This is a compilation of QUILTNET postings about quilting teachers. All comments are the OPINIONS of the person who posted the message......................

Quilt Teachers FAQ

CHARLOTTE WARR ANDERSEN (UT): Applique

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Charlotte Warr Andersen -- I took her "Applique for Realism" class and was introduced to the world of portrait applique. She is a very good teacher and shared fabrics and technique ideas generously. SLC, UT

FAYE ANDERSON: Applique

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

+Faye Anderson: I've always loved her quilts, and I enjoyed the class. She showed a slightly different way to do applique, as in her book. Not overly dynamic but clearly showed the basics of applique.

CATHERINE ANTHONY: Fabric Selection, "Sampler Supreme"

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara Vlack

Catherine Anthony -- wonderful. Delightful lecturer with a darling sense of humor. Thorough teacher. Really knows what she is doing.

From: Susan
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1993 21:55:17

+Catherine Anthony was the Sunday evening speaker on June 19, 1993 at the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta. The topic was "Fabric" and she began by rearranging the furniture. She pulled the front row of chairs (which of course were empty) up close to the podium so that she could drape fabric over them as she showed them to us.
Catherine said that in quilting, the medium is fiber and we are artists. She said she would talk about getting the most out of fabric and how to cheat. "You are in charge, do what you want to do." "Don't worry about buying too much fabric, worry about having too little." Catherine also said that there are worse habits, after all, "buying fabric keeps you out of bars." As she started the slide show, Catherine stated that "muslin makes real good bandages."
Catherine doesn't buy much in the way of solid color fabrics. As she pointed out, the sky is not a solid blue. Her view is that fabrics with prints and textures should be used to create the image. She also mentioned that she has a master's degree in "trial and error."
Catherine showed a number of slides of Dresden Plate blocks in different fabric combinations (good/bad, balanced/unbalanced color distribution). She showed some where each wedge of the plate was cut from the same fabric. Depending on the design in the fabric and where the design is positioned on the wedges, very different designs come out. The result can look like a totally different fabric design and not look like a Dresden Plate at all. Catherine showed some Hawaiian print fabric and suggested different areas of the fabric could be used to make an interesting design.
In terms of "cheating", Catherine says to use the pattern in fabrics (stripes, curves, etc.) rather than piecing different fabrics together to create the design.
Catherine pointed out that when a quilt has a lot of white in it, that is what stands out. However, white used sparingly adds sparkle to a quilt.
Listening to Catherine Anthony and seeing her fabrics, many of which were rather bold prints, made for an enjoyable evening.

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1993 11:39:26
From: Michele

Catherine Anthony was a WONDERFUL teacher!!!!!! It was a two day class. She taught you how to make those "stunning" blocks (by using the border fabric or just repeats from normal fabric). She has many good ideas - a great personality - I thought her teaching methods were good too. She went over how to draft you own patterns, group patterns into categories (4 patch, 9 patch, etc. - it's not always what it looks like at first glance), plenty of little hints, colors, balance of color, etc. I'm not one to constantly insist on personal attention and in some classes, I feel like I didn't get any, but not hers. She would make sure she got around to everyone. I guess I really liked the class because she wasn't there to teach me how to cut and sew straight lines, but more to stretch my imagination on design and use of fabrics ("don't let fabric or it's manufacturer tell you what to do, make the fabric do what you want"). As far as she's concerned, if there's a rule in quilting, there will be quilters trying to break the rule so she doesn't beleive in them. I was really at the point in my quilting that made her class perfect timing - it was just what I was looking for and needed. I got a lot of intangibles out of her class. I would take another from her any day and recommend any one else to do the same. And no, the books weren't included in the class, but yes, she had them there to buy - I bought one and my grandma bought the other so we can share! I can't say enough good about her! :))))

ELINOR PEACE BAILEY: Dolls

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

+Elinor Peace Bailey--she teaches dolls and has a really unique style, another supportive, philosophical person, and her patterns are well-thought-out to make them easy to sew

FR: Michon
DT: December 6, 1993

Four stars **** for ELINOR PEACE BAILEY'S DOLL MAKING CLASS
Friday, 12/3/93 I took a dollmaking class with the fabulous ELINOR PEACE BAILEY at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, MD. Let me say off the bat, Elinor doesn't tolerate wining, frowns or defeats in her class. We were instructed to purchase one of her patterns and cut it out prior to class, then begin construction, starting with the head, right there in class. Elinor says she doesn't know how to sew doll clothes that's why you'll notice there's a lot of applique work involved in the dollmaking process. We used a satin stitch zig-zag to applique the clothes onto the body pieces or vice-versa (whatever the pattern calls for) right on top of the base pattern piece. It's as simple as that. You can sew more layers -- ribbons etc. -- if you like.
Most of the class including myself worked on the Baroque Angel, I guess since it's the Christmas season. G Street is an official Bernina dealer, and Elinor is a Bernina enthusiast. Those of us who didn't bring out own sewing machines were working on the 1230. If you have a Bernina, Elinor recommends buying a #6 presser foot. It can glide easily over layers of fabric for straight and zig-zag stitching. She also recommends buying a bow-whip set. It's a turning device that makes turning super easy. No more pins and aching fingers.
Elinor volunteered to paint one head per person starting with an ink outline, then filling in the eyes with Crayola crayons for background and more Crayola coloring for contour (cheeks, nose). She then uses fabric pens with brush tips and T-shirt paint to bring out the features, then finishes up with Drizzle paint -- it's a sparkling color paint that gives her dolls that special pizzaz.
Elinor Peace Bailey brought in two table tops of her own dolls -- no two were alike. It was a special treat to hold and study her handy work. She doesn't use glue for any detailing and trimming.
Elinor was always willing to lend a hand when we were in a pinch, but for the most part we worked independently. If a special technique was questioned, she'd ask the class to gather around and she would demonstrate from construction to painting. She strongly encouraged starting doll making clubs, gave us several publications to look up including CONTEMPORARY DOLLMAKING, THE DOLL JOURNAL (I think), DOLLY GRAM (Black dollmakers), and her own newsletter, THE SOCIETY OF PEOPLE WHO PLAY WITH DOLLS (uncertain of title). I'll send more information when I take a second look at my notes. Elinor is really high on getting more people of various ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds into dollmaking and networking as such.
If you're going to take one of her classes, be prepared to work independently, but don't be shy to ask her any question -- she's a great help and doesn't mind being interrupted; purchase your materials ahead of time -- even though Elinor was happy to help a few people shop in the fabric store before class -- you want to get as much accomplished as you can; have basic sewing skills (this isn't a course for beginners); don't be too hard on yourself -- Elinor said we go for our best effort and find satisfaction in discovery. She's very gregarious.
Hope this information is helpful to Quilt-Net people who are considering making cloth dolls. If you want to learn more about Elinor Peace Bailey and her dolls, you can purchase her book, MAMA LIKES TO PLAY WITH DOLLS. It includes her doll writing and a basic doll pattern that'll allow you to go for it!

JAN BENANDER (RI): "Crazy Quilt Vest"

From: Jane
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 09:20:25

I had a great time at a Crazy Quilt Vest workshop this weekend, and I thought that some of you might be interested in hearing about it.
I had never been very interested in Crazy Quilting, but my guild invited Jan Benander from Warwick, RI to speak at our October meeting. Jan is not the best speaker in the world, but when she started to show us some of her work and passed samples around, many of us started thinking about our scraps and how they could become Crazy Quilts. We arranged to have Jan return for an all-day Crazy Quilt Vest workshop, and it took place this past Saturday.
Some of us purchased kits from Jan, and some people brought their scrap stashes to construct their vests. You can use any simple vest pattern (no darts). You cut out two vest fronts from muslin, and piece the scraps onto the muslin. The construction is somewhat like a log cabin, except that there are all sorts of different angles, instead of right angles. Jan gave us two basic instructions - always go in one direction (if you start out clockwise, continue clockwise, so you don't end up stuck in a corner) and always sew each new patch all the way across the existing patches already on the muslin. I guess this is hard to describe without pictures! You start with a center piece, then put the next scrap upside down on top of it and stitch in a straight line. It's just like any other foundation piecing, only you decide the lines yourself. After you sew a seam, you trim the new patch to some shape, and go on to the next patch.
About an hour after we got there we were all piecing furiously. Some people kept their patches pretty small and some used larger pieces of their fabric. By lunchtime, most of us had pieced at least one front. As usual in a workshop, half the fun was seeing what everyone else was doing.
After lunch, we worked on embellishments. Jan demonstrated various embroidery stitches, beading, silk ribbon embroidery, and punch needle embroidery. She encouraged us to try whatever we wanted. She uses a lot of tea-dyed lace in her pieces, and some people had brought along lace scraps. I had a lot of fun with the embroidery - it's a nice break from quilting - you get to take big stitches(!) and you can make knots on the back.
The whole thing was great fun, and by the end we were all talking about when we'd wear our vests to a meeting and whether we'd put them all in our guild show in April or just wear them to the show.
If this sounds like fun to you, Jan runs a mail order business and sells kits for crazy quilt vests, jackets and purses. Her kits include all the stuff you'll need except lining and pattern. This includes a few calicos, muslin, moire, velveteen, embroidery thread and beads. Her kits are beautiful. Some of the people who brought their own scraps to the workshop ended up buying kits after all. She's happy to send out catalogs. The address is:
Jan Banan &Co
P.O Box 8486
Warwick, RI 02888
(401)467-7978


JINNY BEYER (VA): "Color Confidence", "Tessellations"

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

Jinny Beyer -- another favorite. I have taken several of her classes and always learned something. She has had a real influence on me.

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

"Color Confidence" with Jinny Beyer. Recommended.

Jinny is an amazing quilter, as almost everyone knows. In this class, we followed Jinny's "Color Confidence" video and book, which I highly recommend. However, if you have read the book and/or performed the exercises along with the video, then there is no need to go to this class. If you have not rented the video or read the book - then, by all means, GO!

"Tessellations" with Jinny Beyer. Highly Recommended.

This class was really interesting, as there really is not (yet) a book that contains the same information - about how to create your own tessellations. If you are familiar with M.C. Escher's work, then you are probably familiar with tessellations. In this class, Jinny taught the students the fundamentals of creating tessellations - using translations, rotations, etc. As always, Jinny was very organized and impressive.
Great Falls, VA

BETTY BOYINK (MI)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

Betty Boyink -- I was bored.
Grand Haven, MI

BARBARA BRACKMAN: Old Quilts

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 18:24:38
From: Anne

+Barbara Brackman was in the SF Bay Area 4-6 weeks ago, and as I had recently become more interested in the history of quilts, I decided this would be a good (and relatively inexpensive) opportunity to see what she was like.
The "class" was a 2.5 hour session using the quilts attendees brought as the springboard for her "lecture." Each quilt was spread out on a central table, and Barbara asked the owner what she/he knew about it, then commented on pattern, sashing, borders, individual textiles, dyes. She gave a range of years for each quilt. She also talked a bit about how she got started, creating a database of information based on quilts which were dated.
It was enjoyable, even though I don't have any old quilts. It opened my eyes a little more to how much a textile/quilt historian needs to know, things from all sorts of different fields (different fabric printing techniques, dyes and chemistry and how different mordants affect different fibers, the history of all these things, and world history, and so on).
For instance, in talking about colors/dyes used in fabrics, most synthethic dyes came from Germany before WWI. As Germany became involved in the war, it switched from peacetime manufacturing to wartime goods, and synthetic dyes were less available. This was reflected in fabrics produced in the US several years before the US entered the war.
Barbara provided a couple of handouts: a sheet of clues to dating quilts, and one on common myths.
She was very personable, upbeat, enthused about her subject. Thumbs up.

Date:Mon, 7 Feb 1994 15:27:15 PT
From: Kate

I was able to take a day off from work and go to Barbara Brackman's Quilt Detective workshop last week. I enjoyed myself immensely. Barbara is an easy going facsinating speaker and I felt a bit like I was watching the TV show 'Connections' as she explained why different clues occurred. I learned a lot about fabric and dye and how and why women quilted in years past. One thing that you learn is that in dating antique quilts, you can only make an educated guess, unless the quilt has a date on it and even that is not hard evidence! (one embroidered quilt had a date in one of the blocks of 18 something and another of the blocks showed a picture of an airplane!)

CHERYL GREIDER BRADKIN: Seminole Piecing

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 13:27:11
From: Lori

Cheryl Greider Bradkin - teaches seminole piecing and has a great book called Seminole Patchwork She also has a great lecture for Guild meetings.

MERYL SUE BUTLER: Silk

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 12:54:59
From: Carolyn

-I was recently at a quilt conference and had a class with Meryl Sue Butler. It was supposed to be about working with silk for quilting, but I learned absolutely nothing about that. I learned a bit about different types of silk, but no more than I could have from the catalogues of Dharma Trading Company or Thai Silks. Also, the teacher (and I use the term loosely) had us do silk painting!! This was definitely not what the description said. She said she left it off the description because it "scared people away." Well, no, but if I had wanted a silk painting class I would have signed up for one! Also this annoying personage tried to sell us her glitz foil. (and her slides were all backwards and upside down and not informative anyway - random pictures of landscape along the silk route...).

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 13:37:39
From: Linda

Meryl Ann Butler - ostensibly taught a class on silk fabrics. You've already seen some discussion of this class. Her presentation on the different types of silk fabrics was not organized--she didn't give complete information about each different kind. Her slide presentation about the history of silk was not well done--each slide description was read from a card as though she had not seen that text before, slides were backwards, etc. Not much was said about techniques needed for working with silk. The silk painting, not advertised as part of the class, was fun for me because it's something I always wanted to try and it was nice to find out that it was not difficult at all. But there was no real talk about how to paint silk--I had to read the handout to learn about the different techniques.

Date: Mon Aug 9 11:01:21 1993
From: Donna

Would you please add another very negative mark next to the name Meryl Sue Butler. That was the worst spent money ever!! I thought of all the fabric I could have had that would have done me more good! My husband felt I should have written the show sponsors to complain. I don't like doing that but also wouldn't want someone else to be totally disappointed so will mention it for the list info.
I took this class in Williamsburg, VA along with a couple other net quilters. Briefly, her slide show was a fiasco (upside down slides and backwards slides), instead of techniques working with silk as was indicated in the sign up brochure, we instead labeled fabric swatches at an additional cost to us which was not optional. She began passing out 1 of everything to the members of the class, then has us write on index cards that we'd been told to bring with us to class. Once all this was finished, she then charged us for the swatches. The finale was silk painting which she stated she didn't mention in the brochure because people are afraid to silk paint and she didn't want folks to avoid taking the class because of this.
I select my classes based on the description in the marketing brochures and feel cheated when the class ends up being something different. Also, I prefer to have the option of purchasing items during the class unless it's stated otherwise in the sign up information.

CHRISTAL CARTER (CA): Log Cabins

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 23:21:00
From: Susan

Christal Carter was the second speaker at the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta. Christal spoke at breakfast on Sunday, June 13, 1993. Christal was the only speaker who did not use slides. Her talk was titled "Confessions of a Junk Shop Junkie." When she's not quilting, Christal is a partner in a business called Majestic Season which does theme parties.
Christal has written two books, "Holiday Happenings" and "A Quilt for All Seasons" (or something like that). I believe the latter book is currently available. Both books are pictoral log cabin quilts with applique and other embellishments. Christal only makes log cabin quilts. She also has some individual patterns that she sells mail order. (See end of review.)
Christal's talk was entertaining. She had many of her junk shop finds to show us and even pass around (some old blocks). Christal began by giving Pepper Cory an anodized aluminum container (like a cookie tin) that she bought for a quarter. Pepper collects anodized aluminum.
According to Christal, antique shops are not the place to look for bargains on quilts and quilt pieces. If they have a whole quilt, they generally don't have it priced inexpensively and they seldom have unfinished quilts or quilt blocks because antique shop clientele "aren't interested." The place to get bargains on old quilts, tops and blocks is at quilt shows. Ask vendors if they have blocks, because they may have them, but not have them displayed. This is a way to acquire bits of old fabrisc that are not otherwise available.
Christal has acquired some truely pitiful looking pieces. She showed us a raggedy orange and white quilt. She drapes it as a background for dolls, etc. for the theme parties. Good for Halloween and autumny things. She gets quilts and tops that are ugly, figures out why and reworks them. This may involve taking them apart and removing blocks that are out of place colorwise. There was one top that she split up and made, I believe, 3 different tops from. The original had blocks in color combinations that just didn't belong together. She showed us some pieces of beat-up quilts and some stained or otherwise damaged blocks she's still trying to figure out what to do with. Christal says she doesn't like Sunbonnet Sue quilts, however, she had acquired one (or a set of blocks, I don't remember). Two or three of the Sue's have wound up on a Halloween design sheet (black/orange) that she is still playing with. Many of the rest were arranged into a "Circle of Friends". The Sue's are arranged in a circle, feet to the center. As I recall, the apron/skirt front and skirt backs of adjacent Sue's overlapped. This quilt met with considerable audience approval.
Christal finished by showing us some of her pictoral log cabin quilts. There was everything from small wall hangings to huge tops. Some of the larger tops were designs that would appeal to children. One titled "Three Little Kittens Lost Their Mittens" was simply huge and delightful.
Christal Carter
P. O. Box 195
Valley Center, CA 92082
I have the Indian Pottery pattern from taking the Southwest Pottery class. There was no added materials fee, so I have no idea what the price of her patterns is. The directions are very clear in showing what color combinations to make in what quantity and how to arrange the blocks to form the picture. A knowledge of basic log cabin techniques is assumed. No quantity of strips for speed piecing is given, but you are referred to one of her books. Taking the class helped in that she told us how many strips to cut, emphasized our seams should be a scant 1/4" to get the 2 1/2" finished blocks and gave some tips on sewing the blocks together into the top.

RACHEL CLARK: Patchwork Garments

Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 11:20:00
From: Mary

+My aunt, who is an artist, took a class from Rachel Clark in Houston last fall and LOVED it. She said Rachel took time to have one-on-one sessions with each person and was really able to communicate with everyone in the class regarless of level of expertise or style.

Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 11:48:21
From: Beverly

+I've never personally taken a class from Rachel Clark, but I was at a conference a few years ago where she was teaching. I talked to many of her students and they couldn't say enough good things about her. This was a patchwork vest workshop and the work the students were producing was WONDERFUL. Rachel is very talented, has a lot of energy, and I would highly recommend her.

Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 15:43:07
From: Judy

Rachel Clark is incredible! She's an afro-american folk artist who specializes in wearables and has an electric personality. I took her wearables class in Houston and thought my head would burst after one day. She brings LOADS of beautiful patchwork garments to class, you can try them on, she brings the patterns for copying and is very generous with her ideas and suggestions.
What you should do before her class is pick out a pattern or patterns that you plan to work with, and bring an array of fabric that, as she puts it "has nice conversations with itself". She goes through the class and has one on one consultations with each student about how to go about using the pattern, she makes suggestions for embellishments and gently warns you about fabrics that might "fight" with one another.
I love her approach to teaching. She is very funny (ask her about what the best paper for copying patterns is....she'll tell you a great story about how she found pattern paper perfection while having a GYN exam!) She gives you a very relaxed approach to designing--emphasizing YOUR personal taste and not "what's in".
I would highly recommmend her especially for first time garment makers!

Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1993 16:59:30
From: Marina

+Our San Francisco guild has had her come for several workshops and lectures. She's always a favorite, a good teacher and a great talker :-)

Linda Cantrell
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 1994 10:17:17
From: Sharon

Earlier this week, I was remarking in the NCQS show review about the wonderful quality of Linda Cantrell's quilts. She was our speaker last night and brought more quilts than the two that had taken both first places and Best of Show. those two were A Day at the Beach and Tapestry III. Tapestry III was the best of show. A Day at the Beach wound up winning viewer's choice.
Her quilting is really great and she is also very funny. I had a difficult time taking pictures because I was laughing so hard. If she comes to your guild, be sure she brings her embroidery organization system. It is unbelievably horrible/funny and our group must have laughed for 5 minutes straight when they saw it.
Her Night Before Christmas is an applique worth seeing. It looks like a pictoral dollhouse. Lots of the touches will be appreciated by quilters-tiny quilts on the beds, etc. Shortly after this one won a bunch of prizes at a major show, her guild suddenly made a rule that if your quilt had won any prizes in another show, it couldn't be entered in her guild's show. Understandably, this upset her as she had intended that one for her guild's show. So she made another virtually identical quilt in time for the show (This quilt looks as though it would take the average good quilter about 2-3 years to do). Anyway she did it in 2 1/2 months in time for the show and managed to win first prize with it. She said she works fast when she is mad :-).
She has one of a midwinter scene with lots of little appliqued skaters. A one called Family Reunion incorporates significant events related to her family. One real useful tip we learned was that if your applique figures are blending into the background, you can outline them with a pigma pen. This doesn't really show up, but gives the figure more depth and deliniation.
She had a Sun Bonnet Sue such as you have never seen. Sun Bonnet Sue's Shotgun Wedding. Sun Bonnet appeared to be about 8 months along.
She is doing workshops in San Antonio Texas and Charleston SC in November 1994.

PEPPER CORY (MI): Quilt Marking and Designing

Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1993 22:52:00
From:Susan

During the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta, I took two classes from Pepper Cory. On Sunday, June 13, I took "Magical Quilt Marking". On Tuesday, June 15, I took "Happy Trails".

Magical Quilt Marking

I know of two books of quilting designs that Pepper has authored: "Quilting Designs from Antique Quilts" and "Quilting Designs from the Amish". I've flipped through the books at the store, but I'm not that familiar with them, so I don't know how much of the class material comes from her books. A $4.50 materials fee covered 8 pages of instructions and hints and a small quilting stencil (a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" Amish design). Pepper designs stencils for "Quilting Creations by DJ, Inc." Any of their stencils with a stencil number beginning with PC is a Pepper Cory design. (A=Amish, I believe GB=Great Britan.)
Pepper started by showing some quilts and tracings of two whole-cloth quilts. These were traced at museums using a long strips of fairly sturdy clear plastic stitched together to get the needed width. Pepper said if you ever want to do this type of thing, you'll need to go through the museum catalog and note anything that MIGHT be a whole cloth quilt. They are seldom cataloged specifically as whole cloth quilts. Second, when you ask to trace them, stress that you will not TOUCH their quilt. Your plastic should be a few inches larger in each direction, so the quilt is totally covered. Pepper folds her tracings vertically with a sheet on the bottom (sheet is folded with plastic) and a strip of paper (1/3 width of plastic) in the middle, so the plastic doesn't touch plastic and stick together. After folding in thirds, it's folded down to a packable size.

Marking Tools:
When chosing designs (stencils) make sure the design fits the area. The design should fill the area without crowding the bordering seams. The design should be at least 1/4" to 1/2" inside the seams all around. Quilting designs show best on solid colors and won't show on a busy print. A pieced block can be treated as a single unit for quilting (as opposed to a design on each patch of the block).

Registration lines:
Pre-mark registration lines on both your stencils and your quilt top to keep the design on track. Mark down the middle of the border/block. Also mark the midpoint and corner of each border. Corners are marked on the diagonal. Mark registration lines on your stencils with a permanent marker (Sharpie, etc.) Registration lines on your top are temporary and should be done with chalk. A powdered chalk marker comes off easiest.

Planning borders:
Use cheap shelf paper (low-grade off-white paper in rolls) to make a paper model of your border before marking your top. Measure your border and mark registration lines on the paper. Then mark your border, manipulating the stencil to get the design come out the length you need. Typically mark the corners first and work out the matching to one side of the midpoint (NOT AT the midpoint). The instruction set included a list of 11 options for making a border of the proper length using commerical stencils.
Pepper recommends always making a paper model for any large or complex border or any quilt you plan to enter in competition.

In class, we worked in teams of two with shelf paper to design two borders of our choosing. It was fun. From the exercise, we compiled the following list of tips on manipulating stencils.

Ideally, your quilting designs should be marked before the top, batting and back is layered together. I like to use sandpaper under the area I'm marking to keep the fabric from shifting as I mark.

More Hints: The class ended with show and tell by the students. We got advice on what type of quilting designs would be good for the top we brought. The other alternative for ending class was to start marking a 40" square piece of fabric for a whole cloth quilt. Student vote was unanimous for show &tell.
"Magical Quilt Marking" was an excellant class. If you ever have the opportunity to take it, do.

Happy Trails

This class was closely based on Pepper's book of the same name. The $4.50 materials fee covered her 3" Drunkard's Path template. Pepper began class by showing slides of a number of quilts. Many of the pictures are in the "Happy Trails" book. She also brought some of her own Drunkards Path quilt variations for us to see. Then we had to draft a Drunkards Path pattern. Personally, I found this boring. I was a math major; I find drafting geometic patterns straight forward; and the book covers the pattern drafting thoroughly and clearly.
[For those unfamiliar with Drunkards Path, DP and variations thereon are formed from squares where part of the square is a quarter circle of a darker/lighter fabric. The "Happy Trails" book covers many variations of DP.]
Pepper then demonstrated cutting and sewing of a single Drunkards Path square. Using Pepper's templates and a small rotary cutter, the pieces can be quickly cut. A large rotary cutter won't accurately navigate the concave curve. Pepper's templates have holes drilled that mark 5 equally spaced matching points on the two pieces. Two layers of fabric can be cut at the same time. Be sure to mark the matching points on the wrong side of each cut piece.
Pinning the pieces together: clip the concave curve (on the piece missing the quarter circle) in several places, not quite to the 1/4 inch seam line. With right sides together and the quarter circle on top, line up the straight edges at one side of the curve and pin. Repeat for the straight edges at the other side of the curve. All pinning is done in the body of the block with the pins pointing toward the matching dots. The pins do not go into the seam allowance, so you won't be sewing over pins.
Now flip the 2 pieces over so the quarter circle is on the bottom. Use a pin to match the two center dots. Hold the fabric together securely, remove the pin from the dot, and pin in the body of the block. Repeat for the other two matching dots. The pieces are sewn together with the quarter circle on the bottom (clipped seam allowance on top). Stitching can be done with a machine or by hand. Pinning and both types of stitching are in the book. Pieces cut and marked ready to stitch, make a good carry around project.
Pepper's hand stitching method: Begin by taking 2-3 running stitches toward one outer edge; pull the needle through and stitch with a running stitch to the other end of the curve; to finish, stitch a couple of running stitched back toward the center of the curve, no ending knot. (I'm chicken, I finish with a knot.) Now for the important part that ISN'T IN THE BOOK. When doing the running stitch, move the fabric up and down to help make the stitches instead of doing all the work with the needle. Also, Pepper suggests a Sharps needle in the same size you use for quilting. (Betweens 10 for quilting ==> sharps 10 for sewing.) The sharps is longer, letting you make more running stitches before you push the needle through (we DO use thimbles, right? :), but the same number needle will be the same diameter (thickness) so it won't feel awkward.
Pepper uses a HERA (tm) Marker from Clover to "press" the curves of her squares flat. The HERA is a piece of flat plastic with a rounded edge designed to crease (imprint) lines on fabric. She also recommended a pair of scissors about 6" long with one blade that has tiny serrations. The serrations keep fabric from slipping as you cut or clip it.
We each made a few (very few) squares and put them all up on a single piece of white flannel to play with design. The book has a whole section on design and a pattern index that documents many of the design variations.
The drafting exercise and assembly demonstration were very well done. Being the last day of the fiesta, the few students that were signed up for the class were dropping like flies as people started heading for the the airport and home. Some of us did stick around for the Fairfield Fashion Show though. Pepper also spent some time discussing "cheater's methods". One possibility is finding fabric with large dots and cutting squares with part of a dot for the quarter circle. You need coordinating fabric with equal size dots, 1 fabric light on dark, the other dark on light to do most of the Drunkard's Path design variations.
Pepper gave us the address and phone for her studio (not in her home). She may be reached at the following if you would like her to speak at a guild meeting, teach, etc.
Pepper Cory phone (517)487-1991
1609 E. Kalamazoo Center #4
Lansing, MI
48912

SHARYN CRAIG (CA): Stripped Ts

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 13:27:11
From: Lori

Sharon Craig - Sharon has a feature article in Traditional Quilting every month and she really knows how to teach people to be creative. She also has a great lecture for Guild meetings.

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

Sharon Craig -- a teacher I would love to observe. I have heard many great things about her as a teacher, though I have not been able to take a class from her yet. I love her articles in Traditional Quiltworks and have used them for inspiration. Her writings have challenged me to change something rather than make copies of quilts I have seen.

From: PT
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 12:41:52

+I participated in Sharyn Craig's stripped T's workshop. This was my first workshop and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sharyn gave us step by step directions for the first part of the day and then let us loose on flannel walls. This was definetly the hardest and most fustrating part of the day. Sharyn really encourages quilters to be creative and not follow "recipe's". I had never designed anything on a flannel wall before and happily realised that yes I an make an original quilt. I definetly learnt a lot from her both in technique and creativity. It was interesting to see how different eveybody's design was. She is a very talented lady with a lot to offer. Tonight she is speaking at our guild the title being "the evolution of a design challenge" I am looking forward to it.

NANCY CROW (OH)

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

-Nancy Crow--I perhaps expected too much of her, but she seemed rigid, unwilling to critique some of the work done in the workshop because it wasn't what she would have done, she kept complaining that a two day workshop wasn't enough time for her class (but I wondered why she hadn't simplified the assignment to make it easier to accomplish in two days, rather than complain). Maybe she just wasn't feeling well! her work is so wonderful, I wanted to love her too but it didn't happen.

JUDY DALES (NJ): Innovative Piecing, Marbling, Dyeing

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Judy Dales -- another one of my favorites. I have spent almost a week with Judy and Sue Rogers and Carol Esch working on innovative piecing, quilting, and marbling and dyeing fabric at a Vermont resort owned by Judy's cousin and kept looking for Bob Newhart to show up. It was a _wonderful_ experience, and I learned a lot, especially from Judy. She has a fun sense of humor, and I got to know her pretty well.

JO DIGGS: "Layered Applique with Mini-Landscapes"

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

+"Layered Applique with Mini-Landscapes" with Jo Diggs. Highly recommended.
Jo is a wonderful person - very generous and giving. During this class, Jo shows the students her layered applique technique, and the students create their own "mini-landscape," with Jo's fabric selection and design assistance. Jo's mini-landscapes are rather fast to create (many participants had their landscapes completed for show-n-tell the next night at the guild meeting) and are great fun. She also shares her framing techniques for these designs.

MARILYN DOHENY (WA): "Bargello Quilt Design", "Infinite Circular Designs"

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 15:13:14 PDT
From: Caroline
+Marilyn Doheny - Bargello Quilt Design (full day class)
This class was to teach us how to piece a top to resemble the bargello needlepoint style, using the method Marilyn had developed and published in her book _Bargello_Quilt_Design_. Berninas were made available for the day, and we were instructed to bring 18-35 fabrics of various colors and prints from which we'd pick the ones we'd use for our tops.
Marilyn started the class off showing us several beautiful quilts and wall- hangings, to get us all enthusiastic about it, then showed us the consider- ably less promising results of the steps needed to produce these tops and described how to choose and arrange fabrics. She then had us pick out our fabrics and arrange them, and went from person to person to give advice on arranging them differently and/or changing our choices. Some students had chosen and arranged their fabrics before coming to class; others were still choosing and arranging when she reached them and she basically finished up this task for them. Once we had our choices and arrangements approved, we could then get on with the cutting and sewing. Near the end of the day Marilyn showed us slides of over 100 quilts showing both the basic style as taught in her book and advanced techniques that she will cover in her next book (publication date Spring 1995).
Marilyn mostly taught by the book, so that if you have confidence in your fabric choice and arrangement, you basically got nothing out of the class except a good time, a preview of her next book, and the chance to sew on a Bernina. Marilyn was very enthusiastic and told a lot of good stories (not all of them pertinent to the class), and had to be reminded that we needed lunch and potty breaks. There was some dead time for students who had prepared before class while she helped out students who had not prepared, and unlike Dixie's class (see her review), what Marilyn was telling one student was not particularly helpful for the other students. To summarize, in my opinion Marilyn is a very good teacher for students who need individual attention and encouragement, and has little to offer self-confident people who learn well from books. But both kinds of people will enjoy her class.

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST
+"Infinite Circular Designs" with Marilyn Doheny. Highly Recommended.
Marilyn has a wonderful personality and always brings TONS of quilt samples to show the class. In this workshop, Marilyn shows the students how to create a variety of patterns using her 9 degree circle wedge ruler. She shows many slides of the different patterns, shows her own samples, and then demonstrates the different cuts to create the quilts. The students sew their own "strata" and then cut and re-sew to create the different types of circular designs.
The class is great fun, and Marilyn is an excellent, organized instructor.

JUDY DONOVAN (PA): Art Clothing, the Creative Process, Dyeing, Marbling

From: MaryHelen
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 08:18:55

+Our quilt guild invited QuiltNet's very own Judy Donovan to lecture and teach a couple of classes. Last Thursday night, Judy presented a lecture on how she went about creating her outfits for the Fairfield Fashion show. Her outfits are fabulous!
Judy's lecture was wonderful -- she gave us an insightful view into her creative process. Many people commented that the talk gave them some good ideas to improve their own creative processes. Judy was well prepared, extrememly personable and open, very enthusiastic and quite an inspiration.
Judy's classes were also a big hit. On Friday, she taught Marbling in a Cookie Sheet, Saturday's class was on Dye Painting. I took the Dye Painting class and made some really great fabric as well as learned more about color theory. The class has taught me to really look at fabric in a whole new light.
Our guild was quite thrilled having Judy visit us -- she's a remarkable woman. I highly recommend that you all invite her to your guilds!!!

SHARON DOYLE: Miniatures

From: Carol
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 15:32:26

+Another class was Miniatures taught by Sharon Doyle. She prepared a long strip of muslin stamped with block designs from Thoroughly Modern Minis, her company. We learned to place small scraps of fabric to the unprinted side of each little block, and sew on the printed side using the lines to guide us Then we would flip the scrap, and add the next new area. Some people call it flip and sew, or sew by numbers. There are lots of companies that are producing these small blocks, all based on the foundation piecing idea. This was particularly good for teeny little areas. You could do it by machine or hand. Sharon said when she travels she prepares little strips and sews them. The muslin foundation served as a backing. Sharon does not prefer the paper type idea because you have to pick out the paper before completing the project. This method you could sew your blocks together without batting and have a hanging completed. I bought a Flying Geese stamper from her so I could whip up borders. I am putting together my little sampler into aChristmas wallhanging. One little stamped block was the traditional T block which she converted into an angel. The Pineapple design worked up well; Snail's Trail was nice; an interlocking square, and others I can't remember.

CARYL BRYER FALLERT (IL)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Caryl Fallert -- terrific. Extremely organized and _professional_. This gal really has her act together. Her lectures are great and unusual in that she uses two slide projectors to allow side-by-side comparisons. Her classes are very well run and you feel very accomplished at their end.

JOHN FLYNN (MT): Trapunto, Double Wedding Ring

From: Janet
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 16:49:48

+I joined our local Quilt Guild yesterday, and the speaker was John Flynn. I enjoyed learning about what the guild has to offer and especially enjoyed the show and tell. What wonderful work is being done to preserve our heritage:)
John Flynn is a very interesting man. He started quilting to relieve stress and was hooked. His favorite part is the hand quilting as is evident in the beautiful quilting in his quilts. He showed us slides of some of his work and brought many with him for us to look at. He showed us his "mistakes" and how it improved his color and pattern selection. He design most of his patterns, probably comes from being a civil engineer. He is not very comfortable behind the podium, but he had us laughing and ooohing the whole time. Surely a most enjoyable speaker.
I wasn't able to take either of his workshops, maybe next time.;)

From: Amy
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1993 12:00:49
+I took a trapunto class from John Flynn and recommend his classes VERY much! Janet was correct that he comes from a civil engineering background - he built bridges for the state of (can't remember what state he lives in). He has developed some very interesting techniques because he is looking a quilting from such a different perspective.
I would agree with Janet that John Flynn didn't seem comfortable being the center of attention and gave a brief but thorough demonstration at the beginning of class. Then he wandered the class giving lots of personal attention. He also brought 2 suitcases full of completed examples we could look at any time during the class.
I once made a double wedding ring and I swore I'd never make another. After I took John Flynn's trapunto class, I wished I had also taken his double wedding ring class (I did buy his book and templates).

From: Susan
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1993 00:06:49
+Our next to last speaker at the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta was John Flynn, a bearded, 6 foot 3 inch tall civil engineer (bridge builder) from Billings, Montana. John spoke on Monday evening, June 14, 1993. The title of his talk was "Confessions of a Non-traditional Quilter", but he began by saying he wasn't going to confess anything, the title was just an attention-getter. However, I found that to only be partially true.
We've just had other QuiltNet reviews and comments on John Flynn and I agree whole-heartedly that John is a very entertaining speaker. From what little I've heard, he can be a very exacting instructor. Dana Brabson, one of the Albuquerque hosts and husband of one of the Quilt Works owners, mentioned in his introduction of John, that John made his students draft their templates to within 1/32 of an inch. I suspect that was a reference to either the "War Bonnets" or "Braided Borders" class.
John began hand quilting to test quilt frames. His wife, Brooke, had given him the task of finding a quilting frame for her to use and she was rejecting his choices. After about 3 quilt tops she got behind in the piecing.
John's quilt frames evolved through trial and error. He started by buying frames. The stand on one wasn't solid enough, so he made iron or steel legs for it. He decided the legs were in the way and created a lap scroll frame. Once he found the right width for the frame, the problem was that the wood dowels would shear off with use. So he added metal parts which he had to have machined. The first set cost $10,000. The next 21,000 sets were free. (Yes, there is a high set-up cost for custom-machined parts.)
John's only college class with any color in it was physics. He has a tendacy to use a rather basic color scheme (red, blue, yellow; sometimes, orange, green, purple) which he refers to as his "Physics 101" color scheme.
John had some bad early experiences attempting to buy fabric. It seems men (even ones that are 6' 3" tall) are invisible in fabric shops, until they make a lot of noise. Then the woman manager with cat-eye glasses (enable her to see men :)^ comes to follow him around and make sure he doesn't break the fabric . . . and of course assumes that his is shopping for his wife. He has since found that quilt shops CAN see men.
John doesn't build bridges anymore. He attempts to support the family with all of his quilt-related stuff, but his wife still has to have a real job. He says women leave their husband at his booth at the quilt shows. John sells the husband a quilt frame whether the wife wanted one or not.
John said that his first class was a Mariner's Compass class with Judy Matheison. He started machine piecing because he was accumulating too much fabric. (He has since learned you never have too much.) On one of his first machine-pieced tops, he ran out of one of the fabrics he was using and couldn't get more. So he bought a larger quantity of a different fabric, ripped out and replaced all of the fabric he ran out of. This led to his formula for calculating how much fabric to buy. Calculate the yardage you need, multiply by two and add one yard! John hasn't run out of fabric since 1976.
John began designing borders first, resulting in his famous braided borders. His sister Peggy illustrates his books. His sister, Joan, couldn't figure out what to put in the middle, so John told her she could just use a single piece of fabric in the center. Later, Joan did one with a braid filling the center as well.
John intended to reproduce an old Double Wedding quilt for his wife, Brooke, and got caught up in the technique. His technique involves sewing together squares (rectangles ?) with seams wider at one side to make the arc. Then you use his template to cut the precise arc shape. He never has reproduced the quilt for Brooke.
John began stippling, which led to trapunto. John invented a trapunto rod which is inserted between the quilt layers to eject batting into the area to be stuffed (after quilting about 3/4 of the way around the area). The traditional method evidently involves slitting the back of the quilt, stuffing and then sewing up the slit. He also teaches Ocean Waves with fast-piecing of half-square triangles.
John designed a 5-pointed Texas Star with a round braided border. A very striking quilt in his "Physics 101" colors. His latest design is the "War Bonnet" or "Feathered Sun" quilt. This one involves piecing dozens of small triangles into concentric circles.
One hint: Two parallel quilting lines can be done instead of crosshatching and require only half as much marking.
Final quip: There's never a line in the men's room.
John has established the "Flynn Quilt Frame Company" and he had a well-staffed booth at the NM Quilt Fiesta. (I did find him there alone on Tuesday, but he was teaching the other days). The Flynn Quilt Frame comes either as a lap frame with 42 inch rods or as a kit without rods (you visit the lumber yard). He also sells a "rod kit" with ends for a pair of rods, so you can add rods of different lengths. He has his Double Wedding Ring templates in 5 sizes, his various books, templates for a number of traditional patterns, and trapunto rods in 3 lengths. I met one person who said that John's templates were the most accurate she had found. They had template material available for sale to make your own templates. The material is similar to laminate and comes with special shears to cut it. The templates are all intended for use with rotary cutters. I have literature with prices for everything but the template material. Email me directly with specific questions, or contact:

Flynn Quilt Frame Company
1000 Shiloh Overpass Road
Billings, Montana 59106
406-656-8986 or 1-800-745-3596

John is a very entertaining speaker and shows enough of his techniques in his slides to give you the basic idea and leave you wanting to know more. I suspect he would be an excellant instructor. If he's ever near you, by all means go see him. In my opinion, John Flynn was the best and the most interesting speaker we had at the NM Quilt Fiesta.

From: Terry
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 17:35:24 GMT

+ I was fortunate in being able to attend a workshop given locally by John Flynn this past weekend. (For those of you who are not familiar with who he is... a well-known quilter who does trapunto and stippling work.)
The workshop was sponsered by a local quilt guild (Night Owls guild). I do not belong to Night Owls but to another guild Wandering Foot Guild. I heard about the workshop and called the coordinator a couple of days before it was to be given, just on the off chance there were some
cancellations. I was really lucky and I got in, and I am very glad that I did. The workshop was both helpful and opened up new areas for me.
I have never before done either trapunto or stippling and now I am going to use it on my next quilt. I feel it definately will be an enhancement.
At the workshop, John had us use his quilt frame (which we could buy or not as we wished) and I was favorable impressed enough that I bought one.

SEIKO GOKE: "Freehand" Log Cabins

From: Marina
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 13:09:25 PDT

+Seiko Goke--she had a project of small, "freehand" log cabin blocks, you sewed ten really fast without using templates, then figured out how you could set them together using larger pieces of fabric. her samples had bright fabrics for the log cabins and darker Japanses fabrics for the setting pieces. I got creative and brought some UFo blocks I started nearly 3 years ago in another workshop. I still liked the fabrics, just got bored making perfect pineapple blocks :-) So I made some mini log cabins using her techniques and ended up using them as a sort of border around two sides of a larger piece made of the pineapple blocks. The freeform log cabins are a good contrast to the rigid pineapples. I need to add a border around the whole thing, and then it's done! I ended up with a larger piece than anyone else because I had those pineapple blocks to start with, but everyone had really nice things by the end of the day. I expected the teacher to be "unpleased" with my idea of combining pineapple blocks with the others, but she didn't seem to mind at all (altho she didn't have much "guidance" to offer, I guess she decided I knew what I was doing, even tho I really didn't.)

From: Sharon
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 22:23:47

+I also took Keiko Gouke's freestyle log cabin class with Marina and Lynnette Viste on Thursday. It was a bit rough going at first when she showed us her sample quilts and then said (through her interpreter -- a non-quilt-maker, I might add) to make 10 to 15 blocks by lunchtime. There was no demonstration on exactly what we were supposed to do. I was familiar with the log cabin technique but had never made one. Luckily I had bought Keiko's book at the Merchant Mall the night before and, although it was entirely in Japanese, it had some good pictures of her freestyle technique. So once we got rolling I really enjoyed myself. It's such a free and liberating exercise! However by lunchtime I examined my seven blocks on the wall and realized I had made a classic beginners mistake -- my blocks were too dark and needed some zing! So I traded with other students to get some fuschia (bummer that I left my fuschias at home -- I thought my violets and purples would be bright enough) and I set about fixing my first 7 blocks and making 3 more. Then came the hard part of setting these blocks together. This is where Keiko was helpful -- she has a good artistic eye. However as I progressed getting my piece together I liked it less and less until I really hated it -- although I liked the blocks. (This was not Keiko's fault -- I just need more practice at this sort of thing.) So at the very end of the class I took my seam ripper out and reduced my piece back to its components. I want to make more of these blocks and set them together differently -- more the way she does it in her book. But I really did enjoy that class and I doubt I would have ever done the exercise on my own.

From: Bea
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 13:39:55 PDT

+Warped Log Cabin with Keiko Gouke. In this class we designed quilts that are made of log cabin blocks, each of which is four-sided but not square. First we drew a small quilt design: a grid of blocks that all connect together but are all warped. We also drew the center of each block to be the same shape as the block as a whole. Then we cut out each block and its center and used them as templates. We cut out the center piece, then sewed logs onto it until it reached the size of the block template, and used the rotary cutter to trim it to size if necessary. In other words, you draft the size and shape of the center, and the size and shape of the overall block, then you sew fabric strips onto the center in a freestyle fashion until you get the overall block. I managed to get three of my nine blocks made in the class and am inspired to continue with it. Keiko's quilts are very playful and colorful and she seems to like to work in a very free way. She gave us a little basic instruction and then we all set to work; the technique was very clear but loose; some people in the class kept exclaiming about how great it is to work without any measuring or specific rules.

ALISON GOSS: Bargello Strips

From: MaryHelen

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 18:35:35

+Alison Goss' "Musical Inspirations" class was interesting. We were supposed to pick a piece of music before the class, listen to it and choose our colors by how we interpreted the music. In class, we learned the bargello technique and used the music to help us interpret how to piece the bargello strips together. We were in the classroom from hell -- it was soooo hot in this classroom, but no one seemed to care. We kept working and really had a great time. Alison was warm and natural, very willing to help anyone and very good about visiting each person in the class at least twice. Her work is incredible!

JACQUELINE GOVIN: Appliqued Silk Flowers

From: Marina
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 13:09:25 PDT

+Jacqueline Govin: She is French, and had a bad cold but her daughter did the translating so J's fading voice didn't matter. her project was a basket of silk flowers, appliqued on a cotton background. We spent most of the day making the basket, which is constructed by weaving silk ribbons. We then discovered that the templates for the flowers were all reversed! It didn't really matter, we will all end up with nice flowers that are the opposite of her sample :-) But it was lucky that the design could be reversed without a problem--she was very embarrassed, of course. Her techniques are very exacting and I don't think they are my "thing", but they sure work. If you want to try applique with silk, she is an excellent teacher. She gave a lecture that night and showed some really far-out examples of fabric art from france--some you could call quilts but some really stretch the definition! She told me later that since the winning quilts at PIQF were all very traditional, she had taken out the really far-out slides!

LYNN GRAVES: Pineapple on foundation

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 11:02:09
From: Ida

+In Lynn Graves Double Dip Pineapple, we also sewed on foundation. But this time we lined up our fabric on the foundation and sewed on top of the fabric. This method required an exact 1/4 inch seam. I used hand dyed fabric in eight gradations in two colors - cornflower blue and mauve. (Original, huh?) Anyway, those colors go well in my office. Lynn is a quilter at heart and very eager to share information. After she got us started she encouraged us to take breaks whenever we wanted and kept telling us this is for fun. I like that concept. I'm not into power quilting.

From: Ida
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 11:46:42

+I took a class from Lynn Graves and she is a super person. I'll bet she'd be thrilledto get clearer instructions for her foundation sheets.

JANE HALL (NC): Mariner's Compass

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 11:02:09
From: Ida

+I took Mariner's Compass by Jane Hall. Jane Hall is a real delight. She knows her stuff, conveys it well, provides support and encourages creative thinking. She sews using a foundation. With Jane's method, the fabric is lined up on top of the foundation, then the whole thing is flipped over, and you sew on the line. Like she said, anyone can sew on a line.

NANCY HALPERN (MA): Color

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

?Nancy Halpern: This was a color class. Although I love her quilts, there seemed to be a wall I couldn't break through to understanding how she explained using color. I didn't take anything away with me, and it probably was my problem and not hers.

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

+Nancy Halpern--extremely supportive, doesn't think her way is the only way or even the best way, and her quilts are gorgeous
She doesn't teach at a lot of different places so a lot of people may not have had a chance to meet her, but she is a warm, caring person and very good at helping you find your own "voice", as a quilter, and artist, even as a person. She does not teach an easily understood "technique", she helps you figure out how to do what you want to do in a non-pushy, non-judgemental way. That's a fairly ephemeral thing to try to do, I'm sure it "fails" with some people, but I know it has succeeded with several others, who remain friends with her long after the class is over (including me :-)

HARRIET HARGRAVE (CO): Machine Quilting

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:16:31
From: Ida

+Last summer I took a machine quilting class from Harriet Hargrave. It was amazing. For one thing, I was able to observe a "master" at work, and then determine just how far I had to go or even if I wanted to go that route. Yes, I do. I also learned tips that are not in her book, which I thought I had read rather carefully before the class.

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 10:06:10
From: Cynthia

+I heartily recommend Harriet Hargrave.

DEBRA HARRY: Hand quilting

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 12:13:21 EST
From: Mary Beth

+I just took a FANTASTIC hand quilting class, the "local" instructor (who was teaching at a State Guild meeting - her name is Debra Harry (I think)) does fabulous work, all of it in a smallish (I'd say around 10" x 20") oval that she holds on her lap - her work is so fine that she made a believer from me - she reasons that it's necessary to really move the piece around (directionally) and she frequently checks the back to ensure that wrinkles etc. are gone. She repeatedly advised us to do whatever felt most comfortable for us, large frame, no frame, with/w/o stand etc etc. From my perspective it would be hard to argue with her success. I've tried, frequently, to improve my hand quilted stitch, but it wasn't until this class that I really saw a substantial difference - and I saw the change DURING the 2 hour class. Money well spent. I think the key tip she gave us was how she used her thumb tip (meeting the up coming needle as-soon-as-it-showed) to control stitch length. Do try hand quilting, it is incredibly relaxing, and I found it well worth the time/money to take a class on that single subject.

GALE GRIGG HAZEN: Sewing Machine Maintenance

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 13:27:11
From: Lori

+Gale Grigg Hazen - extremely funny and entertaining. She teaches sewing machine maintenance. I know this sounds boring, but Gale makes it really fun. We actually brought in our machines and WORKED on them (amazing)! Gale is very knowledgeable on all machines.
She also has a great lecture for Guild meetings.

SANDY HEMINGER: "Cut no Curves"

From: Carol
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 08:45:23

+I took "Cut no Curves" or something like that taught by Sandy Heminger who owns A Piece in Time Quilt shop near Akron, Ohio. The technique was to make blocks like Drunkard's Path without insetting and sewing curved pieces. I thought we were going to use a template like freezer paper ironed on--but no. We used a plastic tool called a Gath a Round. It was a circle of @ 6 inch diameter which could be disassembled into 3 wedges. First we cut a number of 8 inch dark and light blocks. Then a similar number of 7inch dark and light ones. We placed a felt circle on the small squares and stitched a gathering stitch around the felt guide about 1/4 out. We placed the plastic circle in the middle of the newly stitched square, held it down tightly, and pulled the bobbin threads to gather 'round the tool. Then with a steam iron, we ironed down the excess. The tool could then be diassembled to remove the circle without disrupting the ironed edged--that is why it comes apart. After that process, the perfect circle is blind stitched on with monofilament thread to the larger base. The backing is cut away. Then the circle on the square is cut into quadrants. Voila--now we had some typical looking quarter circle on a small square elements to compose traditional designs or go on to something else. Sandy provided us with patterns to make flowery medallian type hangings which I enjoyed playing around with. They look amazingly complex and difficult. She said she is working a book with the inventor of that tool. I went home and put together a medallion type for my guild's proposed silent auction. I am not sure if I can now give that puppy up--it is so nice if I do say so myself.

LUCY HILTY

From: Marina
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 13:16:27

+Another great teacher of hand quilting, by the way, is Lucy Hilty. She was featured in the classic film, "Quilts in Women's Lives". A high point of my quilting career was when Lucy, one of the judges at our SFQG quilt shows, made the remark that she liked the quilting in my quilt :-) I figured I had "arrvied" when I saw that note on the judging slip! (by the way, this same quilt did not get even an honorable mention at the Marin Show that year, so you can see that every show has different standards).

LAUREL HORTON: "String Patchwork"

From: Bea
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 14:54:01

+I took "String Patchwork", a one-day workshop taught by Laurel Horton (sponsored by my guild). String patchwork involves sewing pieces or strips of fabric onto a base of either paper or fabric. The only thing you have to measure is the foundation; if it's the right size you just keep sewing strips on until the paper is covered. In short, it's a straightforward technique, taught by a straightforward person. She was very organized, cheerful, and energetic, and has clearly taught this enough to have all the bugs worked out. She had us sewing in no time, and we all finished four blocks that we did to learn the technique and at least four blocks of our own design. (A member of the workshop took the learning blocks to give to the Children's Quilt Project.)
We all brought fabric, but she also provided a big pile of scraps from other workshops. She showed slides of her own string quilts, and had brought some along as well, so we could get a good idea of the potential for this technique. She showed us some variations and ideas about what you could do with color placement. It was fun and rewarding to get so much accomplished in a day. It's a really good workshop for beginners, and a great technique for quilters of all levels to have in their repertoires.

ROBERTA HORTON (CA): Fabrics and Ethnic Designing

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Roberta Horton -- one of my favorites. I like her analytical approach to fabrics and ethnic designing. I found her instructions easy to follow and used many of her ideas to spring some of my own.

From: Beverly
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 11:47:14

+Diana Schneck's The Freedom Quilt workshop sounds a lot like Roberta Horton's Afro-American quilt workshop. She had us make quilt blocks without measuring--just slap it together as loose as possible. It didn't matter it the block wasn't square, just do it as fast as possible without worrying about accuracy. The results were very interesting and LOOSE!

MICHAEL JAMES (MA): Color Theory

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Michael James -- if you really want to learn an artist's approach, take a color class with him. I haven't had a class with him within the last 10 years, but he was one of the first from whom I learned some valuable information about color theory.

Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1993 15:08:37
From: Jane

+Somewhat off the topic, but I have to relay this information. Last weekend I attended the Big Tree Quilt Conference in Geneseo, NY. I took a 3-day workshop "Color Theory" with Michael James. The man worked us. There are pros &cons to his workshop, but he does pack them and you are busy. I felt frustrated, exhausted, sometimes exhilarated, clear, focused and totally lost . . . Anyway, he gave a lecture about his quilts etc. ... He charges for his commission pieces on average $5,000 ($3,000 for small wallhangings and as much as $16,000 for large 10' in length pieces) !!!

NANCY JOHNSON-SREBRO (PA)

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Nancy Johnson-Srebro -- a very sharing teacher. She is also very thorough and very affirming. She has a lot to teach and can hardly wait to tell you everything. Her books are very detailed in their instructions and include trouble shooting.

BETH KENNEDY: Machine Quilting

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 13:38:00
From: Mary

+I have also taken a machine quilting class from Beth Kennedy. She is local to Austin but she does travel some. She is also a wonderful, entertaining, knowledgeable person and a great teacher.

JEANNA KIMBALL: Applique

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

-Jeanna Kimball: This was an applique class. I took two classes from her and was disappointed that I had signed up for 2 after going to the one. Everything's fine as long as you do EVERYTHING EXACTLY as she tells you to. I deviated in one small detail and she loudly asked why I had bothered to take the class if I wasn't going to do as she said. It was embarrassing.

FAYE LABANARIS : Baltimore Album

Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 16:46:26
From: Tina

+I got a copy of the program and registration info for the Lancaster PA show in the mail yesterday. I wanted to let people know that Faye Labanaris is a wonderful teacher. She's a member of my guild (Cocheco Quilters in Dover NH), and I've taken a number of Baltimore Album classes from her. She's easy-going and fun. I learned a lot from her, and I recommend her highly, especially if you're a beginner. She'll get you started off well with the various techniques used in Baltimore Album quilts.
She will also have a quilt in the show, as will the Cocheco Quilters Guild itself!

JEAN RAY LAURY (CA)

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

+Jean Ray Laury--I didn't use her patterns in the applique class but she didn't mind, and praised my "unconventional" color choices-- I learned a lot

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Jean Ray Laury -- a classic. This is one really neat lady. I'd take any of her classes.

PAULA LEDERKRAMER

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

-Paula Lederkramer -- top of my list of bad teachers. I really had a bad experience with her. She was disorganized. She insisted that we use her duplicated 6-to-the-inch graph paper, which she sold at an exorbitant price, and which I still don't think we needed. Then she sold us metal templates that we had to use in class -- I could have brought something similar from home if I had known we needed it. We did some graph designing then cut out triangles of various sizes. Her instruction was then, "Now just set these together." No other guidance. No tips about good designing. I think her designing is intuitive and cannot be described in words to teach.

LIBBY LEHMAN

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 13:38:00
From: Mary

+I took a class from Libby Lehman (sp?) and it was instructive and helpful. I was not in a very creative mood that day so I didn't get as much out of the class as I could/should have, but that is not the fault of the teacher.

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 23:10:00
From: Susan

+Libby Lehman was the speaker at the first breakfast of the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta on Saturday, June 12, 1993. Two of her wall hangings were on display in the room where we had breakfast. Both featured her ribbon design (more on that later). One of them is the one on the cover of the Sewing with Sulky book (I'm not sure of the exact book title).
Libby mentioned that beside quilting, she does calligraphy professionally. Other than shop owners, it seemed like all the speakers and teachers had a paying vocation other than quilting or had a working spouse to help support the family.
Libby started by first talking about the basics. She stores her quilts folded on shelves when they aren't on display somewhere. She doesn't worry about fold lines because they are all sent someplace for display fairly regularly and get refolded in different ways. To protect the quilts when they are stored at home, the shelves that she stores them on are wrapped with fabric that is tacked or stapled to the back edge of the shelf. This keeps the fabric in the quilt from touching the paint on the shelf.
Libby has LOTS of thread. She stores her fabric in wire baskets. She has a whole wall full of wire baskets which normally have pieces of fabric hanging down the front. When she started quilting, she did everything on a drafting table; design, cutting and sewing. She says the height and tilt adjustments are a nice feature. Although she has a whole room for her quilting now, she still has the drafting table. I believe she uses it for a cutting table now.
Libby has a huge design wall made of sheets of a pressed fiber board called Celotex. It's sold in 4'x 8' sheets at hardware stores for about $10 a sheet. It seems to be fairly light weight, it's white on one side, and things can be pinned to it. After it starts looking too yucky from all those pins, you could repaint it make it look nice again.
Libby said she started quilting with "Aunt Martha" patterns because that was what was available. She showed slides illustrating her template technique which was shown in the Summer 1993 issue of "American Quilter" magazine. Briefly, lay your template plastic over the pattern, outline the finished size of the piece with 1/4" masking tape. Cut along the outside edge of the tape. This is the cut size of the quilt piece. For hand-piecing, cut out the center of the template, leaving just the area covered by the tape. The inside edge of the tape is the stitching line.
Libby bastes the layers of her quilt together while they are hanging on her design wall. She bastes muslin strips to the edges of her pieced quilt tops, so that when she does the quilting, the top is properly stretched all the way out to the edge.
Libby mentioned machine applique techniques and says she satin stitches the edge twice for a nicer looking edge.
Libby draws her ribbon designs freehand. She draws them on either freezer paper or iron-on, tear-away stabilizer and presses this to the quilt top for the purpose of transferring the design to the top. After stitching the outline of the ribbons, she removes the paper and does machine embroidery with a hoop to fill in the ribbons. At first glance, I had assumed that the ribbons on the quilts displayed were appliqued. I was amazed when I learned the ribbons are all machine embroidery.
Libby pins her finished quilts back to her design wall to block them. After pinning the top edge level, she uses a plumb line to square the sides. When everything is pinned square, she pins wet muslin to one section of the quilt at a time and steams it dry.
Libby has a large piece of double knit pinned to the side of her house for photographing quilts. It was purchased to match the photographers neutral gray (18% gray).
Someone asked how much fabric she buys. Libby says if she isn't buying for something specific and it doesn't look like it will probably be a quilt back, she buys half yard cuts of fabric else her quilts all start looking alike.

DIXIE McBRIDE (CA): "The Quilting Stitch"

Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 15:13:14 PDT
From: Caroline

+Dixie McBride - The Quilting Stitch (1/2 day class)
Dixie won first prize (traditional) in the 1993 Pacific International Quilt Festival's contest for a hand-appliqued and -quilted beauty, so those of us who took her class knew she was an expert. She had us bring 18" squares of muslin and batting. She showed us how to prepare the top fabric for quilting, how to prepare the "sandwich" and baste it, how to put it in the hoop, and how to execute the running or "rocking" stitch. She had a tendency to not give reasons for why she does things a certain way, and explained only when a student asked. She was vocally interested in suggestions by more advanced students in the class.
Dixie used a flip chart to give us most of the information, but when it came to the actual rocking stitch she sat at one end of a table at the front and we 25 or so students crowded around her. This arrangement allowed us to get a pretty good look at what her top hand was doing, but she had to explain several times what her bottom hand was doing, as the way she held her hoop only about 1/2 dozen of the students could clearly see it. After her demonstration she first declared that the tables and chairs were too close together for her to go from student to student, but then she changed her mind and managed to squeeze in to help out people who asked. She contin- ued to teach the class during this individual help by describing the problem clearly, diagnosing the cause, and prescribing a solution. During the course of her "walkaround" I was able to improve my stitch simply by listening to her and correcting myself even though she never saw me personally. The class was open to students of all levels of experience, and she struc- tured it well, allowing more advanced students who had brought works in prog- ress to start stitching right away while she taught us novices which end of the needle to thread and how to make a knot. The class was nowhere near as entertaining as Marilyn Doheny's (see her review), but to me it was much more valuable as Dixie taught us stuff I haven't seen in any books or magazines. I'd recommend her very strongly for people who can follow verbal instructions pretty well, or can learn well from books and therefore seldom take classes; in my opinion she would not be so good for students who need lots of indivi- dual attention.

MARSHA McCLOSKEY (WA): strip piecing, "On to Square Two" "Ocean Waves"

From: Phyllis
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 11:56:01

+I'm not much of an expert on strip piecing, I've only been learning how in the last year. But I took Marsha McCloskey's "On to Square Two" class at Quilt America back in June and I learned quite a bit. It's a pretty nifty technique for strip piecing triangles that you could use for making all kinds of blocks. I'm not going to attempt to describe the method here, but I would highly recommend purchasing her book. She basically taught from the book and I think the instructions there are easy enough to follow.

Date:Fri, 4 Feb 1994 15:12:44 PDT
From: Luanne

+ I just took a fantastic class from Marsha McCloskey. She writes books for That Patchwork Place. She taught us how to make squares that are made of triangles and they fit together perfectly with beautiful sharp points! You might want to get her book called On to Square Two. I believe it is published by That Patchwork Place. She shows how to make what she calls a Square 1, Square 1.5 or Square 2. Square 1 is made of 2 triangles. This is what you need for Ocean Waves. Square 1.5 is made of one big triangles and 2 little ones. Square 2 is made of 4 little triangles. I am making a huge wall hanging that uses all of these different squares and it is working wonderfully!

RUTH MCDOWELL: Penrose Tiles

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Ruth McDowell -- highly recommend. She uses a mathematical approach to Penrose tiles yet she is also very artistic. She allows a great deal of creativity and is very sharing about what she does.

From: Judy
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1993 21:01:59

+Ruth is one of the best teachers on the planet!

PAT MAGARET and DONNA SLUSSER: Color

From: Carrie
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 16:58:54

+This group is amazing. Yesterday I couldn't remember the names of a pair of teachers I had enjoyed. Today I got the names from, not one, but two people. Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser teach several classes together, on achieving different effects using color values in addition to color hues. They work well together and are very helpful. Definitely an addition to the "good teachers" list.
Thanks Charlotte and Madeline!
Those 2 ladies are most likely Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser. They are wonderful quilters and teachers. I have taken several classes from them and we belong to the same guild.

Charlotte

Were the names of the two women Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser??? They just finished writing their new book on "watercolor quilts" -- should be out this fall. Their original venture into this realm was the "luminosity" series. Now they've really done it! And it's wonderful.
While I was reading some of the other posts on "sparkle", I thought about the new gadget that Pat and Donna came-up with called a Ruby something-or- other. It's a piece of dark red plastic that removes all the color from fabric when you look through it and just gives you the relative value. It's a must for their watercolor quilts so you can plan fabric placements by value rather than color.

GWEN MARSTON (MI): Quilting designs

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

+Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham: Another hit! I would take a class with them anytime. I learned a lot and they were fun. The class was on quilting designs and how to draw your own feathers, wreaths, pumpkin seeds, etc. I had some questions after about some techniques in their books and Gwen took about 20 minutes out of what must have been a packed schedule to explain in detail the process she had gone through, then gave me her home number for if I had more questions.......

MARY MASHUTA: "Pushed Neutrals", "Room Quilts", clothing design

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 13:38:00
From: Mary

-I took the story quilt class from Mary Mashuta in Houston last fall and will never take another class from her again. She was rude, unhelpful, opinionated, and the class had nothing to do with the description. For example, she asked us to relate to the class the story we were going to represent in our quilt. Several people were told that she didn't like their stories so they should come up with something else. Also, there was a class fee and we received nothing for it.

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:25:18
From: Bea

-I, too, have had a class from Mary Mashuta, who lives in this area. I also found her not very helpful. She's got quite an ego and I think she's one of those who, whether she knows it or not, teaches by trying to steer people in her own direction. The class I took was a color class and I probably could have gotten most of it out of books except for the great slides she showed and her lengthy presentation on the "pushed neutral" color scheme that she claims to have invented. I do like her Story Quilts book and her quilts, and perhaps if she likes you and your particular project she is helpful, but I avoid her classes.

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 23:22:42
From: Jaye

+I have to disagree with Mary about Mary Mashuta. I have take her Room quilt class and her color/pushed neutral class and I have a lot of respect for her and the techniques that she teaches. I found that I could not slack off in her classes at all, but found that she was very helpful and I learned a LOT from her. She is a different sort of person and I can see where personal- ities might clash, but she really got me to thinking about color in a different way. I also used her "pushed neutral" idea in the quilt that I just finished and I have gotten a lot of compliments on it. I thought that the Room Quilt class was really a difficult class, because as most of you know, you cannot turn creativity on and off and the room quilts, and I would imagine, the story quilts require a lot of creativity. It seems sort of impossible to do a story quilt if you do not feel strongly about something that has happened in your life. As a result, for me, the room quilt I started is not yet finished. I just recently talked to my sister-in- law and found some great fabric that reinspired me so maybe it will get done. I would suggest that people try her classes or try her classes again, if you did not like the first one. Maybe the color class (I took it at the Cotton Patch in Lafayette) would be a better class to start with if you are taking one from Mary Mashuta.

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

-Mary Mashuta--a lot of people in the workshop felt she wasted a lot of time showing us slides that didn't pertain to the clothing design she was supposed to be teaching us, and then made us spend a lot more time drawing simple geometric shapes on paper and glueing bits of fabric into a color chart, when we could have been sewing. It seemed like another two day class cut short to fit into one day. We couldn`t figure out why she had told us to bring fabrics if we weren't going to sew--it seemed like she wanted us to buy her fabric packets instead (this was the Pushed Neutrals class)

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 13:37:39
From: Linda

-Mary Mashuta - as a former interior designer she was teaching a class on setting up a space for quilting. The class was in an auditorium with raised levels. There were tables toward the front and just chairs to the back. There was not enough table space for all participants. That's not her fault, but she was rude to those 3-4 of us who ended up in the back, had no personality at all during the lecture, showed mainly the workspaces at the house she and sister Roberta Horton share (nothing special) and not many other creative solutions to quilting spaces.

JUDY MATHIESON (CA): Mariner's Compass, "Patchwork Pictures"

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 23:26:39
From: Jaye

+I took a class last year from Judy Mathieson on making a Mariner's Compass. It was great!! She is an excellent teacher. I barely needed to take notes and could still make one a year later. I did buy her book and it is clearly written. If you have a chance to take a class from her, I highly recommend it.

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 13:27:11
From: Lori

-How interesting to see that someone thinks Judy Mathieson is a great teacher. I took a fan class from Judy and found her very rude and snobbish. She did not provide any written instructions, required that you pay an additional fee for the templates, and publicly humiliated anyone who did not follow her exact color specifications. I would not recommend Judy to anyone.

From: Sharon
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 22:23:47

+On Saturday I took a really fun class from Judy Matheison on Oval and Off-Center Mariner's Compass. I had never taken a Mariner's compass class before but I have her book and I've drooled over it. In this class we spent the morning drafting the off center and oval compasses -- first in small scale and then on freezer paper. After lunch we set to work on converting our selected fabrics into one of the two designs. I really enjoyed this class -- particularly the drafting. I learned the greatest technique for drafting an oval that I will never forget. (It was worth the price of the class alone! I've never been happy with the string technique which is fairly inaccurate when I've tried it.) I was only able to finish about one quarter of my compass which was a drag -- I wanted to keep sewing! I really liked this class a lot and Bea was a fun drafting partner (although she kept hogging the cutting mat :-) )!

From: Bea
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 13:39:55 PDT

+Oval and Off-Center Mariner's Compass with Judy Mattheison. Sharon Zakhour was in this class and we had a lot of fun doing it. Judy showed us how to draft ovals, and mariner's compasses where the center circle is off-center within the overall circle. First we drafted onto graph paper to get the basic idea, then onto freezer paper for the real thing. In an oval star every piece is unique, so the freezer paper method is perfect: you draft it right onto the freezer paper and then cut it out, and your drafting becomes the templates. And the accuracy of the drafting is a little less picky than usual because each piece only has to work with its neighbors. Judy taught us to machine piece the compasses, and it was quite easy (I've been hand-piecing them so this was great). I got a quarter of my compass done in class. Judy brought a lot of quilts to show, including her famous Nautical Stars quilt (on the cover of her book), which is even more gorgeous in person. She's a good, methodical teacher. She admitted that she's quite conservative about fabric choices but doesn't try to steer you in her direction unless you want her to.

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

+"Patchwork Pictures" with Judy Mathieson. Recommended.
Judy is probably most famous for her Mariner's Compass designs, but in this class, we covered her technique for creating "patchwork pictures." Basically, you grid a piece of flannel with 1.5" grids, and grid a large photograph with a small grid. You then try to match pieces of fabric with the grids on the picture and create a "patchwork picture." This technique works well with photos of pets, etc. If you have read Judy's article on QNM (I forget the issue number, but I have it if you're interested), then you really don't need to go to the class.

MARGARET MILLER (WA): Color Theory, "Strips that Sizzle", "Blockbenders"

From: Jane
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1993 09:43:09

+I attended Quilter's Holiday in Athens, Ohio a week ago and was delighted with Margaret Miller's "Strips that Sizzle" class (2 days) ..so much so that I signed up for her newest...Blockbenders..the technique was difficult but the theory and color theory was fabulous. If you have an opportunity to take a class with Margaret.. DO IT! She's a delightful person and a great teacher.

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 13:33:56 PST
From: Marina

+ Margaret Miller is a great teacher, really high energy, funny, and supportive. If you haven't taken a class from her, go for it. She just spoke at our guild and her blockbuster quilts are very innovative, nobody else is making anything like them IMHO.

JOYCE MURRIN: Original Block Design

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Joyce Murrin -- another teacher who sparked creativity in a way that did not inhibit anyone who did not feel creative at the moment. Her geometric inset piecing and designing original blocks that may or may not be representational in class added to my repertoire of skills.

MIRIAM NATHAN-ROBERTS

From:Katie
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994

+I would like to report a very positive experience at the Surface Design Symposium with Miriam Nathan-Roberts. She is from Berkeley, but fit right in with us midwestern traditional types! She has an art background and has moved from traditional approaches into her own personal style. She has displayed works at Quilt National (Athens, OH) and Visions (in San Diego), both exhibits known for original art quilts. Her class was on "altered grids", where we took a traditional quilt block and re-configured it using rectangles and triangles instead of the usual square as a grid. We did 2 days of design work on graph paper with colored pencils, then got into fabric for our own projects. This was a 5-day workshop. Miriam was a very supportive and honest teacher who helped each person move from where they started to a few steps further along the creative curve. I learned a lot from her about seeing the work as a whole (including borders), about using color value to create depth and illusion, and about bringing a personal vision to the work. Highly recommended!

SARA NEPHEW (WA): Triangle Piecing

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:16:31
From: Ida

+About a month ago I took a class from Sara Nephew called Building Block Quilts (Isometric: 3D Workshop). This was another good experience. Sara showed us how to make a certain quilt/pattern and if we wanted to, we could stop there and just make the workshop sort of a project oriented thing. But she also explained the thought process behind her technique, so we could branch out and design our own quilts. hmm. I am still digesting the things she taught. Currently my quilt from this class is on my wall at home and I am finally sewing it together. I chose to do Hollow Cubes.

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Sara Nephew -- I learned triangle piecing from her. Her books have many good ideas. I almost finished piecing a top in her all-day workshop. That's fast working, but her techniques add speed to cutting and piecing.

ANNE OLIVER: "White on White"

From: LEAH
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 13:12:24

+I'm new to the net today. Took a class from Anne Oliver at the annual Belle Grove/Winchester Quilt show. She has won first place at both Paducah and Lancaster for her white on white and mostly white applique quilts.
I love piecing too much to ever do a white on white, but I found the class quite enlightening. Excellent tips on marking quilt tops, costume designing fillers, using freezer paper on file folders, etc.
if you see her listed as an instructor somewhere, in my humble opinion, she is well worth the money.

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

+Anne was very giving - sharing all of her secrets for her wonderful white on white quilts, which she designs using freezer paper. She allowed students to trace any of her designs and freely told all of the students which products she recommends for marking, etc.
In this class, students learned of Anne's amazing design techniques, which could be applied toward many styles of quiltmaking - not necessarily just white on white.

ELLEN OPENHEIMER

From: Marina
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 13:28:10

+The SFQG guild had Ellen Openheimer as our speaker last night and she was terrific! She has a very unassuming, funny manner of speaking, even tho her work has won awards at Quilt National she did not "put on airs" :-)
As she began showing her early quilts, I was amazed at the variety of fabric prints she used. She had some of the ugliest fabrics I have ever seen! Yet the finiahed products were gorgeous, altho she showed one bright green and orange creation that did not win a prize at the Marin Quilt show because the judges couldn't stand the colors. The next year, she made a black and white and gray quilt, but it didn't win either.
Her latest quilts are incredibly complex "maze" designs, pieced with striped fabrics she silk-screens and dyes herself. I inspected one of the pieces she had brought and as you might expect, the silk screening made it quite stiff.
Altho she said it is machine quilted, I could not discover any quilting lines. She uses a thin layer of Warm and Natural batting which she irons a lot so it is flat and almost "fused" to the top and backing, so not much quilting is needed. All her piecing is done with the machine using a technique she calls "machine inlay". She showed slides of how this is done but none of us felt we were ready to try it :-)
It was a most enjoyable meeting and I heartily recommend Ellen Openheimer as a speaker for any guild. She lives in Oakland or Emeryville, CA, just across the Bay from San Francisco. Oh, by the way, she does not sell many of her quilts, she earns her living as a glassblower, making neon signs. She also makes neon glass sculptures. A very talented person.

KATY PASQUINI-MASOPUST (NM): Mandalas, "Isometric Perspective"

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 13:38:00
From: Mary

+I have taken two classes from Katy Pasquini-Masapust (sp?) and she is a wonderful person as well as a great teacher. She is knowledgeable, entertaining, and very helpful. It would be worth taking a class taught by her any time you get the chance to do so.

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Katie Pasquini Mausopast -- I have taken her mandala class and learned a lot that I continue to use for special event wallhangings. I'd like to take her 3-d class.

From: Susan
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1993 00:04:16

+Katie Pasquini Masopust spoke at the Monday morning breakfast at the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta on June 14, 1993. Her topic was "Quilts and Quilt Trips". Listening to Katie is a pleasure. She didn't talk about techniques and the room seemed to be extra dark that morning, so I have very few notes. Katie was the only speaker (out of 6 lectures) at the NM Quilt Fiesta that had trouble with her slides. Her slides jammed several times. Anita Murphy came to the rescue with her nail file. Poor Katie seemed about ready to quit two thirds of the way through her talk.
Katie's slides covered trips to Japan, Australia, "Quilting by the Lake," and Niagra Falls. She showed a picture of Doreen Speckman (who likes Disneyland) in a "Goofy" hat. (For those of you who have never seen Doreen, she is a rather tall, broad-shouldered, stout woman.)
Katie collects pictures of road signs. Not signs with just words. She collects the pictoral variety. She has quite a collection and people send her more. Katie says the pictures are simple and thus make good applique designs. However, I've not seen anything in her quilts that looked like it came from a road sign. One of the most popular signs she showed was for an "elderly crossing." It showed an older man and woman with a cane as I recall.
Katie told a story about some quilts she once made and embellished with beads to represent stars in the sky. Someone, (one of her brothers, perhaps), complained that the stars weren't in the right position. On the next quilt, she enlisted her boyfriend to project an image on the quilt and get the "stars" in the right places. The boyfriend disappeared from her life shortly after that quilt . . .
Katie showed some slides of her isometric/geometric designs. She is now doing landscapes. Her landscape quilt "Pecos River" was displayed at the Fiesta in the exhibit area as a "teacher quilt." One GORGEOUS quilt!!! She had one quilt on display in her booth and one in a hoop quilting on it when she wasn't busy with customers. On Saturday, I saw her preparing to quilt on the one she had in the hoop. After positioning it in the hoop and tightening the hoop down, she clipped her basting threads and removed them from the area within the hoop. I've never seen or heard of this before, but it would eliminate the problem of quilting through your basting threads.
In her "Katie's Collection" booth, Katie had a variety of hand silk-screened fabric in a designs such as leaves, stars, dinosaurs and "computer". The computer design looks kind of like punched cards. The pieces are not quite a fat quarter. She also had some hand silk-screened lame and some plain lame. She also had some of her books for sale. Katie seemed to be staffing her booth by herself. I think she taught a class on Monday, but I never made it to the exhibit area that day.
Katie is a real sweetheart. Her business cards are about 3 1/2" by 4" with 4 horizontal stripes, 2 black and 2 in a bright color. Different cards are in different colors, bright pink, lime green, yellow, etc. Her business cards just give her name as "Katie" (no last name) and describes her as "Teacher - Lecturer Author Designer and Fun Person". Seems to be an accurate description. She sells mail order and at shows (no store). The business card indicates mail order of fabrics, books and supplies. Send self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and 1 dollar for samples. She also had cards out for the 1994 Alegre Retreat in Santa Fe, NM (March 23-27, 1994). It will feature Terrie Hancock Mangat teaching mixed media quiltmaking and Katie teaching landscapes with color xerox. For information on the retreat, send a large SASE.

The address is:
Katie, c/o Alegre Retreat or Katie's Collection
230 Rancho Alegre Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
(505) 471-2899

From: Bea
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 13:39:55 PDT

+Isometric Perspective with Katie Pasquini-Masopust. She taught us how to draft isometric shapes of all kinds. We also pieced one shape so that she could show us how to do her kind of set-in piecing. She was very lively and kept it interesting. She brought along all kinds of tools that we could buy (as usual), including a template for isometric circles, pads of isometric graph paper, really nice marking pencils, rulers, etc. Most of what she teaches in included in her book on the subject, but it's always nice to be shown the techniques. I don't think I'll ever make an isometric quilt, though.

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 08:54:51
From: Denise

+Katie came to our guild to teach a class on Isometric Perspective and to talk at our monthly meeting.
The class was great. Everything she taught is in the book by the same title, but it was good to have her explain how she developed things and tried different things until she got it right. She is a very entertaining person. We each made an iso block by hand. I hate handpiecing but enjoyed the class anyway. We put all of our blocks together on the wall, and they looked great!
Unfortunately, Katie wasn't feeling well toward the end of the class and so we wrapped things up pretty quickly and she went to her hotel to sleep. I was going to take her to G Street Fabrics the following day, but she didn't feel well enough.
By Monday evening, she felt a little better and gave a very entertaining talk. She calls her talk Quilts and Quilt Trips. We all laughed a lot during the talk. She has just gotten Dimensional Portal back from its tour and brought it with her to show us. It is the quilt on the cover of Isometric Perspectives. The picture does not do it justice. All of the isometric quilts were more intense than the pictures would make you think. She also brought quilts from her 3-Dimensional Design book- including the cover quilt, Atomic Azalea. All of the quilts were great.
Katie has completed her series of quilts based on isometrics and is beginning a series she calls Fractured Landscapes. The two that she brought to share were incredible.
For the teacher review FAQ- I'd say that Katie was a good teacher and her class was very informative and entertaining. She did push us to hurry at the end of the class while we were handpiecing our blocks, but that might have been because she was feeling ill. I would recommend the class to anyone interested in non-traditional quilt design.

YVONNE PORCELLA: Patchwork Garments, Silk Painting

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 14:03:00
From: Marina

+Yvonne Porcella--I got more done in her classes than I ever imagined I could, she also is very supportive of everyone's own unique style, and has done all the techniques she teaches for so long that she can help you out of any problem--she has made all the mistakes herself and knows how to fix them

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Yvonne Porcella -- I have taken patchwork garments and silk painting classes from her and loved the results. I love her books and I have used her patterns a _lot_ for garments.

JUDITH REILLY - QUILT DESIGNING (CT)

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 11:19:46 EST
From: Gail

+ I just took a workshop with Judith Reilly of CT on design. It was called "Expanding Your Comfort Zone" and was a "gentle" push into contemporary quilt design. While there are so many things that are still settling into my brain, one point that she made applies to Betsy's question. The quilt Judith is currently working on has 400 fabrics, predominantly blues and yellows. 400! She buys 1/4 yard pieces for the most part. While most of us may find that overwhelming, the point is that you can use more than four or five fabrics. Don't see what you have as a limitation, but rather a starting point.
She also says: Determine what is traditional, predictable and expected--and don't do it. She showed us how to design blocks, starting with a traditional one, then changing proportions to make all kinds of variations. (This is also seen in the current American Quilter.)
Judith taught the importance of the paper design process--something I had only used to draft a design once I had the concept. Now I will draw and draw and draw. I applied this to the block I have for a border exchange--drew the block and it's first border to scale. It's amazing what I saw about the block that I had missed before. And I can make practice paper borders to fit around the block so that I can see what each will do before I commit to making one. (1/4 scale for a block, or smaller scale for a whole quilt is enough to let you visualize the whole. I also think, though, that it would be worth investing in large 1" grid grapph paper for some things.)
Out tools at the workshop were graph paper, colored pencils, a C-thru ruler, compass, triangles--all art tools.
Judith talked a little about color and the importance of multiple values and the placement of values to move the eye. One thing that struck me is her current project in which there are very dark blocks, all different dark navy to midnight blues. In spite of the lack of contrast, you can still see the star design that is the block's construction. And there are incredible focal points within the block that stand out in spite of the monotone nature.
While you may not want to leave "traditional" quilt making, I still think there are valuable lessons, especially about the design-on-paper step. Try lots of stuff on paper--draw more than one block and see how they might fit together. Change block proportions. Do non-blocks.
Judith also said--do work that YOU love, not what you think judges expect, or that your family, friends, etc. expect or approve of. I always ask my SO what he thinks of something (knowing that we have different tastes), then he feels slighted when I find my own answer. I feel bad, and there's this personal thing associated with design that isn't always happy or fun.
Judith was written up in the summer American Quilter. I haven't seen that article (if someone could send me a copy I'd really appreciate it), but I saw some of her quilts and clothes. What an exciting quiltmaker, also excellent teacher and speaker.
I've shared a few of the thoughts I came home with. I hope that you will take a class with Judith if you have the chance. She is delightful.

CAMILLE REMME: Innovative Uses of Traditional Patterns

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Camille Remme -- she was just at our guild and presented a good program. Everyone who took her workshops had something to show and some had even finished machine quilting their pieced projects within two days for show and tell. Interesting ideas for innovative uses of traditional patterns.

SUE RODGERS (NJ): Innovative Piecing, Marbling, Dyeing, Trapunto Vest

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+I have spent almost a week with Judy and Sue Rogers and Carol Esch working on innovative piecing, quilting, and marbling and dyeing fabric at a Vermont resort owned by Judy's cousin and kept looking for Bob Newhart to show up. It was a _wonderful_ experience.

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 13:37:39
From: Linda

+Sue Rodgers - "Trapunto Vest" - this was an excellent class and Sue is a wonderful instructor. It was clear that we were not making the actual vest in class, but we brought vest patterns and I expected we would get our trapunto design from patterns provided by the instructor. Better than that, we first learned how to modify our vest patterns to make them work better with trapunto. Then, in addition to her own design patterns, which we were welcome to use, she had also brought many, many, many design books from which we could plan our own vest design. And she helped each person individually (it helped that we only had 9 in the class) to take their ideas and best adapt them to the vest pattern. She taught trapunto stitching and stuffing techniques, doing an excellent job by presenting them in slides, as she demonstrated, and then working with us. As a novice quilter, she had me try out her method of quilting, but was good enough to back off and let me do what worked for me (none of this "Do it my way or forget it.") Everything we needed to do the entire vest, both material covered in class and other details, was provided in a well-done handout. Yes, she has a book, but you didn't have to buy the book because the handout was so complete (and she was not selling the books in the classroom)!

JUNE RYKER: "Log Cabin Designs"

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+June Ryker -- I found her teaching style to be overly simple, but her round log cabin quilts showed up as finished projects at our guild's show and tell within the month. So her projects are striking and you feel as if you have done something quite innovative -- and you have!

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

+"Log Cabin Designs" with June Ryker. Recommended.
June's log cabin designs are amazing, but her teaching style is not of the same calibre. June has her students use colored pencils to color in different log cabin designs that she hands out. Unless you are not at all familiar with log cabin designs, most of the class is not for you. However, June's designs are very inspiring, and you're sure to learn something just by looking at them!

SUSAN SAWYER: "Color Notebook"

From: MaryHelen
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 18:35:35

+"Color Notebook" with Susan Sawyer was great -- it was a beginning class dealing with color theory, color study. Mostly, Susan would give some color terms and we would do an exercise on that idea. For instance, we spoke about temperature. Colors are cool and warm, our exercise was to create a grid of cool colors and one of warm colors. I enjoyed this class and got a great deal out of it. I've been looking at everything differently since the class. Susan was very warm and approachable. She gave each of us a small sketch notebook which I have found invaluable. We did all our exercises in this book (pasted fabric in with a glue stick). I've been carrying this notebook with me everywhere and when I get an idea, I sketch it quickly and write down any ideas I have about it.

DIANE RODE SCHNECK (NY): "Freedom Quilting"

From: Carol
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 08:45:23

+By the last class I was pretty worn out, but it was a low key design type class taught by Diana Schneck who I think is on this list. HI! Diane had us try to loosen up and compose The Freedom Quilt. She gave us a handout listing the structure of the class--that there were no rules! We were encouraged to not measure, or copy a pattern, but to try to design without meticulous calculations. Many fun quilts hung around the room to inspire us. Our first exercise was to cut a nine patch by not measuring. Just cut. We were all fairly accurate even without the ruler. But then she had us try to loosen up even more by piecing a nine patch with odd angles--this was more difficult. She showed us a variety of ways we could compose Flying Geese, Houses, other combinations. I brought a ton of fabric--but zeroed in a colorful bunch and decided to make a bunch of houses with a starry sky background. I like houses to begin with. After I got home, I continued with the piece and started adding various askew borders sort of tilting the whole piece winding up with a colorful kitty cat border. I had fun loosening up with this piece I call Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Now I have to really dig in and finish these things.

From: Linda
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 21:01:31
+Sorry, just popping up my head again. :) The "freedom quilt" teacher's proper name is Diane Rode Schneck. She is a GEnie friend of mine and is probably attempting to subscribe to this list even as we speak. :) She just got Internet access recently. Diane is a talented lady with lots to contribute.
I think the class she teaches was inspired by a visit to the exhibit "Who'd A Thunk It" when it was in NYC. :)

ELLIE SIENKIEWITZ (DC): Applique

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

+Ellie Sienkevitz: She's a joy -- a real person, very down to earth. I've done a lot of applique, but picked up a LOT of tips from her. Run to any workshop she gives (although her lecture she gave during lunch was a little dull, I thought).

AMI SIMMS (MI): Hand Quilting

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:25:18
From: Bea

+I took a short workshop with Ami Simms on improving my quilting stitch. That was very helpful; amazing what she could cram into three hours! She's very nice and funny and gave a lot of specific useful advice on thimbles, needles, battings, and technique. She watched each person quilt and gave feedback to each of us.

DOREEN SPECKMANN: "Interlocking Pinwheels"

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

+Doreen Speckmann: She's a lot of fun. This is the first class I ever had where I actually finished the project I started in the class. It was on Interlocking Pinwheels, and she had us design our own blocks and put them together. I came away with LOTS of great ideas for future quilts.

Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 10:06:10
From: Cynthia

+I heartily recommend Doreen Specman.

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Doreen Speckman -- delightful. I have known her for many years -- since before she became "famous", and I have always enjoyed taking one more class from her just to spend the day in her company.

From: Sharon
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 22:23:47

+My favorite lecturer was, of course, Doreen Speckman. I had heard how great and how hysterical she was from so many people that I figured, she can't be *that* good. Of course, I was wrong. I laughed so hard I embarrassed myself. I'd like to take my husband to see her some day. I think he'd really enjoy her and I haven't laughed that hard in a dark room since I went to Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco several years ago.

From: Bea
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 13:39:55 PDT
+I attended three lectures, the best of which was by Doreen Speckman. She is completely hilarious, she had us in tears. She also brought MANY quilts, and she just spread them out on a table and let us paw through them as we wished. Really interesting work. She's a great demonstration of what can happen if you follow one idea as far as it takes you (which was partly what her lecture was about). Her quilts are all made with a set of basic shapes, but she varies the fabrics and compositions so that they're amazingly different.

Subject: Doreen Speckman and other threads
From: Barbara

+I have known Doreen Speckman for many years -- even before she was discovered! I met her in 1980 at the Continental Quilt Congress in Alexandria, Virginia. Doreen became good friends with the friend I was with and initially through her Doreen got her first out-of-state speaking and workshop job. She has been going strong ever since, riding a _lot_ on her personality and fantastic sense of humor. I'm always so excited whenever I read that she has tickled your funny bones. She is good!
She has recently written a book called Pattern Play published by C&T Publishing. It's advertised in QNM.

SHERRY SUNDAY: "Perfectly Painless Applique by Machine"

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 13:37:39
From: Linda

?Sherry Sunday - "Perfectly Painless Applique by Machine" Not good at step-by-step description of technique--in fact, very confusing when trying to describe what to do. She did have handouts which were not hard to figure out. We had only those and each other to try to figure things out at first. Once she had gone through the technique, she came around as we were working and was able to clear up problems by helping us in small groups. She did have a good kit. At first we thought it seemed expensive at $18, but it included all the materials for the top of a wall hanging, most already cut to size, including nylon and machine embroidery threads, freezer paper, glue stick, marking pencil--everything you'd need except the machine, needles and bobbinns--along with a mini-kit containing everything needed to learn and practice her two main techniques. And she was good enough to answer totally unrelated questions and demonstrate other techniques the class was interested in during the time we were working on our wall hangings.

ANNIE VICHE: "From Landscape to Architecture"

From: Marina
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 13:09:25 PDT

+Annie Viche: also French. I did not expect to like this class after I heard that the students from the day before were unhappy. She did not ask anyone to bring their own fabric, but then the "kit" she brought did not include enough fabric to get very far in the project she had planned. Also some people were unhappy that she wanted them to follow her design altho when a kit is involved, I should think it is necessary. However, she gave everyone in my class TWO kits and then traded a third kit with me in exchange for a piece of hand dyed fabric. So I had the opposite experience. Since I was warned, I did throw some fabrics in a bag to bring along to class, but I didn't need to use many of them. The project was a lady holding an umbrella. She gave us a face xeroxed on a piece of paper, to use it we would have to get it transferred to fabric somehow. But it turned out I had brought along a cotton hankie with a Japanese geisha face printed on it that was just the right size! It was so funny to see a Japanese face on a French body, but it really works perfectly. So instead of a French lady, I will have a Japanese one. Maybe Annie was more generous with our class because we were the last and she didn't have to worry about running out of kits, maybe she was predisposed to like us because our class was billed as "advanced", or maybe the grumpy students in the other class got on her nerves :-), I really don't know. But I finished the woman's body in just one day, I just have to fill in some background and my piece will be done. Of course I an now thinking it might be fun to use her as a medallion for a bigger piece! Everyone else in my class made just as much progress as I did, so it's a good class if you want to go home with something nearly completed. It is simple strip pieceing, the only tough part will be figuring out how to attach the pieces of the body which we made separately. She suggested machine appliquing them down on the background, which is the easiest way, I think.

From: Sharon
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 93 22:23:47

-On Friday I took Annie Viche's "From Landscape to Architecture" class. I was one of the disgruntled students that Marina mentions in her post. She didn't attempt to explain her philosophy or technique. She merely showed us her work, gave us our assignment and our $20 kits which contained practically no fabric and nowhere near enough to finish the project (and of course since these were French fabrics we have no hope of ever finishing the project) and set us on our way of cutting and sewing endless strips. A couple of the students wanted to do things slightly differently (like use foundation techniques and she very politely objected and encouraged us to do things her way -- she then confessed that she had never heard of foundation techniques). Every single student I spoke to in that class was very frustrated with the class. She was very nice but I certainly would never drop another $85 talking a class with her. So now I have some stripped "yardage" of French fabrics. I'm trying to decide what to do with them. (The strips are 1/2 inches and I probably have the equivalent of a fat quarter total.) Any ideas?

DEBRA WAGNER (MN): Machine Quilting, Intricate Piecing

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

+Debra Wagner -- my guru for machine quilting and intricate piecing. I _love_ her stuff! You wouldn't believe what she can make a sewing machine do for her. Her classes are well organized, structured, and highly instructional. She has handouts to back up everything she teaches.

JUDY WARREN (OH): "Star Gardens", "Color and Transparency"

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:25:18
From: Bea

+The best teacher I've had to date is Judi Warren, who travels all over the country. She is very inspiring and in a mere two days opened up whole new realms of inspiration to me, especially in the way I use fabrics together. I took her "Star Gardens" workshop, and she was equally positive and helpful to each of us. She could make just the right comments to get each person going in their own direction. As she says, she wants to help each student make the quilt that only he or she can make, and I think she succeeds.

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00 EST

+"Color and Transparency" with Judi Warren. Highly recommended.
In this class, Judi's students create the illusion of transparency with fabric. Transparencies of color, value, and pattern are created under Judi's watchful eye. Judi is an excellent instructor and pushed her students to try her methods during the class, even if they are not the ones that they usually use. This often results in a new-found technique.
Recommendation: do not take solids to this class - take prints. They are easier to work with.

KATHLEEN WEINHEIMER: Color

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:57:54
From: Lori

+Kathleen Weinheimer: Kathleen teaches in NE. I've taken two classes with her: Amish Color and Scrapbag Color. I learned an incredible amount about color with her. I wish I lived close enough to take her weekly classes. Highly recommend.

JANET WICKELL: Fabric Marbelizing

From: Carol
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1993 15:32:26
+My first class was fabric marbellizing with Janet Wickell. (editor of Miniworks) Working with a partner we spattered paint on a size, combed the paint circles in various configurations and lowered muslin to produce those wonderful swirling feathery designs. Didn't think I could do it, but it was magic. Each design pattern has a traditional name such as get gel, non pareil, bouquet. Time went by so quickly, but we each produced quite a stash. Janet was a patient wonderful teacher.

DARRA DUFFY WILLIAMSON (NC): "Seeing Stars"

From: Corrie
Date: 12 Nov 93 10:45:00

+"Seeing Stars" with Darra Duffy Williamson. Highly recommended.
Darra is an excellent teacher, and anyone who gets a chance to take a class with her should go for it, as you are sure to learn something that you can apply in the future. During this class, students shaded a grouped 4-patch of Ohio Stars - shading from the center, as if it were one block. Students then created fabric mockups of their designs. It was amazing to see the different results created from the same pattern.
Darra also shared her secrets on piecing techniques and the use of mirrors on fabric. It was a great, fun class, and Darra is an excellent, organized instructor.

JOEN WOLFROM (WA): Color, Strip-Pieced Landscapes

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 17:28:19
From: Beverly

+I took a workshop from Joen Wolfrom last year and really enjoyed it. She is so knowledgeable about color and had us do some very interesting exercises using color. I, personally, am not interested in doing strip-pieced landscapes, but learned to look at landscapes very differently. I think a workshop with her would be well worth your time and money.

GENERAL HINTS

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 14:16:31
From: Ida
Overall, I find that the teachers usually have something to sell. A book, a ruler, or whatever. I happen to love books and gadgets and if someone can show me an easy to achieve stunning results then I'm sold. But some teachers tend to make their class one big infommercial and that can be disappointing.

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1993 23:51:41
From: Barbara

I know you want to get the most out of the best teachers. If you have the time to take just about any workshop, though, you will probably learn something new -- and you never know when you'll learn something that will inspire you so greatly that you end up growing in new directions. Good luck.

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 13:37:39
From: Linda

A general note. It seems that some of the instructors are good artistically, but those types can't always translate their right-brained creativity into the left-brained organization needed for teaching. If you are patient there's usually a chance, especially with individual attention to get it out of them. But if they are rude or stubborn about technique, the class quickly goes down the tubes!