Quiltcon 2020 Workshops
Scenes from my “Boro-Inspired Quilting” workshops
I’ve been back from Quiltcon for almost 2 weeks now and I’m still super inspired by the workshops I taught and everyone I met there. I stayed busy, with 4 workshops spread out over 3 days. I don’t know what I would have done with my sis-in-law Jenny to help me out. Having her helped everything run so much more smoothly. Plus she’s just fun to hang out with!
Boro from Wise Craft Quilts
The Boro workshops are really about creating a freeform composition with cloth. I give the students a color triangle formula before the class to help guide them in choosing their color palettes and how much of any one color they want to see in the work. From there, I have them cut some squares and rectangles out of the fabrics they’ve designated as more accent pieces and I work with them to start laying out and creating their composition. Both wabi-sabi, and controlled.
Many of us feel a bit freer to create with some guidelines and rules, even loose ones. One on one, we discuss what feels like its working in the composition and how the colors are flowing across the piece. From there, we create a plan going forward. There are hand stitches that will add another layer over their work. The workshop creates good conversations as we talk about what worked in a surprising way and what happy accidents they’ve discovered.
The Mastering Color Value Class is a fun, colorful, fast-paced workshop. Really an exercise in letting go, allowing fabrics fall where they may. Teaching this workshop on a regular basis now, I see students reluctance at the beginning of class, only to be pleasantly surprised by the end. Just like the Boro workshop, we let go creatively, but a bit differently in this class. Thank you to all the students, I truly enjoyed you all!
The class sample for the Mastering Color Value workshop
The show was inspiring as always, and I look forward to next year’s Quiltcon already!
If you are interested in learning about my method of using color value in my quilts and can’t make it to an in-person class, you can join me in my online class Modern Scrap Quilts Using Color Value anytime. Look for more online classes coming soon. Make sure you’re on my mailing list to be notified when new ones launch.