QuiltWorks Today Magazine

Driving out of New York City, Liza Prior Lucy was entering the Lincoln Tunnel when she braked to a screeching halt. After 15 minutes in standstill traffic, her impatience flared: “The only thing I could see were the glaring red taillights of the truck in front of me!”, but she found her passenger’s reaction far more memorable. Completely relaxed, Kaffe Fassett was gazing at a tattered old poster. He recalls, “Its multilayers of peeling paint mesmerized me. They formed an intricate pattern that looked like a single encrusted texture that was beautiful”.

This incident, the first of many lessons in observation that Kaffe would give Liza, occurred in 1985 when they were barely acquainted. “He always has his eyes open to the world around him”, she declares. The learning has been reciprocal because Kaffe describes Liza as a great teacher who has taught him how to teach. Now that they work together, Kaffe’s expertise in design is combined with Liza’s outstanding quilting and teaching skills. By recognizing their distinct talents and backgrounds, one can more fully appreciate the brilliance of their collaborative work.

Driving out of New York City, Liza Prior Lucy was entering the Lincoln Tunnel when she braked to a screeching halt.

After 15 minutes in standstill traffic, her impatience flared: “The only thing I could see were the glaring red taillights of the truck in front of me!”, but she found her passenger’s reaction far more memorable. Completely relaxed, Kaffe Fassett was gazing at a tattered old poster. He recalls, “Its multilayers of peeling paint mesmerized me. They formed an intricate pattern that looked like a single encrusted texture that was beautiful”.

This incident, the first of many lessons in observation that Kaffe would give Liza, occurred in 1985 when they were barely acquainted. “He always has his eyes open to the world around him”, she declares. The learning has been reciprocal because Kaffe describes Liza as a great teacher who has taught him how to teach. Now that they work together, Kaffe’s expertise in design is combined with Liza’s outstanding quilting and teaching skills. By recognizing their distinct talents and backgrounds, one can more fully appreciate the brilliance of their collaborative work.

Liza Prior Lucy

Raised in rural Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Liza remembers being brought up in a home filled with art and frequented by artists. This is why Liza persisted in incorporating her love of the arts into other endeavours.

Instead of finishing her studies to be a clinical psychologist, she opened her own knitting and needlepoint boutique in Washington, D.C. Liza’s warmth and enthusiasm helped make her business a rapid success. First Lady Nancy Reagan commissioned Liza’s shop to make a needlepoint seat for a child’s Chippendale chair as a gift to Prince William upon his birth.

Actress Jane Seymour and journalists Sally Quinn and Jacqueline Adams were loyal customers. But when Liza’s husband George died suddenly, her peaceful world was jolted. She gradually lost interest in the day-to-day concerns of running the shop and decided to permanently close its doors.

Seeking to start her life anew, Liza became a traveling sales representative for several manufacturers of yarn and wool. Three years later, she first encountered the work of Kaffe Fassett while browsing through a bookstore. His book “Glorious Knitting” fascinated her so much that she purchased all six copies for gifts. The next day Rowan Yarns offered Liza the position as their United States sales rep. Coincidentally, Kaffe was the primary knitting designer for this English company.

Meanwhile, Liza grew closer to and eventually married her late husband’s best friend, Drew Lucy. The couple bought a house outside New Hope, Pennsylvania, a quaint historic village that used to be an artists’ colony but is now a bustling tourist town. There, Drew and Liza have been raising their daughters Alexandra and Elizabeth, ages 9 and 13. Like their mom, these girls know what it is to be raised in a home filled with art and frequented by artists. One of their regular guests is Kaffe Fassett who, with Liza’s help, turns their dining room into a design studio for several weeks a year.

Kaffe Fassett

When Liza and Kaffe started making quilts together, Kaffe’s art had already earned acclaim in Europe. In 1989, his retrospective at The Victoria & Albert Museum in London not only made him the first living textile artist ever to have a solo show there but also drew record crowds.

Raised in California, Kaffe met many celebrities after his parents transformed a ramshackle house, formerly owned by Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles, into the restaurant Nepenthe. Kaffe began his eastward journey when he was awarded a full scholarship at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. Explaining why he dropped out after a year, he says, “I knew I could teach myself drawing and how to be observant. For the most part I’m self-taught but had a lot of good advisors”. In 1964, he traveled to England and immediately felt at home with its culture and humour. “In America, we save our applause for those who made it, but the English from the start were genuinely interested in my work”.

In 1993, Liza drew Kaffe into the quilting world by stitching several blocks with fabrics he designed so he could see how beautifully they lent themselves to the traditional American art form. These samples convinced him to combine his design skills with hers in quilting.

Working as a team has enabled Kaffe to design quilts, fabric, stage sets, and costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company, while staying engaged in making rag rugs, knitting, tapestries, and mosaics.

Today, Kaffe’s fabrics and quilts are world renowned. While working as a volunteer for OXFAM, a non-profit organization dedicated to offering famine relief in underdeveloped countries, Kaffe has helped once-impoverished Indian villagers thrive as they weave his fabric designs on their looms. His line of fabric made on shot cotton is known as the Kaffe Fassett Collection.

Their quilts

The collaboration between Kaffe and Liza clearly points to the benefits of teamwork. Liza feels, “we’ve learned to speak the same colour language, and I’ve got a pretty refined sense of Kaffe’s style, but I let him take the lead in terms of choosing the colours. My job is to focus on the practical aspects of quilt construction”. Describing a work session, Liza says, “He designs, I cut, he rearranges. When we both feel the quilt looks pleasing, we take notes and a photograph”.

After Kaffe returns to England, Liza has five to 10 quilts to sew over the next few months. Digital cameras and e-mail have made it easier for Kaffe to offer his input while Liza makes adjustments to the original design.

“I’m obsessive about my work and the quilts I love”, says Kaffe. “I take my cue from the Orient and other places that are passionate about pattern”. High contrast is an element that Kaffe feels makes a quilt “too easy to figure out”. Instead, he tends to limit his palette to one “kick colour” and the hues and variations of two or three colours. Quilts that have minimal contrast cause the viewer to focus less on the colour and more on the intricate and elaborate patterns.

As wild as Kaffe’s quilts can sometimes be, it is interesting to note he usually uses traditional blocks. The success of his work is in how he uses simple forms such as stripes and puts them together in exciting ways. “I’m into the play of pattern and, of course, colour” .

Their classes

A close look at most of his designs reveals that the piecing really isn’t complicated. “This is intentional”, he points out, “because I want others to see that it’s absolutely easy to do”. Designs a beginner can accomplish coupled with Liza’s exceptional teaching skills ensures their students’ success. “Liza is very precise in explaining techniques and shortcuts in clear ways”, he notes.

Kaffe encourages his students to work quickly and instinctively so they are less influenced by the logical theories of the colour wheel. “Kaffe thinks about colour harmonies in terms of colour vibrations”, notes Liza.

“It’s almost like he hears colours. That’s why we play music in our classes. While students hum along, they tend to work faster. I’m the one who coddles students who persist in holding onto old working habits”.

Although Kaffe definitely is a serious artist, he regards his creative endeavours as “playful as making a mud pie”. Kaffe says, “designing a quilt is as spontaneous as going to the market and deciding that eggplants and peppers look fabulous today, so let’s make ratatouille!” With Kaffe as the master chef selecting the perfect proportions of the finest ingredients, it’s bound to be a superb dish. And with Liza chopping and stirring, you can bet she’ll sneak in a few of her favourite spices while Kaffe pretends not to notice.

This article was written by Jack Braunstein and was reprinted with permission from QuiltWorks Today magazine