners to more complex quilts which provide a challenge for more experienced patchworkers. I first borrowed this book from the library nearly 10 years ago, then purchased it 5 years ago, and I am still browsing through it. His color choices and ability to pull colors from scenes, buildings, collections, or just nature, are what make this book stand out from the hundreds of other quilt books.The point of this book is not complicated designs, it's what you can do with the simplest block and trinagle patterns. The quilt show week-long program included classes by big name quilters and that year, Kaffe Fassett was the keynote speaker as well as one of the quilting instructors. He eventually discovered that he had a greater passion for textile design which is where his successful career ultimately took him. I like to focus my traveling lens on history, art, architecture, nature, cruising, and soft adventures with a touch of luxury.