Visit the >> Special and Intense Study Workshops << web site for more information and how to register for this 3-day class.

Spend three days learning ribbonwork basics and so much more! On the first day you’ll coax your ribbon into a bounty of beautiful buds and blooms, with ruffled edges and pleated petals accented by gracefully dancing leaves. Then we’ll open up a whole new realm of exploration for your ribbonwork bouquets with the introduction of luscious and luxurious fabrics. Finally, we’ll enhance your flower repertoire with a compliment of strip trimmings and edgings, with all their complex gathers, pleats and folds. We’ll discuss the steps to miniaturization and application of these fancy touches on your crazy quilts. A complete materials list will be sent to all registrants at a later date.

Visit the >> An Adventure in Crazy Quilting << web site for more information and how to register forDuring this three-day event in 2011, you will participate in a one-day class with each teacher. this exciting event.

During this three-day event in 2011, you will participate in a one-day class with each teacher.

A Day Building Stitches with Sharon Boggon

This 1 day workshop is aimed at crazy quilters who are interested in developing seam embellishments that add variety interest and personality to their blocks. Understanding both the construction and design of stitches allows students to develop their own language of thread. Stitches can be created in all shapes, sizes and textures. Different stitches have a different visual role to play in any project and as a result have different design implications when applied on a block. Composite stitches are each in their own right, composed of small design elements, and this class aims to explore, in a hands on manner, the implications of this for crazy quilting.

Velvet - Taming the Beast with Betty Pillsbury

Velvet adds richness, luxury, texture and depth to your fiber art.  Velvet recalls the opulence of Victorian crazy quilts.  However, velvet can be a difficult fabric to handle - unless you have Betty Pillsbury to share her tips and techniques with you.  In this class, you will fashion roses from satin and stitch them to velvet.  Leaves stitched in silk chenille will add dimension and fascination, as they did in antique crazy quilts.  You will also stitch silk ribbon daisies and forget-me-nots to create a beautiful floral arrangement stitched on velvet.  Then, you will paint a bouquet of forget-me-nots on velveteen with a technique that is too simple to believe!  Betty will discuss other tricks and techniques to working with this most beautiful fabric.  Set your work above the average and learn to love working with velvet.

Frame it With Flowers with Allison Aller

Many different materials and techniques for creating textile flowers are covered in this class.  The combination of silk ribbon, Broderie Perse, embroidery, Angelina, gathered lace, and millinery flowers creates contrast, interest, and richness in your textile floral arrangement.  We will discuss filler "foliage" and sneak a few beads in there, too! Eight flowers will be presented, as one by one we stitch them into a small wreath on a background fabric brought by you to class.  Hand-outs will have all the information covered for reference, so you'll be able to complete your frame on your own. Suggestions for finishing your frame in order to accommodate a central image will be covered, as well as a simple mounting suggestion. I will bring several examples of my own floral framed pieces to illustrate the possibilities of this approach. Let's grow beautiful things together!

Visit the >> Special and Intense Study Workshops << web site for more information and how to register for this 3-day class.

This 3 day workshop will give students the opportunity to develop design skills associated with crazy quilting while hand embellishing a crazy quilt block or blocks. This workshop applies the underlying design skills in a hands on manner at all stages of block embellishment. To balance all the elements of crazy quilting hand embroidery, lace, ribbon, braids, beading and all the different embellishing techniques creators need to solve a good number of design problems and understand the basics of composition and deal with color issues. Students will be taught methods of doing this. Color choice, block construction, and developing hand embroidered seam treatments are covered extensively. Developing combination stitches to add variety and consolidate composition are explored. Motif selection, size, scale, balance and placement are discussed and explored by students. Building up visual texture by working with lace, ribbons and braids are explored in depth. Working with buttons and beads and dealing with the implications of highly textured areas in the composition is also taught. Although design plays a part throughout the whole process of embellishing a block a practical hands approach is taken teaching different types of embellishment techniques and methods. A creative problem solving session at the end of the workshop invites students to bring along their problem blocks. I facilitate a class discussion on how design principles may breathe new life into the block and which element of design might have avoided the problem. This class exercise also acts to consolidate what has been learnt during the workshop. To take full advantage of this class students are expected to have a basic familiarity with running stitch, buttonhole stitch, herringbone, Creten stitch, chevron stitch, and chain stitch. Providing beginners can meet these requirements they are more than welcome and actively encouraged to join. There will be no class packs with this class as students are expected to draw from their own stash. Students are also expected to bring some stash items that can be shared in class with other students as part of a color theory exercise.