PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPS
Quilt Company East in Pittsburgh, PA, has programs and workshops from a wide variety of interests. Our speakers include local experts and nationally known teachers. We learn a variety of new techniques, see what others are doing in the quilt world, have fun with other members during social events, and learn from history. We invite others to join us for these entertaining and informative meetings.
Upcoming Programs
Guild Meetings: 7:00 PM
Workshops: 9:00 am to 3:30 pm (setting up at 8:30), unless otherwise noted
Directions: See maps for venues below
Monday, March 16, 2020
Program: Surface Design for Textiles
Location: Beulah Presbyterian Church
Award-winning fiber artist Sue Reno presents an overview of the working methods and techniques that make her work lush and singular. Her rich and intricate art quilts reflect her local environment and incorporate imagery drawn from her studies of botany, wildlife, historic architecture, and the Susquehanna River.
Sue employs surface design techniques including cyanotype, mono printing, digital image transfer, and needle felting as the basis for works that also incorporate hand painted fabrics, hand and machine stitching, and beadwork. “I love working with textiles. It allows me to create work with dimension, movement and texture that is invitingly tactile,” Sue explains. “The images I choose to work with are abstracted somewhat when printed on fabric and further transformed by threads and stitching. I am excited by both my involvement in the process and by the finished pieces.”
Sue employs surface design techniques including cyanotype, mono printing, digital image transfer, and needle felting as the basis for works that also incorporate hand painted fabrics, hand and machine stitching, and beadwork. “I love working with textiles. It allows me to create work with dimension, movement and texture that is invitingly tactile,” Sue explains. “The images I choose to work with are abstracted somewhat when printed on fabric and further transformed by threads and stitching. I am excited by both my involvement in the process and by the finished pieces.”
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About our Speaker: Sue began her quilting life as a traditional/contemporary quiltmaker, and still uses many traditional construction techniques. Over time, she’s built up a tool box of accessible techniques for putting imagery on fabric that help each quilt to tell a story. There’s something here for quilters of all experience levels and interests, from beginners to art quilters.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Program: Follow the Quilt
Location: Beulah Presbyterian Church
This month, we welcome Pastor Jim Swanson of Camp Run Presbyterian Church in Harmony, PA, his wife Karen, and church member Lorraine Steffler. The trio will reprise a program they first presented to acclaim in 2019, on the role that quilts may have played in communicating messages to travelers on the Underground Railroad. Here’s how that program came about:
Like many rural Pennsylvania congregations, Camp Run Presbyterian Church has a long history of crafting, cooking, and community involvement—buckwheat and sausage suppers, local history interest groups, and quilting, to name a few. After a special service featuring family heirloom quilts, a second quilt program was proposed—one on "quilt codes" of the Underground Railroad era.
Two of the avid quilters in the congregation had read a book written in 2003 by Zelienople-born Eleanor Burns (co-authored with Sue Bouchard) entitled Underground Railroad Sampler. They enlisted the help of their friends to sew a sampler and to research the history of the Underground Railroad movement. The rest is history!
Our trio of presenters will be on hand to display the Sampler and explore with you the historical facts, musical messages and quilt codes of the Underground Railroad era.
Quilt Company East members are encouraged to bring their antique quilts to share—whether in their possession as family heirlooms or as found treasures.
Like many rural Pennsylvania congregations, Camp Run Presbyterian Church has a long history of crafting, cooking, and community involvement—buckwheat and sausage suppers, local history interest groups, and quilting, to name a few. After a special service featuring family heirloom quilts, a second quilt program was proposed—one on "quilt codes" of the Underground Railroad era.
Two of the avid quilters in the congregation had read a book written in 2003 by Zelienople-born Eleanor Burns (co-authored with Sue Bouchard) entitled Underground Railroad Sampler. They enlisted the help of their friends to sew a sampler and to research the history of the Underground Railroad movement. The rest is history!
Our trio of presenters will be on hand to display the Sampler and explore with you the historical facts, musical messages and quilt codes of the Underground Railroad era.
Quilt Company East members are encouraged to bring their antique quilts to share—whether in their possession as family heirlooms or as found treasures.
Monday, May 18, 2020
Program: The Dresden Reimagined
Place: Beulah Presbyterian Church
Candy Grisham, author of Dresden Quilt Blocks Reimagined, will be our guest this evening to discuss her journey into improvisational quilting with the Dresden block. (That first Dresden block led her to the modern quilt world, art quilts and even publishing.) How do you go from a quilt you made to a pattern to a book? We’ll find out tonight as Grisham presents her trunk show.
“I have been fascinated with fabric, sewing and quilting since the age of nine, when I took my first sewing class and won a prize for my corduroy jumper and print shirt,” Grisham says. “When I saw an ancestor’s quilt in the Smithsonian at age thirteen, I was hooked. I taught myself to quilt from a book and used cardboard templates and scissors to make my first quilt, a Log Cabin. It has been a love affair ever since.”
Grisham has taught quilting for more than twenty years. She loves teaching and exploring with students as much as she loves creating. She has had quilts and fiber art pieces juried into shows with Missouri Fiber Artists, the American Quilter’s Society in Kentucky and the International Quilt Association in Houston as well as many local and regional shows and displays.
“I have been fascinated with fabric, sewing and quilting since the age of nine, when I took my first sewing class and won a prize for my corduroy jumper and print shirt,” Grisham says. “When I saw an ancestor’s quilt in the Smithsonian at age thirteen, I was hooked. I taught myself to quilt from a book and used cardboard templates and scissors to make my first quilt, a Log Cabin. It has been a love affair ever since.”
Grisham has taught quilting for more than twenty years. She loves teaching and exploring with students as much as she loves creating. She has had quilts and fiber art pieces juried into shows with Missouri Fiber Artists, the American Quilter’s Society in Kentucky and the International Quilt Association in Houston as well as many local and regional shows and displays.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Workshop: Reimagined Dresdens
TIme: 9:00am-3:30 pm
Place: First Baptist Church of Monroeville
Cost: $30 members; $40 guests
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Always wanted to learn the secret of the Dresden plate? Intrigued by the idea of putting a new spin on a traditional block? Create your own, unique small wall hanging based on the Dresden Quilt Blocks Reimagined book (recommended but not required for the workshop). The class will cover the basic Dresden blocks as well as some of the more advanced Dresden 201 blocks which allow for creative piecing. This workshop promises tons of creative fun. Quilters from confident beginner on up will enjoy this class.
Monday, June 15, 2020
End-of-Year Potluck
Place: Beulah Presbyterian Church
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