Scrap Management Worksop

This workshop will cover sorting, storing and using your scraps. It is based on the information provided in Sunday Morning Quilts, my book co-written with Amanda Jean Nyberg. Participants leave the workshop with sorted scraps, concrete ideas for storing those scraps when they return home, including a scrap storage box, and a completed quilt top.

Each participant will get to pick one quilt in Sunday Morning Quilts to construct from their scraps, but it will be personalized for their scraps, their style. I can also work with participants on their own scrappy design.

The goal is to get quilters to organize and see their scraps as an inspiring sight, not a burden or a mess.

If we tackle the scraps right away then 1) there won’t be as many scraps to take home and 2) each participant gets a completed quilt top.

Options: 3 and 5 days

Slab Workshop

This is a focused workshop on the Slab Technique from Sunday Morning Quilts, my book co-authored with Amanda Jean Nyberg. Slabs are what refer to as the “fabric” made from joining scraps together. It is an improvisational piecing technique that results in unique slabs of fabric that can be used in many ways. The class includes detailed instruction on making a slab. Students will then work to make additional slabs, practicing the technique and assembling a quilt top.

Options: 3 hour (technique only) 1 day (blocks only) 2 day (quilt top)

Sunday Morning Quilts

Any of the projects featured in the book Sunday Morning Quilts can be taught as a class. We will go through scrap sorting and selection to construction.

 Options: 3 hour Scrap Storage Box Workshop, 1 day (finished quilt top will depend on speed of student) or 2 day

Fabric Selection Workshop

Are you stuck in a rut, always choosing the same colours for your quilts, or feel paralyzed when it comes to making fabric choices for your quilts? In this workshop we will explore various aspects that impact our fabric choices, for better or worse.  This includes:

Colour  Value    Scale    Texture    Saturation    Volume 

Each of these themes is explored with samples, selections, and sewing exercises.

*Best run within a fabric store

Options: 3 hours (no sewing) or 2 days (with sewing)

Values Quilts

Value is what our eye reads as light or dark, and medium. You can do this with a camera, or you can play with fabric. Now which of those is more fun?

This class focuses on determining value, regardless of colour, in a pile of fabric. To carry out the exercise we make a series of half square triangle blocks. By playing with layouts and design the values lesson hits home. At the end of the day you will have enough blocks for a small quilt top (pillow to crib-sized) ready for play.

Students will also get a lesson in easy half square triangle construction. 

Options: 3 hours (discussion and blocks) or 1 day (quilt top)

Improvisational Piecing

Does working without a pattern feel like walking a tight rope without a safety net? This class will ease you in to improvisational quilting. Improvisational quilting is about technique and process, rather than a pattern. You start with some fabric, attack it with your rotary cutter and maybe an idea of what you want to do with it, then finish with a bold design. Your final product will look anything but simple, but is very easy to create.

We’ll begin with some favourite fabrics, then work through a handful of different improvisational methods.  We will also discuss where one can take these techniques and subsequent designs.

Learning the techniques of improv will help you create your own designs and adapt patterns when you need to change the size or run out of fabric. It is about embracing the spirit of improv more than some crazy piecing.

Options: 1, 2, or 3 days (techniques versus a finished quilt top). More intensive 5 day workshop also available.

Alternatively, many of the techniques taught in this workshop can be taught in 3 hour classes. Can be done individually or in a series. Each class covers a technique, including:     

Chopsticks   Wonky Log Cabins   Improv Letters   Improv Circles   Stars and Corners   Waves   Strips and Strings

Perfect Circles

Add a new dimension to your quilts with circles.  Appliqued or inset, full, half, or quarter circles.  Circles are a great way to showcase favourite fabrics or add movement to your quilts.

This class covers a number of different ways to add circles to your quilts.  This includes techniques for making circles and different ways to appliqué your circle . We also tackle the inset circle, in the quarter, half, and full varieties.  This is a hands-on class. Students can try the different methods to determine which one works best for them.

Blocks from the class can be considered the start of a fabulous quilt or be put together for a graphic pillow.

Option: 1 day or 3 hours (only covering inset or appliqué, but not both)