Introducing: Kiki’s Quilty Pleasures
Logo Design by Sophia Khan
Quilting is my guilty pleasure, what’s yours?
2020 was a year unlike any other, but I’ll always remember it as the year I decided to create Kiki’s Quilty Pleasures. I had never made a quilt before, and didn’t grow up with it in my family history. My earliest memories are of growing up sewing with my grandmother, who taught me how to make garments by creating all of my halloween costumes. She wasn’t a quilter either - but at 75 she decided to learn, and then made several in quick succession. Watching her pick up a quilting as a new hobby made me appreciate it all the more, and I decided to give it a go myself.
I designed the Hexie Cloud Baby quilt for a dear friend’s first baby, and in cutting each repetitive hexie and painstakingly stitching them together, I too found a new hobby. Learning to quilt was much like learning how to sew for the first time; quilting has an entirely different set of rules than garment construction. Upon making this first quilt I knew I had just discovered the beginning of something new for me. Within the quilting world, there was the opportunity to work with sustainable practices, create one of a kind, artisanal garments, and learn a new craft. It was exactly the kind of creative practice I had been looking for. Working in the art and fashion industry for over a decade, and even working as an educator teaching fashion design had illuminated the need for radical change for how we produce, consume and maintain our wearables.
Quilts and the practice of quilting are antithetical to the the entire fashion industry. It takes months or years to produce even one, and the lifespan of a quilt rivals that of humans in terms of longevity; with mending they are entirely immortal, transcending generations and becoming more valuable with each passing decade. I have always been a fan of the ‘make do’ mindset, and this is no better represented than in the feed sack fabrics that make up the quilts so dear to me. Slowly, my dream of designing quilts became bigger, and the idea of Kiki’s Quilty Pleasure’s was conceived. Kiki’s Quilty Pleasures could become an entire creative practice where I could explore and research the history of quilts and their makers by building a collection of historical textiles, but also preserve textiles by transforming them into quilt coats and housewares, while still designing and creating my own quilt patterns.
Kiki’s Quilty Pleasures is one of my proudest achievements and guiltiest pleasures, and I designed it to be that way. From scratch, it is the first business and creative practice I have created where I am able to connect with so many other makers over a shared interest - our guilty pleasure is quilting. It is my answer to fast fashion and consumerism: a practice that embraces slow processes and technique above all. Beyond that, I get to create the kind of garments and goods I want to see in the world - meaningful, purposeful, sustainable, and one of a kind - that are valuable and appreciated by wearers and owners alike.