Book Review: Brilliant Little Patchwork

Kaffe Fassett's Brilliant Little Patchworks: 20 Stitched and Patched Projects Using Kafe Fassett FabricsKaffe Fassett’s Brilliant Little Patchworks: 20 Stitched and Patched Projects Using Kaffe Fassett Fabrics by Kaffe Fassett

I received this as an unexpected gift and my first impression was “UGH! Twenty MORE projects I’ll never have time to make.” It wasn’t on my list, but neither did I have it. Immediately thereafter, I was distracted and enchanted by the color and patterns of the fabric. The writing was also engrossing.

My despair quickly disappeared. While I am not much for project books, the difference in this book being primarily useful household items – aprons, showls, stool covers, placemats, cushions, a kimono and other items. There was one miniquilt.

The best part of this book is the visuals. There is some kind of image on each page. Some are step outs, others show sewing and lots of inspiration photos. All are well photographed and interesting in color, composition and design.

All of the projects use Kaffe’s fabrics. The benefit of this book is how to use his fabrics successfully. The large flower prints are the showpieces. The pebbles, lattices, dots, stripes and zigzags point the viewer through the tone-on-tones to the showpieces. This book shows that there is method to the seeming madness of Kaffe’s groups/lines of fabrics. This book also shows that throwing a bunch of large flower prints together doesn’t necessarily work.

My favorite project is the tea cozy. I seem to be fascinated with tea cozies and will have to make one to get it out of my system. I have had an idea to make tea cozies for the whole family in the colors of their kitchens, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Looking at the projects made me interested in the shawls. However, I think that I would only make one if Kaffe made organza.

I think the main value of this book is how the fabrics are combined as well as the simple designs that show off the motifs.

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