2009 Retreat Teachers and Workshops

Kathy Higgins, Fall River, Nova Scotia, Canada

Kathy Higgins has had a 23-year passion for quilting.  While employed at the Cotton Patch in Bedford for the last 18 years, she was able to experience the joys of teaching both traditional and new quilting techniques to quilters of all skill levels. Her association with the Halifax quilting community and the Mayflower Quilters Guild has allowed her to travel throughout Nova Scotia and teach various workshops for other quilting guilds, including a Retreat at Keltic Lodge and at the Northumberland Quilt Guild Retreat. While many of the classes she teaches are ‘machine’ projects and techniques, she enjoys hand quilting and hand appliqué.  She is a long time member and past President of the Mayflower Quilters Guild, and also a member of CQA and AQS.

WORKSHOP: BORDERS WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

Kathy's class project is a Medallion Sampler. Border print fabrics will be used in a variety of designs to produce a stunning wall hanging.  Border prints are simple and fun. Take the challenge and see what magic happens when the fabric is cut into different shapes and designs. A technique I call Border Print Appliqué will also be used and demonstrated during the workshop.  The project may be machine or hand pieced.  Each “Medallion” will be unique.

Border Sampler - Kathy Higgins

Borders Without Boundaries - Kathy Higgins

Joen Wolfrom, Fox Island, Washington, USA

Joen Wolfrom began quiltmaking in the early 70s after she left her career in the educational field to become a homemaker and stay-at-home mom. Her interest in color and design surfaced in the early 1980s. She has taught and lectured in the quilting field, both nationally and internationally since 1981. Her international engagements include working in the U.K., Canada, Europe, the Far East and South Africa. Joen has created commissions for many private clients and corporations, and is in collections throughout the world.

Joen is the author of eleven books: Visual Coloring, Color Play, The Visual Dance, The Magical Effects of Color, Landscapes & Illusions, Make Any Block Any Size, Patchwork Persuasion, A Garden Party of Quilts, and she designed the 3-in-1 Color Tool. Joen is the owner of JWD Publishing, a company that publishes patterns of quilts and other quilt-related projects by leading quiltmakers and designers.

WORKSHOP: SUMMER BLOOMS and NORTHERN LIGHTS

Create a happy, blooming flower quilt using Joen’s curved-piecing, freezer paper technique. Besides helpful curved-piecing hints, you will be presented with many ideas for creating beautifully curved-pieced flower designs. You will design your quilt in class, as well as make a practice piece to learn the techniques. You will begin working on your flower design in class, and progress as time allows.

On the third day you will have fun creating your own Northern Lights, a radiant quilt filled with lustrous color magic. This is a simple design that vibrates with exciting color movement, due to subtle value changes. The construction is ever so simple. You can select from four sizes: wall quilt, lap quilt, coverlet, or twin-/double-bed quilt.

Summer Blooms - Joen Wolfrom

Northern Lights - Joen Wolfrom

Heather Stewart, Arva, Ontario, Canada

Heather Stewart has taught for guilds and shops in all Canadian provinces and several states. She has a wealth of experience in teaching quilting to all levels of quilters. Many of her workshops, such as Colour for Quilters, focus on teaching skills which will be useful throughout a quilter’s life. Even in her project-based workshops she helps the students discover new techniques and options through colour and pattern variations. Heather began quilting as a child and has taken her hobby and turned it into a profession. She works full time preparing and giving workshops and lectures. Even her new hobby of beading creeps into the quilt studio from time to time and becomes part of an art quiltlet or fabric doll.

WORKSHOP: LOG CABIN CHEVRON

The Log Cabin Chevron quilt made in this workshop is a replica of a quilt made in the late 1800’s. The original quilt was made with silks but we will be using a variety of reproduction cotton fabrics to get a similar look. Heather's students will be taught to select fabrics for the construction of the log cabin blocks and then to make the chevrons from the leftover strips. If you want to leave some of your fabrics uncut, we can age them in the class. Colour theory for antique reproduction quilts will be discussed as well as demonstrations of aging fabrics for reproductions quilts through tea-dyeing, discharging and painting. The workshop will include fabric aging demonstrations.

Log Cabin Chevron (Traditional) - Heather Stewart

Log Cabin Chevron (contemporary) - Heather Stewart