Kaffe Fassett’s Quilts in Sweden: Twenty Designs from Rowan for Patchwork and Quilting

Skansen Museum in Stockholm – the oldest open-air museum in the world – is the fascinating location Kaffe has chosen to display his latest collection of quilts. The colourful wooden farmsteads and the grand town houses with their exquisitely painted and stenciled interiors, furnished with pottery and textiles of the period, make a brilliant setting for the quilts. Photographer Debbie Patterson has captured the mood of Skansen, with each quilt placed in its perfect setting.

The quilts in this collection focus on sensational colour stories that add intrigue to the simple layouts. The quilt designers have chosen to mix new colourways of favourite old fabric designs with the vibrant new ones from Kaffe and Brandon Mably, together with Philip Jacobs’ sublime florals. Kaffe has used Serape, his exciting new striped fabric, to great effect, creating simple graphic quilts with colours that sing out joyfully. Corienne Kramer makes her debut with a stunning quilt, Honeysuckle Afternoons, in which large-scale prints in mellow shades are framed by borders of Kaffe’s new dotty stripe, Ombre, interspersed with delightful stars of shot cotton.

This time the special feature is on Kaffe himself. It tells how he goes about creating his quilts, working closely with Pauline Smith. Photographs, accompanied by text and quotes from Kaffe, illustrate the various stages of quilt construction, showing the fabric choices and the changes made during the design process. A great opportunity to learn how the master does it! Each quilt is accompanied by a full reference shot with detailed written instructions, coloured piecing diagrams, templates and a tips and techniques section, covering all the piecing methods used.