In 1990 in Stockholm, a ballet featuring flowing Fassett coats and shawls was staged at the Art and Industry Museum for the opening of his exhibition there. The queues were so long that the opening had to be restaged three times and 107,000 people attended.

The Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan invited Kaffe to create 3 room sets in their store, for a British fair, sponsored by the British Council. Over 30,000 people visited the display in 6 days. In June 1998, Kaffe displayed his quilts from his 8th book, ‘Patchwork’ at the Japan World Quilt Fair in Tokyo, drawing 120,000 spectators.

From early 2000s, major exhibitions have included ‘The Textile Tradition, Then and Now’ (2001) and Quilt Bonanza (2003) both at The American Museum in Bath, plus shows at Stening Slott, in Sweden (2004) and Rohsska Museet, in Gothenburg (2004).

2005 saw a variety of exciting commissions, projects and publications. Exhibiting quilts at the Textile Museum of Canada, involvement at the Yokohama Patchwork Festival in Japan and Kaffe’s contribution to two group shows, ‘The Artist and Radio 4’ at the Bankside Gallery and a painting exhibition at the Catto Gallery, London saw the year end with a prestigious invitation to design and decorate the Victoria and Albert Museum Christmas tree in collaboration with Kaffe’s latest book publication ‘Kaffe Fassett’s V&A Quilt’s’.

Kaffe’s one man multimedia show in 2006 at the Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde, Sweden was followed by an exhibition of Kaffe’s quilts, knitting and needlepoint at the Modemuseum Hasselt, Belgium and 2007 continues with Kaffe embarking on a workshop tour of Australia and New Zealand and the launch of his knit book ‘Kaffe Knits Again’ published by Rowan.

In 2013, the solo exhibition ‘Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour’ at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, featured over 100 works including knitwear and throws, patchwork quilts and a tactile installation for visitors to touch so that they could get a better understanding of the structure behind his work. In 2014, ‘Kaffe Fassett: 50 Years in Colour’ Exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery was extremely popular, and later toured to Norway in 2015.

The ‘Ancestral Quilts’ Exhibition at the Quilt Museum in York in Summer 2015 showcased Kaffe’s new stunning quilt designs inspired by the Quilters Guild’s historic collection of antique quilts from 1780 to 1949. This successful exhibition promoted the original antique pieces as well as the inspiring new pieces by Kaffe, as well as a section to inspire creativity and interactivity for visitors. This Exhibition is travelling to 3 venues in USA from Autumn 2015 called ‘Blanket Statements’.

Kaffe turned his hand to various creative projects, such as designing costumes and sets in 1993 for the UK based Northern Ballet Theatre, which led to The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioning Kaffe to co-design the set and costumes for ‘As You Like It’ in 2000, directed by Gregory Doran. Kaffe revelled in the Elizabethan period and used knitting, needlepoint, rag-rugging and patchwork in the costumes, making this one of the most exciting commissions Kaffe has received to date.

By the early eighties, Kaffe had met Stephen Sheard from Rowan Yarns in Yorkshire, creating designs and knit-kits with their British yarn. One of their first collaborations was the Super Triangles Jacket featured on the cover of Woman & Home magazine, selling over 7000 kits in two weeks.

Since then, Kaffe has worked closely with Rowan Yarns in Yorkshire, whose insight into fashion and colour complements Kaffe’s skills, so together they have produced ambitious designer patterns to inspire hand knitters all over the world. His favourite Kilim Jacket was modelled by Kate Moss in the 1992 Rowan Knit Magazine. He has contributed to the bi-annual Rowan magazine for over 30 years, which is marketed world-wide.

His first book was Glorious Knitting, published in 1985, offering over 30 exclusive patterns for knitted clothing, giving ideas for variations for the more adventurous knitter. The rich blend of yarns and use of colour give the illusion of complexity but the designs themselves are all based on simple shapes and stocking stitch and are well within the capabilities of the average knitter. It sold 40,000 copies in UK and USA in the first two weeks, and has since sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, a remarkable track record for a knitting book.

Since 1976, Kaffe has been the leading designer of needlepoint kits for Ehrman Tapestries of London, one of the most successful mail order needlepoint companies world-wide, aiming to promote British Craft. In 1987, the ‘Kaffe Fassett Glorious Needlepoint’ book was published, exploring the full potential of needlepoint as an inspirational source. As well as providing charted patterns, the embroiderer is given many ideas for producing his or her own designs for colourful rugs, shoulder bags, cushions and other items.

Kaffe’s first needlepoint design was a commission by Pamela Lady Harlech, for Lord Harlech. Since then, commissions have included; two 5-foot square needlepoint tapestry designs for the 1994 Marks & Spencer department stores Christmas packaging; tufted rug designs for Christopher Farr Handmade Rugs; two 5-foot square needlepoint tapestries for the Sea Princess cruise liner; a needlepoint tapestry for an Elizabethan house in Yorkshire; a series of five tapestries and a tufted rug for The Edinburgh Tapestry Weaving Company; a 13′ by 15′ mosaic mural at the entrance to a theatre in Ojai, California; needlepoint arm chairs and an endless list of one-of-a-kind designs and tapestries for clients around the world.

Kaffe turned his hand to printed fabric design when working with Liza Prior Lucy in USA on new patchwork designs, publishing his book Glorious Patchwork in 1997. Since then, Kaffe has produced many hardcover books on patchwork, as well as working on over fifteen Patchwork & Quilting books annually for Rowan Yarn/Westminster Fibers.

A large part of Kaffe’s output is now an expanding range of fabric prints for the patchwork market along with the Indian stripes fabric and shot cotton fabric range distributed worldwide by Westminster Fibers, USA and Rowan, UK.

For the 1985 UK TV programme ‘Pebble Mill at One’, Kaffe launched a needlepoint project, inviting anyone across the country to needlepoint an image of their favourite thing, no bigger than six inches square. Over 2,600 entries were sent in, forming the ‘Pebble Mill at One’ Heritage Tapestry, which was displayed at Chatsworth House then Harewood House. In the same year, the British Crafts Council invited Kaffe to present a BBC daytime television series interviewing leading UK crafts people.

Kaffe has inspired thousands of traditional one-colour knitters to employ rich palettes of colour through his six-part television series, ‘Glorious Colour’ for Channel 4. The series was aired in 1986, repeated three times and then released as a two-part video. It has been shown in various countries including Japan and Canada. In 1998, Kaffe released ‘Kaffe’s Colour Quest’, a video looking at colour and design inspiration through his world-wide travels. In February 1999, Kaffe presented a six-part series for Radio 4 called ‘A Stitch in Time’.

In 1994, the international charity Oxfam asked Kaffe to work with poverty-stricken weaving villages in India and Guatemala, to advise on designs that would be more marketable in the West. As a result, a range of colourful hand woven fabrics is being produced for use as shirt fabric, bed throws and patchwork fabric, available on an international basis through Rowan UK and Westminster Fibers, USA. Other charity work has also taken him to South Africa.

From 2009, Kaffe has been a Patron of Fine Cell Work’s ‘A Gift of Quilts’, charity project working with prisoners to create needlepoint and patchwork items sold internationally.

Kaffe is a Patron of the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles; a national membership organization formed in 1979 and made up of 7000 individual members mostly in the UK, to bring together quilters, promote the heritage of quilting and work to ensure a vibrant future for the craft. He is also a Patron of the UK Knitting & Crochet Guild and the Heritage Crafts Association.

In 2013, Kaffe was awarded the Turner Medal. This is awarded by the Colour Group (Great Britain) to a distinguished artist or art historian, honouring Britain’s greatest colourists.

In 2015 Kaffe became a Patron of the Shetland Peerie Makkers, set up with Brough Lodge Trust, to teach hand-knitting to Shetland youngsters, to nurture Shetland’s wonderful culture of hand-knitting for future generations.

His Autobiography ‘Dreaming in Color’ was published in September 2012 and has proved to be extremely popular and sold worldwide.

Kaffe gives slide talks and workshops on Colour in design, which take him all over the world each year, allowing him to see how people use his fabrics and pick up inspiration. He teaches individuals all over the world to learn to work with colour in an instinctive way. Kaffe’s unique sense of colour, drive to create, and his desire to encourage others, has led to his reputation as a guru in the world of colour and textiles.