Helene Knott

Once again I will be getting on an airplane to California, this time to the Bay Area where I will be presenting and lecture and workshop for the Diablo Valley Quilters in Danville California on April 16th (lecture) and 17th (workshop).

My lecture, Transcending the Vision, covers the creative process of taking a raw idea and transforming it into a quilt. The lecture includes a step by step digital presentation on the making of my award winning quilt ‘The Captain’s Wife’ and includes a trunk show of other quilts.

The Workshop on the following day – Cultural Inspirations, is on working with those ‘Can’t Bear To Cut It’ fabrics that are often presented in ethnic themes. These bold prints do not fare well when chopped up to make pieced blocks and are at their best when ‘showcased’ in a quilt. Though the class and project were inspired by my passion for ethnic art and cultural themes, the project is versatile and lends itself well to any theme. Bold novelty prints for holidays such as Christmas or Halloween adapt well for the project as well as other ‘theme’ fabrics – Laurel Burch prints, Kaffe Fassett or Amy Butler fabrics, Juvenile novelty prints… any fabrics that can spark and idea and be combined with a supporting cast of colors and textures in a similar subject. This is also a wonderful stash buster project. Students can design their own unique composition of follow one of several suggested layouts.

For more information on the lecture and workshop contact the Diablo Valley Quilters

http://www.diablovalleyquilters.com

Last week I gave a presented a lecture to my own guild, Northwest Quilters, about Taupe Quilts. Taupe is a color but it is also a genre of fabrics popular in Japan and many Japanese quilters love creating quilts with Taupe fabrics. The presentation included a trunk show on my work along with quilts borrowed from friends. I even gave a slide presentation of a few quilts made by Japanese quilter and ‘Queen of Taupe’- Yoko Saito whose company ‘Quilt Party’ graciously gave me permission to use. My own quilting style is markedly different than the exquisite work by Japanese quilters and I don’t make many traditional looking quilts so being able to include these images along with the borrowed quilts rounded the presentation out more than if it had been solely my work shown.