Special Events

An Evening with Kaffe Fassett

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My friend J and I went last evening to see Kaffe Fassett speak at Hotel Clio in the Cherry Creek area of Denver.

If you are not familiar with Kaffe Fassett, according to Wikipedia he is “an American-born, British-based artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts—needlepoint, patchwork, knitting, painting and ceramics“

In the quilting world his fabrics a pretty popular, actually iconic. They are primarily bold and colorful florals and geometric patterns.

(photos credit Google AI)

The evening with Kaffe Fassett and his partner Brandon Mably, who is part of the Kaffe Fassett Collective Designer group which includes Phillip Jacobs, was sponsored by Pink Door Fabrics.

All attendees received a copy of Kaffe Fassett’s latest book Quilts at an English Manor House.

Kaffe Fassett’s talk was very interesting. He focused on his love of color and how he moved from knit pattern design into fabric design.

This was the second time I’ve seen him speak, the first time was in a small classroom at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon many years ago. It was a much more intimate setting.

This time I was in a large conference room at the hotel:

We couldn’t take photos or video during Kaffe’s presentation and glorious slide show, but here is Kaffe Fassett (with Brandon Mably) signing books after the presentation:

J and I didn’t wait in the long line to get him to sign our books. I’d chatted with him in person many years before in that more intimate setting, and had him at that time sign one of his books I owned.

As much as I love his fabrics I was good just seeing his slide show and hearing him speak about his artistic journey.

Postscript

This post made me think: “sometimes you don’t fully appreciate what you had at the time until you reflect back on it”.

Like I mentioned in the post above I saw Kaffe Fassett years ago (probably around 2014) at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon when I lived in Central Oregon. It either free or like $15 or $25 to attend and you could chat with him and easily get a book signed.

Jean Wells who owned the Stitchin’ Post for many years (her daughter the designer Valori Wells now owns it) was friends with so many of the big names in quilting as well as soon-to-be-quite-famous upcoming quilt fabric designers and quilt artists. I am guessing in addition to running a renown quilt shop, she also met a lot of them over the years in connection with the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show where all the big names in quilting came to teach at Quilter’s Affair each year.

I would attend out of curiosity, some of the smaller open to the public low cost or free events just to see what these designers and quilt artists/teachers were about not really knowing much about them.

I remember standing around and chatting with Tula Pink and Angela Waters before they got big (and before they wrote their book together). I remember thinking Tula was talented, very sweet, a little shy, and I hoped she made it big! (She ended up exceeding those hopes – ha!)

I took for granted the easy access I got to legendary quilters such as Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, the late Roberta Horton (who’d always give me a hug when she’d see me), the late Gwen Marston, Joe Cunningham, Rosalie Dace (who I got to chat with several times, take a low cost class with and have dinner with at a get together for the SAQA art quilting group I belonged), Sue Spargo and so many more!

How incredibly lucky I was and I didn’t even realize it or fully appreciate it until now!

My lesson…

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

21 thoughts on “An Evening with Kaffe Fassett”

  1. That sounds like a fun time. I bet listening to him talk color was very inspiring. And right? 20+ years ago it was fun to meet people, and now pretty cool to see where they are and remember when. Glad you had a good time

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  2. oh, lucky you even if it wasn’t like the previous time. I have several of his earlier books, even a knitting one and the one on colour. Hope the new is a keeper. I love the quote, I’m writing me a copy. Hugs

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I appreciate your thoughts!