Kaffe Fassett is creativity through and through. Even when signing his new books for slightly star struck quilters at the Festival of Quilts, he keeps his embroidery in hand, expertly crafting his new designs seemingly without having to look.
After bugging him for a quick interview I was delighted to distract him for a few moments with my less than serious, not-your-usual-quilting-interview-questions and had good chuckle at some of his responses. Here’s how it went...
[Anna] You’re the newest colour in the crayola box, what colour would you be?
[Kaffe] Grey.
[Anna] Interesting, any particular reason why?
[Kaffe] In a world of so many different colours, sometimes you need a bit of grey. Plus it has more tones than any other colour.
[Anna] Deep. I need to write that one down. What’s your top jam for stitch and chill?
(Translate: what music do you enjoy listening to whilst you’re having a relaxing afternoon of stitching?)
[Kaffe] Oh I see! I love listening to Gregorian chants.
[Anna] *Nodding thoughtfully whilst trying to think of any Gregorian chant* If you could be any animal what would it be?
[Kaffe] A Jack Russell; i’d like to be small and cute for a change!
[Anna] What clique were you in at high school?
[Kaffe] The nerdy art kids, mostly surrounded by very flamboyant girls. *Winks*
[Anna] Oh ey. Tell me something I don’t know.
[Kaffe] I was born on Pearl Harbor day, but maybe you knew that already.
[Anna] Nope, didn’t, so that’ll work. What’s your party trick?
[Kaffe] Falling asleep at the dinner table.
*Queue chuckles from the small gathering of quilters around the table*
[Anna] What’s your ultimate pizza topping
[Kaffe] I like good, classic pizza, with pepperoni or salami. None of this pineapple nonsense.
[Anna] People have very strong opinions regarding pineapple on pizza. For the sake of good journalism, let’s throw in a couple of quilty questions. What’s your favourite ever quilt?
[Kaffe] That’s like asking who’s your favourite child! I don’t have a favourite quilt, but I can tell you that my favourite contributors quilt from the new book is Maple Leaf Medallion by Liza Lucy. The colouring is so subtle, it works beautifully.
[Anna] That’s my mum’s favourite too, which is a pretty big deal. What was your favourite location from your book shoots?
[Kaffe] Oh that’s a tough one. We have been to some really special places, but it would have to be Portugal, or maybe Malta. Actually one of my favourite shoots was in Portmeirion for Quilt Romance, that is a really magical place.
[Anna] You’re often sporting a shirt made from your woven stripes collection. Which is your favourite stripe?
[Kaffe] My favourite design is the Roman Stripe.
(Which happens to be the stripe he was rocking that day)
[Anna] Alright lets wrap this up with one more question. What’s your ultimate colour combination?
[Kaffe] I really couldn’t say, it changes depending on how i’m feeling at that moment but right now it’s 50 shades of grey.
*It takes a couple of minutes for us to collect ourselves. I must admit that reference caught me off guard coming from Kaffe Fassett*
[Kaffe] Seriously though I am genuinely annoyed that that woman got the title first. I always loved talking about how you can use different shades of grey to compliment colours in my talks but now i can’t bring it up without triggering a room full of sniggers!
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That wraps up our little interview, thank you so much to Kaffe for being such a good sport, what a great guy! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, here’s a picture of me and my new BFF having a giggle…
