Staying Connected #44

Lots of red in this post! Plus, an item about the recent Walking Foot Quilting Workshop.

From Genevieve … “Roger’s Cars,” all done.

Beautiful Bargello – A Fall Workshop

Thanks to Moira for these super photos from the Bargello Workshop in October presented by our talented member Pat. Inspiring!

“The Bargello Workshop was a lot of fun and the day just flew by.” – Moira

workshop

Paul Krampitz – Working with Wedges

Paul Krampitz’s Working with Wedges Workshop was well attended, with members enthusiastic about learning something new and sharing the process with quilting friends.

Armed with our wedge templates, we learned how to cut our fabric into angled pieces and sew them together to create interesting effects. We started with the basics, creating our own block. Later, Paul showed us some variations such as angle cutting striped fabric and using pieced strips in our blocks.

Continue reading “Paul Krampitz – Working with Wedges” →

Wonky Tree Workshop – Paper Foundation Piecing with Carol Piercy

On October 12 twenty-four guild members participated in a workshop presented by local quilting teacher, Carol Piercy. We got busy with pencils and paper and learned how to make our own paper foundation pattern for a “wonky” tree, which would be the centre design of a small wallhanging. The project was a nice manageable size, with lots of scope for interesting borders, bindings, and embellishments, and suitable for a Christmas or other seasonal theme.

It was a fun day, with members supporting each other through the ups and downs of making our first blocks, and Carol near at hand patiently demonstrating the technique and providing encouragement when the seam rippers came out.

As always, the array of fabrics and colours decorating our work areas was a delight, as was sharing the day with others who love to sew. Thanks, Carol, for an enjoyable workshop.

Carol’s tree

Glenna’s tree

Sonia

Carol’s quilt

Carol Piercy Wonky Tree Workshop

Donna's tree — Donna’s tree, from a previous Carol Piercy workshop

Marianne Haak Workshop – Playing with Colour & Technique

Marianne Haak led her Colour Shot Quilt-As You-Go Workshop for our guild in September. Over two days, we learned the construction secrets behind her Colour Shot quilt. She taught us several techniques for making the blocks. The blocks are sandwiched and quilted individually, and we learned how to join them together afterwards.

It was great fun building our blocks in a more free-wheeling way. The smaller, block-sized quilt sandwiches were so much easier to turn and manoeuvre through our sewing machines, giving us lots of opportunity to play with our machine quilting designs.

Marianne inspired us to explore new ways of making quilts. She encouraged us to to let our quilts evolve as we make them, to enjoy the creative process, and to embrace the mystery of what they will look like when we make that final stitch.

Many thanks to our hard-working Program Committee for orchestrating this enjoyable workshop with such a talented quilter.

Marianne has a blog packed with photos, information and tutorials. You can find it here.

Marianne Haak Colourshot Workshop

Karen Johnson Workshop

Karen Johnson is a textile artist and an instructor with the Fibre Art Network. She taught a workshop for the guild on April 13 called “Textured Backgrounds” where we learned several methods for creating interesting visually textured backgrounds for art quilts.

These backgrounds are made from two or more fabrics. They can be woven, assembled with snippets of fabric, or pieced together in various ways. The backgrounds complement surface designs created with such things as applique, thread couching, embroidery, stamping, fabric paint, machine quilting, and other embellishments.

She sometimes quilts the background before using it in a quilt. She puts backgrounds she has made onto her design wall, where they serve as inspiration for future projects.

As Karen told us, ideas for creating a textured background for your quilt are limitless, and by making your own “background fabric,” your quilt will really be one of a kind.

It was a stimulating and enjoyable workshop, full of new ideas, resources, and tips for learning about construction, colour and design. Karen brought lots of her own wonderful quilts to illustrate some of the many techniques and materials she uses as a quilt artist.

Karen mentioned the following quilters in her presentation:

Gloria Loughman – contemporary quilter, teacher and author, Australia
Judy Villett – textile artist, B.C.
Jan Krentz – quilt designer and teacher, California

Here are some photos of the day, with thanks to Sonia for some of the pictures. Click on any photo to enlarge and view in a gallery.

Karen Johnson

Karen’s scraps

Karen

curved log cabin

cutting for curved piecing

stitching curves

Glennis and Sonia

Judy and Glennis

Ilse’s snippets background

Marilyn’s woven background

Sonia’s woven background

Maureen’s woven background

Here are some of Karen’s quilts, which illustrate her ability to create magic with fabric and embellishment. Click on any photo to enlarge and view in a gallery.

Still Life Bouquet – woven background

Detail – Still Life Bouquet

Fall #1 – curved log cabin background

Emil’s Fig Leaves – woven background

Red Crow – collaged background

Earth Goddess – curved piecing background

Detail – Earth Goddess

Birdhouses – collaged background

Detail – Birdhouses

All Things Indigo with Anita Jamieson

At our January meeting, Anita Jamieson took us into the world of Japanese textiles with her presentation “All Things Indigo and a Japanese Angle on Quilting.” Anita is a member of the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild.

In 2014 she attended a workshop in Japan given by Bryan Whitehead, a transplanted Canadian who lives in an artists’ community in the mountains just outside Tokyo. It turned out to be a very enjoyable and memorable time.

Workshop participants from all over the world stayed in Bryan’s 150 year old silk farming house where they learned about breeding silkworms, growing and harvesting indigo plants, and dyeing silks and cottons with techniques such as katazome (resist paste and stencils) and shibori (pleating and binding fabric in various ways).

Anita talked enthusiastically about the many things she learned at the workshop, and told us about enjoying other experiences such as lovely country walks and visits to a public bath, a glass blower, a potter, an antique fabric store, and a folk art museum.

Highlights for Anita were sharing the workshop experience with women from around the world and seeing firsthand Bryan’s kimono business. Did you know that one kimono requires 18 metres of cotton?!

Her photographs and stories left us with images of kimono fabric hanging from rafters, vats of rich blue indigo dye, and unique and beautiful fabric.

A Japanese textile

Anita’s quilt

Detail – Anita’s quilt

Anita’s runner

Anita and Anne

a gift of Sashiko stitching

For more about the world of Bryan Whitehead in Japan written by another visitor, click here.

Krista Hennebury Workshop – A Recipe for Modern

Choose your colour ingredients. Use a few traditional techniques. Add lots of innovative cutting and improvised piecing. Spice it up with your own creativity, and you have a recipe for a modern quilt.

Krista’s workshop, “Improv Under the Influence,” was a lot of fun. We learned how to make a quilt that Krista designed and called “Temperature Check.” Continue reading “Krista Hennebury Workshop – A Recipe for Modern” →

Lorna Moffat Workshop – Silk Unraveled

Marilyn C

On April 23rd several of our members attended our “Silk Unraveled” workshop with Lorna Moffat. Lorna shared some of her favourite techniques for building a background or for embellishment.

We were encouraged to layer threads and bits of fabrics onto a larger pieces of fabric. We were encouraged to let go and play! Many of us were drawn to the limits of our comfort zones but we all had fun.

Lorna Moffat Workshop

Tere and Pam, Lorna Moffat Workshop

Lorna Moffat Workshop

Lorna is the author of the book “Silk Unravelled” in which there are many examples of these techniques.

Thank you Lorna, it was fun, informative, and expanding!

From Anne W about this workshop …

“This was a very creative workshop where Lorna presented us with a lot of food for thought. We had to try to think outside of the box while learning to layer fabric upon fabric upon fabric, as well as layering these with embellishments, like threads, yarns, small fabric pieces etc. We all had wonderful fun, felt quite challenged, and found Lorna to be a very fun, talented, and inspiring teacher. The day simply flew by.”

Anne’s photos from this workshop …

Circle Play Workshop

For two days in January fourteen of our members participated in a workshop with Lorna Shapiro and played with colour, shading, and circles.

On the first day backgrounds were designed with either rectangles or half square triangles. Those working with rectangles brought rectangles from 12 fabrics in colour runs from light to dark. Those working with HST’s brought two main colour runs and one accent colour run, light to dark.

It was good to be able to take home the background and play with the pieces a bit more for the two weeks until the second day. Lorna demonstrated setting in the quarter and whole circles on the first day and we finalized the placement and set in our circles on the second day.

Here are a few pictures from the second day. These show mostly the triangle option.