Our friend Nancy Brown will be teaching her amazing Undersea Class beginning June 12, on five Sunday afternoons, once a month for five months. Looking at the pictures, there’s really not much more that needs to be said. Once you master the techniques, you can do more than you ever dreamed, and this might be your first step.
Pat Dicker’s “Dancing Sistas” class at New Pieces this past weekend was delightful. We’re pleased to announce that Pat will be teaching two classes in June . Unlike the “Sistas” class, Pat’s June classes deal with important (basic) technical skills for quilters — offered with Pat’s customary clarity and light touch.
On Sunday, June 5th, Pat will teach Binding Basics from 12:00 – 3:30pm. With her expert instruction and help you can (finally) master all the stages of making perfect bindings, including those pesky mitered corners.
After mastering the standard binding, Pat will show you other options like using a “facing” binding, and a super simple iron-on binding.
Binding is one of those things most of us really need to master. Why not now?
The picture at right is the back of a wall-hanging Pat Dicker made. It’s easier to see the free-motion quilting on the back, but it’s the same piece as the amazing wall-hanging below.
Introduction to Free Motion Quilting is your opportunity to begin to master this useful skill. Free-motion devotees see it as both a structural and artistic element on a quilt. It’s a skill that takes practice to master, but the better you are taught, the easier the practice will be. Saturday, June 11, 10-3:00pm.
New Pieces is pleased to announce that our beloved Carol Lee is back on the class schedule in June, teaching two great classes on Thursday evenings.
On June 2nd she will reprise her perennial “Zen of Hand-Quilting” . Those of us who learned hand-quilting the hard way (trial & error, or from a book) can vouch for the wisdom of learning this skill from someone who knows all the tricks and tips.
While you practice your stitching Carol Lee will answer your questions and discuss supplies and resources for hand quilters.
If hand quilting is a meditation, Carol Lee is our guru.
On the following three Thursdays (June 9th, 16th and 23rd)Â Carol Lee will teach a class that’s good for beginners, but appropriate and valuable for students at all skill levels –Â “Begin with the Bento Box” .
This Bento Box pattern is a New Pieces tradition when pieced with dark and bright Asian fabrics (available in kit form in the Store).
The pattern is equally wonderful when done in batiks, or prints, or…..whatever you can imagine.
If you’re looking for a next project that looks harder than it really is, has straightforward construction and color combinations that sparkle, Bento Box is the class for you.
DISAPPEARING NINE-PATCH
with Cindi Cossen
May 21st, 10:00am – 2:00pm
Disappearing Nine-Patch is one of those patterns that seems more complex than it really is — the piecing is doable by quilters at all levels. With Cindi’s help you’ll make color and design decisions that can range from whimsical to sophisticated. (This could be the perfect place for that focus fabric you’ve been saving…)
Cindi teaches you what you need to know to complete your quilt top at home, unless you already finished it in class…
This class carries both new icons from the New Pieces class schedule.
That means it’s an adventure — but with an experienced tour guide!
DANCING SISTAS!
with Pat Dicker — May 15th at Noon
These “Sistas” are just plain fun. Each one is 14″ tall, with limbs you can position and has an exuberant personality that can’t be measured. Dancing Sistas prove the old adage that one can never be too thin, or too richly colored and textured. Pat is a great teacher, and a lot of fun, even without her Sistas.
As of May 3rd there are spaces for two or three more students in this workshop. Maybe its time you made yourself a “doppelganger” or totem figure — Sistas are also flat enough to mail to a love one.
Detail of Becky’s Nine-Patch Quilt
2 Mondays, May 9 and 23
6:15 pm – 9:15 pm     All Levels
Begin With the 9-Patch is perfect for quilters of all experience levels who want to master a basic pieced quilt, while concentrating on color and pattern scale to make a quilt that really ‘sings’.
Teacher Becky Keck says, “The 9-patch is one of the most basic and easiest blocks to make. It either blends with the focus fabric or contrasts with it and moves your eye across the quilt.”
Beginners will learn use of the rotary cutter, basic piecing rules, strip-piecing, block construction and bordering. This class is one of the first marked with the “Beginner Friendly” icon, but it will still challenge anyone who takes it.
ART TO MAILÂ -Â May 1, 2011
12:00 – 3:00pm
Priscilla Read
Mother’s Day is May 8th this year. Art To Mail on May 1st is a perfectly timed adventure for anyone who has a mother, or is one, or married one or hopes someday to be one. It’s also perfect for anyone who just wants to learn to make stunning, mailable fabric post-cards.
Postcards have always been a way to remember friends, share good times and make art personal. Using your sewing machine and scraps of your favorite fabrics you will construct and embellish a mini-masterpiece, and take with you the skills to make more postcards at home. Why let Hallmark express your sentiments, when you can do better yourself, and have such fun!
Mary Mashuta is an iconic Berkeley quilter, and an excellent teacher. She wrote the book on basic machine quilting. Literally. It’s an excellent book and we recommend it, but nothing can compare with learning directly from Mary in a workshop.
Mary’s method is not free-motion quilting; she employs straight lines, “soft pivots” and simple designs to create stunning quilts.
Mary is a generous teacher, whose classes are always filled with important information she’s gleaned from many years as a professional quilter, quilt teacher and author.
Her students come away better prepared to quilt in the long run… and wrung out in the short run. We cannot recommend the experience more highly! There are a couple of more spaces in the April 16th workshop. Sign up soon, read and follow the supply list, and — get a good night’s rest before class!
Visit Mary’s website for more information and inspiration: www.marymashuta.com
IMPROVISATIONAL SPLIT LOG-CABIN – THE GEE’S BEND WAY
Stacy Sharman
April 12 and 19, 6:15-8:15pm
If there were an annual Award Season for quilt classes – like the one for movies – this class would be in the running as a “sleeper.” Stacy offered this class in March and it quickly filled to overflowing. Now it’s being offered again, and there are just a couple of spots left.
Quilters sense that Stacy offers them a new way of working and a new sensibility; this class generates its own buzz. The quilts from this class have been wonderful; each one is different and for most students it’s a step towards thinking about quilts in a new way.
There’s some poetic justice in the idea that these modern, loose-reined quilts are heirs to the traditional, practical beauty of Gee’s Bend Quilts. The classics deserve to be reinterpreted. Especially when it can be done in the freshest possible ways.
What’s next? IMPROVISATIONAL QUILTS: THE SEQUEL!
COMING IN JUNE, 2011, TO A CLASSROOM NEAR YOU:
Improvising a Basket Weave Quilt – The Gee’s Bend Way
January is a great time of year. The holidays are winding down by now — the memories are good, but with their prickly edges worn smooth. After 6 weeks of indulging your family and friends, and indulging IN too much food and drink — your best New Year’s choices come down to, 1) hibernation, 2) finishing an old project, or 3) starting a brand new project.
That’s right – you can start a brand new project with friends while taking a class at New Pieces – see our calendar here!
New this month, two drop-in quilt “classes”: Tuesdays “Mornings with Mary Anne” from 10-12:00pm. Or, on Thursday afternoons join “Tea with Carol Lee” from 1-3:00pm. Bring your project and get just as much help and encouragement as you need to take your next step.
Also for those preparing to “take the next step”, Cyn Long is offering a drop-in class on Tuesdays from 4:00-6:00pm for quilters interested in creating or improving their personal blogs.
Also returning in January are perennial favorites “Saturday Sampler” with Cindi Cossen (now held on the THIRD Saturday of each month, still at 8:30am) and the Asian Block of the Month Club (on second Wednesdays, at 6:15pm). Asian BOM is taught in rotation by 5 New Pieces Staff/Teachers with a wealth of experience and patience to offer. Both these Classes are demonstration/discussion format, and the proposed patterns for both series are really stunning.
Sign up to take part in any of these new adventures the next time you come into the Store, or by phone. Any of them would might inspire you this year — and be the perfect alternative to hibernation!