Classes
What could be more delightful than a day spent expanding your quilting skills?
I enjoy helping quilters learn. My classes are about having fun, trying new things, letting go of the rules and making great quilts. They’re not workshops, they’re playshops. You’ll leave inspired to sew!
Looking for open enrollment classes, available to anyone? I’d love to have you join me.
Classes I book for guilds, shops and events:
1. Color, Contrast & Cohesion
These three C’s can make or break your quilt! Learn to control them with practical exercises as you begin a simply pieced scrap quilt. Learn why color is the least important of the three C’s. Discover ways to unify diverse fabrics and wrap your mind around the way value and contrast work together. Get comfortable with making decisions as you go, because that’s what a scrap quilt requires.
Once you begin to work in this way, you might not want to go back! Choose from several easily pieced designs so you’ll love what you’re making. Get ready to be inspired!
2. Ahead of the Curve:
Improvising a Round (full day)
I’m excited for this new class because improvisational curves are fun and easy! I’ll teach you how to cut and sew the curves while paying attention to value and scale in your fabrics so that your results are smashing. We’ll cover lots of ideas for adding machine quilting details and hand stitched embellishments, and I’ll show you how to finish it off with a facing instead of a binding.
3. Intro to Improv: Night Lights & Beyond (full day or two day)
Improvisational patchwork is fun and freeing! In this adventure-lover’s class, we’ll break it down into manageable steps that are easily understood. You’ll learn to make a variety of units which then lead to blocks and quilt designs. I provide enough structure but also enough freedom to make improv both achievable and challenging.
Your improv project can be made to look modern or traditional or anything in between. My quilts are usually bright but yours will be made according to your tastes!
Learning the basics of improvisational patchwork will open up a new world for you—a world full of accidents, experiments, adventures and fun!
4. Fowl Play (full day)
Learn to make three-dimensional Flying Geese for this scrappy Windmill quilt called Fowl Play. We’ll cover value, scale and contrast as we choose fabrics to make your quilt shine! You’ll make one block and then decide if you want to make more for a runner, wall quilt, throw or bed-size quilt. A day of fabric and fun! Fowl Play appeared in the July/August ’18 issue of Modern Patchwork.
5. Baby Windmills: Easy, Fast and Fun (full day)
Prepare to indulge in some serious scrap play as you learn to make Baby Windmills and then create something wonderful with them! I have been making these little blocks for years and I keep discovering new ways to use them. I’ll show you my examples and then help you create something unique.
This class is stress-free because you just can’t mess it up. I’ll share bonus demos on unrelated quilt techniques so you’re sure to leave with something useful.
6. Let’s Play Hanky Panky (full day, in person only)
Learn to cut and layer handkerchiefs into a delicately beautiful small quilt reminiscent of crazy patchwork. Discover the secrets to making them work together and the technique for attaching them to a base, and then gather ideas for borders and edges.
Bring your own hankies and add to them from my collection (reasonably priced at $1, $2 and $3) to round out what you need for a treasure you’ll cherish.
Get those hankies out of the drawer and into something lovely you can enjoy! If you have no hankies, not to worry, you can purchase from my reasonably priced collection on the day of class.
7. Old Fashioned Pine Burr (full day)
Pine Burr quilts were made by African Americans and others for decades and they are truly addictive. Easy and fun, this quilt uses up your ugliest fabrics and still looks terrific. We’ll learn to cut, fold, place and sew the patches to make a bullseye Pine Burr. You won’t believe how fun and relaxing this traditional beauty can be!
8. Tango (full day)
Easy piecing has never been so much fun! This extraordinary technique yields graphic blocks that look wonderful together. This is a great stashbuster quilt, and you can use precut squares if you like. Learn about value and scale as a bonus.
Leave well on your way to a finished quilt top! Suitable for confident beginners and beyond. So much inspiration in this class!
9. Let’s Play Drezzup (full day)
Learn to make classic Dresden Plate blocks in your choice of sizes and then decide on a project in which to use them. You might try the full-size All Drezzed Up quilt, a happy little wallhanging, a table runner or diminutive Dresden Plate baskets with rickrack handles.
Learn to use Dresden Plates in a border and see how great they are for using up scrap fabrics. Leave with a head start on a Dresden Plate project of your choice—you can even design your own. Watch out, these are addictive!
10. String Piecing 101 (half or full day)
Learn how easy and addictive string piecing can be. Branch off to see how string piecing can be used in traditional blocks of all kinds. Design your own string block if you wish! Learn about value and scale as a bonus. Pull from my scrap bag for added inspiration.
String piecing will be your new best friend when you realize that it can quickly diminish your scrap supply and lead to dynamite quilts of all kinds. For many ideas on what you can do with string piecing, please see my “Strings and Ideas” board on Pinterest.
11. Bound for Glory (Half or Full Day)
Do you dread binding a quilt? Do your edges give you less than a fine finish? Solve all your binding woes here!
Learn the hints, tips and tricks to perfect binding every time. We’ll cover everything from cutting to bias to corners and even show you a mock-hand binding done completely by machine. You’ll never balk at binding again!
12. UFO: Conquer or Bust
PLUS Diane’s Best Tips and Tricks (full day)
Do you have a quilt project you’ve started but never finished? Do you need a jump-start? If moving forward sounds good, this is the class for you. Whether the problem is fabrics you don’t like, instructions you don’t understand, a technique that’s not working, boredom, inertia or just being stuck for whatever reason, I’ll get you going again. Along the way, you’ll learn a lot from how other students’ quilt problems are solved, too. Bring your project, all the supplies and instructions you still have for it, and a grocery sack of scraps to share. Pull from my scrap basket, too, for added inspiration! Leave well on your way to a completed project, with one less UFO to your name. But that’s not all! Diane will share her best tips and tricks for quilting in a series of demos throughout the day. These are all things you can use in your own projects. Lots of great info! You’ll love this day of fun!
13. Strange Bedfellows: Fabric Savvy Playshop! (full day, in person only)
Learn the secrets of combining fabrics like a pro in this class full of purposeful play. We’ll cover:
• The single most important factor for a successful quilt
• How to make boring fabrics interesting
• How to use the uglies in your stash
• Why making decisions as-you-go is the best way
• How to add variety to any fabric line
• Why a design wall is essential
• How to analyze a quilt’s effectiveness
• More concepts related to fabric and color
Strange Bedfellows will help you discover how to combine the most unlikely fabrics for smashing results. Your quilts will take on new life when you conquer your fabric fears and leave matchy-matchy in the dust! Come and spend a day in fabric play like you’ve never imagined. Sew much fun!
14. Improvisational Quilt Sampler (three to five days, in person only)
Plan a layout and get started on your own improvisational sampler quilt. These are so much fun they should probably be illegal. The size is up to you as well as the theme: any holiday, a person you love, a color combo, tradition with a twist—the options are truly endless. Orphan blocks sometimes work as a place to begin.
I’ll help you design a layout and then I’ll show you piecing tricks and improv secrets. Your quilt can be wonky or sedate but I’ll help you get comfortable with deciding as you go. Your original quilt will be well underway in the three to five days we’ll spend together. Pure pleasure!