Soy Wax Workshop this Summer!

I hope that you will join me for five days of creative fun while we explore the many ways we can use soy wax resists to create pattern , colour and design on fabric.
Red Deer College, in central Alberta is offering an excellent summer arts programme and thye have asked me to teach two workshops.
Soy Wax Resists is being held July 29th- August 2nd and can be either a residential week or you can stay off campus. Click HERE  to the full information about the programmes and workshops that are offered.
In Soy Wax Resists we will be exploring pattern, texture, design and colour using soy wax as a resist method on a cotton, linen, silks and sheers. 

 We will experiment with painted wax resists, stitch resist, and screen printing with thickened dyes and paints using inexpensive tools such as brushes, masks and sponges. 

Time will be spent learning design principles and mark making and colour theory as well as discussions of how the fabrics can be used in clothing, home decor, mixed media and quilts. Soy wax
is a renewable resource, kind to the environment and easy to remove with washing! 
I hope you will be joining me in Red Deer!

Catching Up!

Travelling is a big part of how I spend my time. Last month I was in North Dakota, teaching for a great guild in Bismarck. I hadn't expected to encounter a snow storm!

Then I was home for a few days and managed to make for soy wax resist fat quarters for my trip to Ontario.

packed up all my goodies and headed to Ottawa three weeks ago. I taught for six guilds over 3 1/2 weeks and visited my beautiful grand daughter. It was also be a great chance to reconnect with many friends, take pictures, do some sketching and very little housework!

 

Now its back in the studio to work on my next projects......................

Quilters Calendar - for Teachers and Students

The Quilter’s Calendar - Connecting Quilters, Quilt Guilds and Quilting Teachers

Quilting teachers Maggie Ball and Marguerita McManus became friends when they met at a trade show in 2007 where they were both promoting their new quilt books. Rather than seeing each other as competition, they shared marketing tips, teaching experiences, and a common frustration.

Many quilting teachers rely on guilds hiring them to teach classes to their members for a significant portion of their income. With a quilt guild in almost every town in the USA and over 21 million quilters in the USA, the challenge for teachers is how to reach guilds and how to make it easy for quilters and guilds to learn about available teachers: their classes, specialties, talents, styles and schedules. Most teachers rely on a combination of word of mouth, random connections made at trade shows, websites, emails, mailed media and hope.

A central location of easily accessible data would help tremendously. Somewhere that guild members could see who’s teaching nearby (and when) that would also provide information and links to the teachers.

The Quilter’s Calendar is a searchable online calendar that presents teaching engagements by location and date, making it easy for guilds to share the expenses of hiring a traveling teacher, thereby reducing expenses to each guild. Listing a teaching gig is free to the teacher or guild and so is the Teacher’s Profile, which includes a link to the teacher’s website. Guilds can save money and teachers have the opportunity to be hired more often without additional effort or expense.

Additionally, many quilters love to travel to quilting related events. Quilt shows, retreats, even when visiting family, quilters will often find a way to attend a quilting related event. By using the calendar and searching by their destination location, quilters will easily find classes and events that would otherwise have taken hours to search out.

Created by Marguerita McManus, co-author of the best selling “Crazy Shortcut Quilts” book and YouTube Partner with over 1 million views to her videos, the site debuts with over 80 Teacher Profiles and more than 850 Teaching Engagements, throughout the USA and Canada, into 2015. Marguerita created the Quilt Designers Blog Ring in 2007 and continues to share marketing information with entrepreneurs on a YouTube channel.

Quilters Calendar - For Teachers and Students

I just listed my teaching schedule on The Quilter’s Calendar - a brand new site for quilters and guilds to find traveling quilt teachers on. By sharing my schedule on the searchable calendar increases my opportunities to receive “piggy back” bookings to my engagements. While you are there, submit your photo, bio and tags (free!) to make it easier for guilds and students to find you. Get Listed at www.quilters-calendar.com  

 

Another Shattered Angles Class

Last month I had the privilege of visiting the Stitches from the Heart Quilt Guild in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It was a very welcoming experience and I met many gracious and talented quilters. They treated me so well, it was a pleasure to be there and I hope they'll invite me back again.
I taught a Shattered Angles class, my Tasters Choice Buffet class ( a little taste of lots of techniques) and presented the "Full Meal Deal" lecture! An exciting weekend.
Here are some pictures form the Shattered Angles class:

The strip units are cut and ready for sewing.

Rich and dramatic colour choices show that every kind of fabric works for this technique.

I think Bonnie likes to use blue in her quilts, always a great choice!



Don't you just love the bright and vibrant batiks?

Heddys and Frances are discussing possible block arrangments.

All the ladies did a super job on their quilts and I'd love to see some pictures of the finished products! thanks for a wonderful teaching experience!