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Workshops

The workshops are designed for student exploration and participation. Using the pre-assignments, students share their background and interests in exploring new fields of quilt research and quilt design. Each student is encouraged to present in class for guidance, assistance, and support in solving challenges they confront.

Workshop descriptions below
Workshop costs below
Please contact me directly for more information.

Titles and Subjects

Treasures from Your Trunk?™: Discovering the Clues
Historic quilts often serve as visual records of human experience. Spend a day discovering and sharing heirloom quilts and their significance in personal family history. This is a unique opportunity to obtain information on “reading” quilts for their connection to time and place in quilt and women's history. A focus will be on the maker or owner and her place within the larger scope of women's activities.

I will guide your thinking through a series of pre-workshop assignments to prepare you for sharing up to three quilts with documented history. Join me and other class participants as we study the quilts through different sets of eyes.

This course is designed to enhance ownership and encourage discovery of family heirloom treasures. It can be a day of learning more about family and friends.

Hired Man’s Quilt™: A Personal Design Exploration
The goal of the class is to design and piece the front and back of a hired man’s quilt. A hired man quilt was a cot-size quilt made for the hired help to use while working the farms in the Midwest. Since he only got a cot or bunk to sleep on, it was not a twin or full size quilt. Traditionally, the quilts were made of wool and often disappeared with the hired hand when he left.

My contemporary interpretation of this traditional quilt is one for the man who reclines in his recliner or on his sofa watching his favorite teams and reliving the memories of his latest “hunt.” The hired man is also the one asked to wash the car, change the filters, or clean the fireplace. Done, of course, at a time convenient to him – during the timeout, or at the end of the chapter.

You are encouraged to bring favorite fabrics or ones that coordinate with family rooms or men's work space. I strongly encourage you to choose some woolen fabrics.

This will be basically a design exploration, working with the fabrics to determine the design, size, and plan for the entire quilt. You will leave with a plan for quilting and finishing the gift for your “hired man.”

Supply List

Selection of clean and prepared fabrics you wish to use – any fiber content but I prefer to work with woolen plaids, solids, stripes, or interesting weaves. You will need at least 1 yard of several choices but scraps are welcome as well
2 yd. of pre-shrunk muslin
Large cutting board and rotary cutter
24”ruler (I prefer a 4-6” wide with lines)
A favorite plastic template if you wish
Sewing machine
Iron
Buttons (preferably your grandmother's button bag with those wonderful work clothes buttons!)
Thread as needed
Any examples of these narrow long quilts you might discover in books, local collections, or (even, out in the barn or bunkhouse).

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Cost

$40 / person with checks being made out to Mary Bywater Cross

Overall fees are negotiable but must include costs of transportation, lodging, and additional education materials if necessary. Late fees are assessed.

Contracts are required.

Number of Students

The minimum number of registrants is four and the maximum is fifteen.

Workshop Set-up

The room should have sufficient numbers of clean long tables for participants to lay out their work. For the Design workshop, electrical outlets, ironing boards, and display boards will be needed.

Go to Transactions for more information about scheduling a workshop.
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Workshops