Quilter's Guild of Dallas

Programs & Workshops

Our programs are the highlight of every meeting! We feature both nationally known and local quilting personalities as guest speakers. The Quilter's Guild of Dallas is proud to have hosted quilt artists including Pepper Cory, Laura Wasilowski, Diane Gaudynski, and Hollis Chatelaine.

Workshops are offered by guest speakers on Friday and/or Saturday following meetings. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn new techniques and improve quilting skills with some of the top quilters in the world at a minimal fee.

For questions: email workshops@quiltersguildofdallas.org.
For workshop guidelines, click Here.
Workshop fees: Members, $40.00/day and Non-Members, $45.00/day.

Wander with Wendy as she guides you through an eclectic collection of traditional and contemporary quilts, all with a common thread - captivating color. She will offer ways of taking a few small steps or multiple bold ones in experimenting with color. Wendy will then explore ways of approaching the color challenge using a tried and true tool - the color wheel.

Confident beginner to advanced. Students need to have some experience using a darning foot.

If it is time for you to stretch, come join us. You have practiced free motion quilting and are ready to add more surface design to your quilts. Come join us in this process based class. By using different embellishing techniques, we will explore how to couch down heavier yarns and threads, thread embellishing with cotton, rayon and metallic threads and demonstrate the basics of machine bobbin drawing. You will be inspired by the limitless ways to create greater texture to your work.

Half Day. Intermediate to Advanced

What wonderful spontaneous texture we can achieve from a variety of embellishing techniques! Maybe you have been dreaming of creating seaweed for an underwater scene, a knobby tree trunk or thick strands of hair. By using water soluble solvy or tulle you can create texture and unique no-piecing designs with collage bits, fabric, and free motion quilting. Come investigate the limitless possibilities!

Half Day. Confident beginner to Advanced

Workshop will explore a variety of ideas for you to add to your quilt border repertoire.' Sometimes taking the easiest route to bordering our quilts may not be the most effective. Wendy will offer you numerous brave and courageous ideas to consider to make your borders more bold and beckoning.

Barbara McCraw and Teresa Sherling formed B & T Studios after teaching classes and lecturing together for two years. Teresa is a Masters Category Quilter and has sixteen years of experience as a quilter, teacher and lecturer. Barb is also a Masters Category Quilter, her works juried into AQS and IQA and the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts. They became the best of friends through their membership in the Denton Quilt Guild, and continue to maintain a busy lecture and teaching schedule.

In their Lecture "Baltimore Album Quilts," learn the history and symbolism behind these beautiful and much admired quilts. Surprisingly, each quilt contains a very personal, private message of the women who made them. They break the code and you will never look at another album quilt in the same way again.

How do you get started in the fiber art business and what are the pitfalls? Some special hints and advice from someone who learned the hard way. This lecture covers commission work, publishing, art shows, consignments, magazine work, pattern making, teaching and lecturing.

Judith Baker Montano comes to us from LaVeta, Colorado. Her career has taken her from painting, to quilting, to crazy quilting, to embellished embroidery artwork and into land/seascapes and underwater projects. Although her work keeps evolving, crazy quilting always appears in new designs, and she has turned it into a contemporary art form. She is renowned for her fibre landscapes, which incorporate all aspects of art and needlework techniques.

Create a beautiful beginner mixed medium using paints, Aida cloth, yarn and ribbon. This small English cottage is a charming piece that can be framed as a painting or incorporated into a crazy quilt project. Can be found on page 18 in "Floral Stitches" book. Judith will supply paints for anyone who doesn't have their own.

Let's leave those big purses at home! This small bag is smart and stylish. Use basic piecing and decorate with Victorian embellishments. Images can be seen on Page 48 "Crazy Quilt Odyssey" and Page 23 & 111 "Art and Inspiration". There are three shapes to choose from: rectangle, circle and oval.

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball.  This lecture chronicles Brenda’s progression as an accidental quilter with the aid of 100 lbs of quilts.

Brenda Henning is a compulsive quiltmaker with a fondness for traditional design and a desire to incorporate today's speed-piecing techniques with yesterday's well-loved patterns. Brenda's machine sewing experience began at the early age of 10 on her grandmother's treadle sewing machine with the first quilt following at age 14. Brenda became a compulsive quilter in the mid-80s, and began teaching quiltmaking in 1988, when her third child was an infant. Writing and self-publishing that work have been byproducts of teaching quilting. Brenda is the author of numerous books and individual patterns available under the label Bear Paw Productions.

A traditional mariner's compass with an appliqued center circle.A traditional design with rays split to the center - eliminating the applique center. Foundation piecing is the key to success!  Triangulations will be introduced in the pieced border.

Mariner's Compass pattern can be found in the book BPP 440 Reach for the Stars.

Fourteen Fat Quarters are stacked, cut into squares and then sub-cut into pieces. The 9" squares can be sub-cut following a detailed cutting diagram, or the diagram can be used simply as a suggestion as you create your own liberated design. You decide! Who knew cutting fabric pieces willy nilly could be soooo much fun! Gather your pile of Fat Quarters and join me for a fabric whacking good time!

This pattern can be found in the book Fat Quarter Cut-Ups 2.

Maggie Ball began quilting in 1986 and enjoys creating her own designs from elements of traditional patterns. Her award-winning quilts have been exhibited nationally and overseas. Teaching quilting is a natural extension of her passion and she finds it rewarding. Her teaching experience is extensive in the USA, and beyond to the UK and Mongolia, as well as quilting with over 800 children in local schools.

"This illustrated lecture should inspire you to pass on the quilting tradition to the next generation. Based on my books, Creative Quilting with Kids and Patchwork and Quilting with Kids (Krause Publications 2001, and 2003), this talk illustrates examples of projects made from a variety of techniques by children of all ages and skill levels. There are many appropriate for intergenerational groups with little quilting experience as well as some new ideas for seasoned quilters to enjoy."

Taste of Autumn (left photo) - This Bargello 16-piece block, as featured in my book Bargello Quilts with a Twist, provides enormous potential for creating original designs. If you've felt intimidated by the bargello technique of sewing numerous strips together, never fear. To make this easily constructed strip-pieced block, you only need to sew four strips at a time. You will be amazed and delighted by the many possibilities for designing your own unique quilts and students are encouraged to explore a variety of options.

Choose Taste of Autumn or Bainbridge Delft (right photo): 24 Block Quilt (approx 51" x 51" finished size).

A totally NEW method of cutting and piecing the traditional kaleidoscope block without using any templates or triangular rulers. It's simple and fun. The finished quilt measures approximately 66" x 66" and is constructed from sixteen 14" Op-art Kaleidoscope blocks, plus borders. The process involves making large Kaleidoscope blocks that are cut-up into sections, rearranged, and then reassembled. Students are encouraged to experiment and play with the positioning of the block sections to develop a pleasing design on the work-wall.

Lola's first quilt showing was in 2007. Since then she has been featured in numerous quilt shows including a one-woman show at the Midwest City Library in celebration of Black History Month and in the 2010 Houston Quilt Show exhibit sponsored by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims.

In her lecture "Miss Bubble Buster," Lola delivers a hilarious account on how not to let others stop your dreams while giving informative information on various tools and techniques that can be used effectively to create stunning quilts. Lola truly encourages all to embrace their talents and learn to step outside of their comfort zone to reach all of their potential. She even gives demonstrations on how she has accomplished many of these tasks. This is a program that you will not want to miss because if you do you will hear about how you missed one of the greatest if not the best program of the year!

Colleen Wise comes to us from Puyallup, Washington. She is known for her quilts that speak to us with the illusion of dimension. Beyond the illusion, she says that her quilts need to mean something.

Her award-winning original designs have been exhibited at many regional, national and international shows including Quilts of the Pacific Rim, Road to California, Pacific International Quilt Show, Quilt National, and American Quilter's Society, just to name a few.

A visual dessert of how Coleen's quilts are very distinctive for their illusion of depth. She states, "I love to play with three dimensions! Objects such as leaves or planets appear to float above a two-dimensional surface. I have a virtual toolbox full of tools I use to create that depth, and I will illustrate it in a big trunk show full of quilts."

These blocks not only look like three-dimensional pyramids, they also appear to float above the surface of the quilt! Emerald City blocks are similar in construction to Venetian Tiles with an expansion in tones. Careful attention to value will make the illusion appear.

This easy block is one of my favorites, with a subtle dimensional look to it. The block has a mitered look, but it's really strip-pieced. Careful attention to value really pays off. The shadowed setting adds to the three-dimensional effect. Simple to construct, but a very dynamic quilt!

Difficulty rating: Intermediate

Play with 3-D illusion on a quilt! By choosing your colors with careful attention to value (lightness/darkness), bands of color appear to weave under and over against a background of your choice. An easy project suitable for beginners, and fun for experts. In the one-day version of this workshop, we will create the body of the quilt as shown. Additional days allow you time to add shadows to "lift" the grid from the background, or to paper-piece arcs to connect the bands for a stunning border.

Vertical and horizontal ribbons of color appear to weave under and over against a dark background. Strip piecing makes this quilt fast and fun.

Difficulty rating: Beginner with some skills such as rotary cutting.

A retrospective of Carol's quilting career shows how she produced over 500 quilts (many award winning) since she began in 1993. You'll see slides from her first traditional quilt through her gradual transition to art quilts….however, she promises NOT to show all 500! She will also bring a trunk show of her newest quilts! The presentation is interspersed with some humor from her son who shows Mom that he is "never without his blankie!"

Sue Spargo says that most of her designs are developed interactively with four circles of local quilt enthusiasts. She and her sister, Wendy create hand dyed wool and wool plaids, which are designed specifically for quilt makers.

She has written several books, all with a Folkart feel to the designs. All of her designs are filled with vibrant color, texture and the possibility for endless embellishments.

During her lecture, "Finding Your Creativity," Sue will show in practical ways how we can use our day-to-day experience and our interests to express ourselves. All the ideas will be illustrated with a wonderful trunk show of creative examples.

Inside of the Needle Case.

Outside of the Needle Case.

I designed this needle case for a class that I taught at Primitives of the Midwest in Missouri. It is made from hand dyed wool, velvet, dupioni silk and a Japanese polka dot fabric. On the inside is a velvet bird pincushion, needle case, two zipper pockets, a thread holder and scissor holder. It is embellished with ribbons, beads, buttons, roving balls and finished with a hand stamped label.

This pattern was designed for Australian Homespun Magazine. I used a combination of cotton fabric with hand dyed wool, velvet and raw silk. I then embellished it with buttons, beads, hand dyed Rick-racks and yarns. These add a great deal of texture and interest to your project. Choose a color combination that is pleasing to you. I encourage you to play with texture and embellishments and make your piece a creation of yourself.

Take a humorous look through the eyes of a quilt artist as she finds her way through the world of art, quilting and wearable arts. This lecture includes a trunk show and fashion show of her award winning Fabulous Fusible Flower quilts and wearable art. Melinda shows the evolution of her art with humor and lots of inspiration.

Melinda has been in love with fabric all of her life and knew when she was 16 years old that she was going to be an artist, which became her major in college. In 1988 she and her husband, Joe, started their own wallpaper and fabric design business, Melinda Bula Designs. Their designs have been featured on the covers of Better Homes and Garden magazine as well as Sunset design books in addition to other noted publications.

Since 1996, Melinda has been involved in quilting and wearable arts and has won numerous awards for both. Her wearable arts are dynamic and modern and she loves to experiment with new techniques.