Chatting with Kaffe

As co-owners of Okan Arts, Patricia Belyea and her daughter Victoria import vintage Japanese textiles. They are known for creative quilting, machine sashiko, and are now hosting free one-hour Zoom Chats with quilting and textile luminaries every month. Patricia has collaborated with Aurifil as both a collection designer and an Aurifilosopher and we are always delighted to have an excuse to share her work.

The April 19th zoom chat featured fellow Aurifil Designer Kaffe Fassett. Over 2500 participants joined live, sharing the opportunity to hear about Kaffe’s new book, ask questions, and soak up some creative inspiration. We are thrilled that Patricia & Victoria have now made that chat available for all! For more, we invited Patricia to share a few words.

Thank you so much, Patricia!

When Kaffe Fassett was a young artist, he rented a second-floor flat in London’s Kilburn district where he lived and worked. One day the rental agent visited. The next thing Kaffe knew, he was taken to court with an eviction notice as the agent noticed a filing cabinet in his space. “He’s running a business from the flat!” the agent told the judge. Due to an error in the documents, the case was thrown out.

Ultimately Kaffe bought the entire house. This three-and-a-half story home became his home and studio for the last five decades as Kaffe delved into knitting, fabric design, patchwork, and needlepoint.

Kaffe shared this story and many more—meeting Brandon, his Leaf dining room, his collections, knitting tips—as we chatted together last week.

For the link to see the recording of this one-hour Zoom event, sponsored by Okan Arts, visit https://okanarts.com/blogs/blog/chat-w-kaffe-fassett

Thanks so much to Patricia for sharing this talk with us and to Kaffe for being such an inspiration!

If you’re new around here, you might be interested to know that Kaffe has three curated Aurifil collections in partner with Kaffe Collective designer Liza Lucy. Read more about The Kaffe Collective & Glorious Kantha and check out the rich and vibrant colors of Glorious Kantha 2 via the links below:

The Kaffe Collective
Glorious Kantha
Glorious Kantha 2