buttons

Secrets of the Stars Learn Lynda's clever and easy Star Codes for making and combining an infinite array of star blocks of any desired sizes without! drafting patterns or cutting templates. Also learn Lynda's Four-Part Symmetry method to create kaleidoscopic designs using mirrors to discover hidden designs in your fabrics. You will use these techniques for years to come to create your own original quilts and wearables. See Lynda's article in Quilters Newsletter Magazine issue # 375 September 2005.
Patterned Patchwork: Tricks with Strips and Stripes Not just another strip piecing class. Cut, sew, cut again, sew again. Develop a magician's bag of tricks and techniques using strip and modified Seminole piecing to easily create complex looking patchwork patterns for quilts and wearables. Learn how to use stripes to add energy to your patterns and how to get perfect chevron points every time. Using coordinated fabrics, you will make a variety of blocks and bands which can then be combined into a quilt or garment of your own unique design. Basic design and construction techniques will be discussed.
Improvisational Patchwork Are you ready to break loose from structure and traditional patterns but don't quite know how to take the leap? Or are you a new quilter who wants to jump right into art quilting and original design? Then come and learn Lynda's easy and very fun Contemporary Crazy Patchwork technique from her ever popular "Seven Ways to Go Crazy." Then make a set of these freeform blocks (of various shapes and sizes) and learn how to put them all together into a fantastic art quilt or wearable. This class is fun! and easy for all levels of quilters: beginners especially welcome.
Seven Ways to Go Crazy This workshop in contemporary design (NOT traditional Victorian style) presents several techniques for creating crazy, random, and freeform patchwork, including Contemporary Crazy, Japanese, Crazy Cabins, FreeForm Stars, Random Geometric, Slice and Dice, and more. Use these techniques as stepping stones for creating original quilts and wearables. This class is a lot of FUN! and very liberating, suitable for all levels of quilters, including beginners. See Quilters Newsletter Magazine issue# 330, March 2001 for FreeForm Stars.
FreeForm Stars If you love stars, but don't like precise measuring, cutting, and piecing, then you will love this easy and creative technique for making freeform stars. If you also like crazy patchwork, improvisation, and contemporary design, then you will love playing with the endless possibilities and creating your own unique variations. This technique is featured in the March 2001 issue #330 of Quilters Newsletter Magazine and has made the list of the "most popular" classes at International Quilt Festival in Houston.
Crazy Nines Take nine squares of nine different fabrics, slice, rearrange, and sew to create a nine block quilt composed of nine irregular nine-patch blocks, each containing all nine starting fabrics. Blocks can be any size. Make a wall hanging or a bed size quilt. Precision is not required. This class is fun and easy.
Contemporary Machine Embellished Patchwork Learn contemporary machine-based methods of creating Crazy Patchwork using combinations of rich fabrics like silk, taffeta, linen, rayon and optional photo transfers. Then embellish by machine with decorative stitching, bobbin drawing, couching, and embroidery. Add optional beads and buttons to create a rich and beautiful surface. Make 2 twelve inch squares in class with the option of making a fantastic bag or luscious couch pillows at home.
Creative Machine Stitchery and Embellishment Learn to use the full potential of your sewing machine, from simple straight stitch to computerized embroidery, for creative embellishment of contemporary quilts and art wearables. Learn free-motion stitching and embroidery, thread painting, bobbin work, altering and combining decorative stitches, machine couching, and twin-needle stitching. Understand adjusting machine tensions. This class will expand your technical confidence and repertoire.
Fabric and Stitch Collage Sewing gets totally liberated as fabric, thread, and stitch become elements of form, color, and line while you learn the principles of improvisational and abstract design along with techniques such as direct appliqué, trapped treasures, machine couching, sheer layering, and free-motion stitching. This is a creative play day that will set you free with new inspiration and confidence.
Fabric Beads Make your own unique and original mix or match bead embellishments for all your fabric arts such as art quilts, fabric journals, art wearables, jewelry, collage, etc. Use your leftovers and scraps, even teeny bits; combine with decorative threads and glass beads. Make them large; make them small. Get your fingers wet and messy, and have a creative frenzy good time!
Machine Appliqué More Ways Than One Learn the basics of beautiful satin stitch machine appliqué. Conquer corners, points, and curves. Understand how and why to adjust your machine tensions. Practice your new skills on a floral design. Then learn many innovative techniques for machine appliqué, beyond basic satin stitch, including non-fused methods, stitch-cut-stitch, direct appliqué, reverse appliqué, couching, use of buttonhole and other decorative stitches, working with sheer fabrics, and trapped treasures.
Art to Wear: The Mother Jacket Start with a "mother" fabric (multi-colored print), and "children" (coordinated fabrics), learen a medley of patchwork, appliqué, fabric manipulation, and creative stitchery techniques, and then design and construct your own unique wearable art garment. Make it elegant or make it outrageous - whatever your personal style. You will make various sample units which you will then combine and embellish to make your jacket. Basic design and construction techniques will be discussed. You will leave with a million ideas and the beginning of a great garment. Suitable for all levels of quilters.
Machine Embellished Treasure Bag Create a richly encrusted treasure bag while learning creative use of decorative stitches and couching. Add beautiful beads by hand as the finishing touch. Kit fee provides color-match assortment of fabric, decorative threads, various yarns, fibers, ribbons, and beads. Published in Bernina magazine: Through the Needle issue #13.
Lectures Improvisation in Life and Art This slide lecture presents an overview of the evolution of improvisational patchwork from 17th century Japan, through the Victorian Crazy Quilt Era, to Afro-American Quiltmaking, to the Contemporary Art Quilt Movement. Inspirational examples of random patterns found in nature, architecture, and other art forms will be shown. Various techniques for spontaneous design development will be presented, and the role of intuition and improvisation in life and art will be discussed.
What Makes I Art and Does IT Have to Be Wearable? The contemporary Wearable Art Movement is considered from a historical and multi-cultural perspective of the role of clothing, costume, and ornamentation in social and religious custom and ceremony. The lecture concludes with examples of non-wearable art based on clothing as a metaphor.