What a fantastic response we had to the virtual visit from Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession in Sydney. Her presentation was from her studio and we felt right at home, particularly when she turned the camera to her design wall to explain her design process.
Kathy is known for her love of bright colours and large prints. This caused quite a stir when she first opened the shop. As a self taught quilter she was not into following others, instead she created what she liked herself.
Kathy’s fabric choices, which have flowed into her own fabric collections, are a mix of traditional and contemporary fabrics, larges prints, spots and stripes and directional prints which are great for large borders.
Her first appliqué quilt is composed of very simple shapes and is of the view from her window.
A design breakthrough came when Kathy met Kaffe Fassett and was taught to look at value rather than colour.
As well as the shop Kathy has written a number of books, first with Sarah Fielke and then on her own. In Making Quilts the simple patterns focus on fabric selection, the importance of the background and making the most of what you have.
Wedge Quilt 
Soul Searching
According to Kathy inspiration can come from anywhere including fabric and pattern. The Turkish Quilt has large areas to showcase fabric. The flying geese and the blocks are deliberately not perfectly formed.
The next one she showed was inspired by the Gees Bend quilts and uses the scraps that were under the cutting table. The black and white are important as they tie it all together “…otherwise it would be moosh”.
Finally Kathy showed was an example of just how far you can push the fabric. It utilises fussy cutting and finding shapes within large print fabrics.
Over her career Kathy has been influenced by many quilt designers and in the process has created her own distinctive look.
The seventy six member and visitors who attended the August virtual meeting left totally inspired and quite exhausted, thrilled with the opportunity to experience such an enthusiastic speaker.
