Block Party Quilters

Quilters are always seeking new ways to express their creativity. This lecture taps into the strong emerging trend toward embellishment of quilt surfaces. Paint, foil, paint sticks, thread, crayons, buttons, ribbons and beads are all readily available, fun, easy and non-messy ways to add that final design element to traditional and non-traditional quilts. Lecture; Trunk show.

Deborah shares her most recent art quilts and talks about developing her own personal style. Tons of examples of her favorite techniques, materials and themes. She’ll tell stories about exciting collaborations, surprising discoveries and finding inspiration in unexpected places.

This lecture challenges quilters to think about using couching on traditional bed and lap quilts, not just on art quilts!  With lots of examples, I will show how I enhanced and even ‘fixed’ a variety of quilts by using couching.  I’ll talk about how to consider using couching throughout the design process in finishing a quilt.  I’ll discuss a variety of yarns and how/where/when I use them, and will show quilts couched with both walking foot and free motion techniques.  Using couching on bed and lap quilts is less common than with art quilts so this lecture will inspire you to think about how you can use couching as a key part of your traditional quilt design, quilting, and even your bindings.  There will be a power point presentation followed by a trunk show.

I am a workshop junkie.  I love to explore new ways to put fabric together to make a quilt. Just a few of those techniques include hand piecing and quilting, machine piecing and quilting, numerous applique techniques, paper piecing, quilting on vintage linens, and mixed media. In this trunk show chronicling my 30 years of quilting, I share 45 quilts that demonstrate these techniques and more.  Some are small and some large, a few simple and some complex, some winners, some not, but all made with enthusiasm as I went head first into different ways to use fabric, paint, thread, beads and my love of quilting

Some twenty plus years ago I picked up a little wooden hoop and a piece of stabilizer and that moment sent me on a totally unexpected, yet enjoyable, journey into the world of thread painting. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a little thread and stabilizer could produce such fun and creative designs. While Thread painting can look complicated, it is actually quite easy. With 20 years of making thread painted quilts and teaching to anyone that will listen, there is a story to tell. As an international thread painting quilt teacher, I have taught thousands of students. The lecture will demonstrate my thread painting techniques, some fun and humorous stories and lastly a virtual trunk slide show of quilts from my first thread painted quilt to my latest competitive quilt.

This presentation covers the process of creating effective landscape quilts. The digital portion of the program presents images of landscapes with interesting natural features and examples of how those effects can be achieved in fabric. The lecture includes a trunk show of a variety of my landscape quilts.

Sharing tips has always been a hallmark of our quilting community. Kathy shares tips on design, construction and quilting from her 20 years of award-winning work. This lecture is fun, educational, and has real scientific studies supporting the benefits of a creative quilting life. Quilting is good for you! Come learn how creativity in you work affects your joy in life.

"When we are most playful.... we find our artistic voices".

Whether you’re new to machine quilting on your domestic machine, or you’ve been doing it for years, you’re sure to learn some new tricks to make your quilting time more enjoyable, comfortable, and successful!

Cindy’s PowerPoint lecture lists more than 20 tips and tricks, and she has lots of photos to demonstrate her points. This is a very popular lecture that you won’t want to miss.