Walking into the exhibition hall at the American Museum in Britain there is so much colour leaping off the walls that it’s almost disorientating.

This year the gallery, which sits alongside the magnificent 19th century manor at Claverton Down near Bath which houses collections of American memorabilia and folk art, has a 50th anniversary exhibition on the life and work of artist and designer Kaffe Fassett, perhaps best known as a creator of glorious knitwear and needlepoint cushion covers.

Kaffe visited the museum when living in Bath at the start of his career in the 1960s, and was inspired by its many diverse collections, especially the superb room full of examples of American quilting, an art form once regarded as folky and obscure but now almost mainstream.

Nearly all the objects on view are from his personal collection, and they cover all the art forms he has excelled at: cushion covers, shawls, knitted jackets, quilts, chair seats, rugs, wallpaper, paintings, sketches and throws vie for the attention. My personal favourite was the Persian Blue quilt, shades of vibrant blue having long been my favourite colour, while my daughters liked the rather more classic Bordered Diamonds quilt, and the Tumbling Fan hanging, though it turned out one had chosen this because to her it featured a repeating pattern of foxes’ faces – proof that art is really in the eye of the beholder.

Quotes from Kaffe give an insight into his thought processes: ‘Having been a painter for years I can tell you that needlework is a much more enjoyable way of working with colour than painting’ and ‘Every good bit of decoration is like a piece of music. It has an emotional impact..’ struck chords with my artistic child.

The exhibition hall also has New World Old World historic maps, which we found equally interesting and very informative: apparently America is named after 15th century Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who was wrongly credited with discovering ‘a fourth part of the globe’? We loved the wonderful Portulan charts, first drawn in the 13th century by those creative Italians, which show everything from the viewpoint of the sailor. As everyone then knew the world was flat, some of the illustrations are upside down, as if seen from one fixed point.

We went on to compare Kaffe’s modern work with the textiles in the main museum, wandered in the glorious grounds admiring the yarn-bombing with which they are partly decorated, presumably in Kaffe’s honour, and lunched in the cafe.

Admission to the museum includes entrance to the Kaffe Fassett exhibition: there is more than enough here to interest, entertain and amuse an entire family for the day. Full details of opening times/prices at www.americanmuseum.org