Have Fun with Kindred Spirits, Recharge Your Batteries, & Enjoy Balmy Quilting Weather

Our Speakers on the Love of Quilting cruise are:
Jodie Davis, Marianne Fons, and Jean Nolte

Two Project Choices

OPTION 1: Jodie’s Sampler
Instructor: Jodie Davis

Learn and perfect your piecing and pressing skills while making Jodie Davis’ sampler quilt. With simple brick walk rectangle blocks, friendship star blocks, pinwheel blocks, hourglass blocks, and nine patch blocks, this is a great opportunity to increase your know-how and cultivate new skills.

The fun begins on the first day of the class — we’ll cut and organize our fabrics into bags and get started on the center of the quilt. The second and third days we’ll work through our bags of quilt pieces to create blocks and grow our quilt tops, ending up with pieced borders. You may even finish the top! Jodie’s Sampler is easy enough for a new quilter who has a few projects under her belt and useful for anyone looking to pick up quilting secrets and finesse. (Finished size is 96″ x 108″.)
 

From nine patch to flying geese, learn to cut, piece, and press the basic building blocks of quilts.

Choose a kit from two color choices: batiks or 30’s prints and rev up your quilt craft:

• Quick cutting and sewing
• Pressing savvy
• Half-square and quarter-square triangles
• Flying geese expertise
• Getting the knack of nine patch

OPTION 2: Christmas Joy
Instructor: Jean Nolte

Start a family tradition by making the Christmas Joy quilt to display during the holidays. Row by row, you’ll add new techniques and polish up existing skills while making this row quilt designed by Marianne Fons and Liz Porter.

Variety is the spice of quilting life. Join Editor Jean Nolte in a techniques-oriented workshop designed to help you wield the tools of the trade more proficiently; challenge you to stretch your comfort zone; and get you to feel at ease with more complex but vital methods of translating your creative vision into your quilt.
 

(Finished size is 81″ x 95″.)

Relax and let Jean share her experience with you and come away with a sense of accomplishment. Through the Christmas Joy quilt, pick up time-honored techniques, plus tips and tricks on:

• The hows and whys of diagonal seams
• Squaring up blocks: doing it right the first time, step by step
• The ups and downs of setting blocks on point
• Easy foundation piecing: materials, permanent vs. temporary, templates and tips
• Making Flying Geese units
• Simple appliqué to add design elements where piecing won’t work
• Making pieced letters
• Using strip sets for borders and binding, with tips to make it a breeze
• Making a label for your quilt: the how, what, why, and when

Four Lectures

Why We Quilt
Speaker: Marianne Fons

In this entertaining and informative visual presentation, Marianne Fons examines the motivations of American quilters from 1776 to the present day. Her lecture is illustrated with scores of quilts from museums and institutions around the U.S., as well as quilts from Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting.

My Favorite “Quilty” Things
Speaker: Marianne Fons

In this informal session, Marianne Fons provides the inside story on the creation of the successful Fons & Porter collection of special, better tools for quilters. You’ll learn what it takes to build a better mousetrap, find out which are her “faves” and enjoy mini-demos of several of the most popular items.

Top TV Tips
Speaker: Marianne Fons

“Love of Quilting” co-host Marianne Fons shares favorite viewer tips from over a decade at the Tip Table on Fons & Porter’s popular show “Love of Quilting.” Learn how TV viewers handle binding control, tool storage, and stash management. Bring your own favorite tip to share!

Sew Much Fun with Marianne & Mary
Speaker: Marianne Fons

For this informal session, seasoned quilter Marianne Fons and her daughter, budding quilter Mary Fons, share the perspectives of two distinctly different generations of quilters. TV viewers have enjoyed the mother-daughter dynamic of Marianne and Mary on their public television episodes. Here’s an opportunity to share the fun in person.