Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls is a popular class that involves a little fabric and a lot of imagination. Participants use improvisational techniques to make "dollies" from bits and scraps of fabric, each little person arriving in the world different than any other. A row of paper dolls holding hands across a quilt can be evocative of childhood, community, a chorus line or can simply be a fun signature for a child's bed quilt. The simpler the dolls, the faster the quilt top goes. Some folks go all out on personalizing their people, but may end up with only a pillow to show for the day's work.
A row of paper dolls can find a place in a row sampler quilt, or can be the focus of a theme quilt.

Quilt Workshops

My new favourite quilt class to teach is called "Not Just Another Log Cabin". In the class, we spend the early hours experimenting and inventing new ways and new colour arrangements for log cabin blocks. The second part of the workshop is spent "running" with a favourite idea, or result of the experimentation. All quilts made by participants are unique and self designed.
The quilt pictured here is called "Hi!" and was inspired by a beautiful striped ikat textile from Guatemala. The quilt is a sort of ultra-enlarged version of the inspiration fabric, and was constructed in large stripes to emphasize the linear feel of the original. It is made using the basic log cabin form, a central fabric surrounded by strips, or "logs" to make blocks.