Memory Quilts Workshop ~ a Sampler of Techniques

“Congratulations on the publication of your new book!  I’m wondering if
you might be able to do a guild lecture possibly followed by a  workshop
featuring your intriguing new twist on building memories with quilt
blocks?”

A workshop on the techniques in my book ~ what a great idea! So I’ve been noodling on it and here’s what I’ve come up with:

In my Seminole Sampler workshop I supply kits for making a number of different Seminole borders that the students can keep with their handouts for inspiration and direction in future quilts. No UFO – just more tools in the quilting technique toolbox! It’s been very popular.

So should this workshop be kitted? Should it be samples as in the class above? Or should the students make a project to hang on the wall? The workshop is being held in October and, after quite a bit of noodling, I decided a small project with an Autumn theme would be nice. The students would make two 8″ x 11″ blocks in order to learn a number of techniques, and then I’d demonstrate some helpful finishing techniques so they could see the project through to completion and hang it on the wall. But if that’s not their thing, they can simply slip the samples into a page protector to save for future reference. Here’s the project:

The techniques learned will be Repliqué, raw edged Repliqué, shadow Repliqué, and 2 finishing methods, along with my simple way of “block connecting”. With each of those techniques learned a quilter can re-create any photo as a quilt block!

I decided not to kit the class because the supply list is quite small and I thought students might want to choose their own Autumn fabrics. I invited 3 friends to take a “guinea pig” class and see how it would work in a 3 hour workshop format – and it worked great! I’m looking forward to teaching it in Janesville next month! If your guild would be interested in having me come and share my Modular Memory Quilts, or any of my offerings, please visit the classes page of my website by clicking here! Then email me at: .

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Also, I love it when I receive emails with photos that were sent in response to one of my blog posts. Crystal sent me this response to last week’s post about Karen and Lynn’s jeans quilt:

“Hello Chris, After reading this week’s piece about one lady’s quilt made from her husband’s old work jeans and t-shirts I thought you might like to see a quilt that I made from my husband’s old flannel shirts in 2018. My overall design is a simple one.  The back is fabric I bought that represents my husband’s lifelong fishing hobby. I used wool batting to make it winter cozy. The long arm quilting was done by Anne Books.  The bonus was that I got eight to ten buttons from each shirt that I of course saved!”

I’m sure her husband loves it! And she ended up with buttons too! Thanks Crystal 😊!