Workshops & Lectures

Length: 2-5 Days

Project: Personally-Designed Spiral Quilt

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Prerequisites: Piecing–Foundation piecing experience helpful but not necessary. Design–Adventurous and willing to design from scratch. Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts book required.

Fee: $750 per day

Materials Fee: $10 per student (subject to change depending on workshop length)

This class emphasizes individual design, and students should come with open minds, a sense of adventure and willingness to experiment and play with new ideas.

Before class: Students should make a collection of spiral images for inspiration and bring them to class.

A pattern is not provided. Basic spiral templates will be available, but students should anticipate creating custom templates of their own.

(Students are welcome to use EQ in the class, but they must bring their own computer and a means of printing templates, and must be experienced and comfortable using the program to draw and use spiral templates. Instructions for drawing spirals in Electric Quilt are available in the book and students should be comfortable with them before coming to class. This is not a class to teach EQ, but rather to focus on designing with spirals. If you are interested in a course specifically on spiral techniques in EQ, please see Spiral Quilt Workshops Using Electric Quilt below.)

Day 1: Begin with a slide show of spiral quilts to inspire you, then learn to draw and color the various types of spirals. Learn the difference between self-contained spiral blocks and linking spiral blocks. Explore free, flow and combination settings to incorporate spirals into a quilt design. Begin sketching ideas. Day 2: Learn about applying color to spiral design. Explore hue, value and contrast, gradations and dimension, solids vs. prints, color-blending and scale. Continue working on design/layout, choose fabrics. Day 3: Finalize layout, color and fabric color. Prepare foundations. If time allows, begin sewing. Days 4 & 5: Guided sewing and/or design.

Whether or not each student finishes an entire quilt top is dependent on the complexity of the design and the skill level of the student, but each student will assemble enough of the quilt to acquire the skills to finish it on their own.