Quilting in the Highlands - Barbara Olson

Barbara Olson was our final US tutor to join us for Quilting in the Highlands 2013. Barbara is known for her amazing and breathtaking Art Quilts. These quilts are bold and bright and you can't help but just stop for several minutes to look at all the detail in them. She is the author of "Journey of an Art Quilt". Barbara's first workshop for Quilting in the Highland was Mystical Castles. Using a template designed by Barbara the students started to create their own Mystical Castle. Over the two day different castles with the students own unique style started to emerge.

Barbara's second workshop was Cosmic Spirals. In this workshop the students worked on two different spirals - a straight style and a wavy style.

Quilting in the Highlands - Deb Karasik

Our next tutor from the US is Deb Karasik. Deb is known for her foundation paper pieced quilts with a striking appearance, often bold bright colours on a black backgrounds. Deb is an author of two quilting books - QuiltMavens Perfect Paper Piecing and Quilts With Attitude, has won many awards for her quilts and is a quilt judge. 

 

The first workshop that Deb was teaching was Look Ma No Curves. The selection of fabrics which the students were using was so varied that it is going to be great to see the finished quilts.

Deb's second workshop for Quilting in the Highlands was Inner Light. Once again this is a paper foundation pieced quilt which has arcs. With Deb's guidance the students tackled this quilt with ease.

Quilting in the Highlands 2013 - Sandra Leichner

Quilting in the Highlands is a quilting retreat that Berrima Patchwork hosts each year in July in the Southern Highlands. This year we had an amazing team of tutors including from the USA Sandra Leichner, Deb Karasik and Barbara Olson and from Australia Mariya Waters, Rachelle Denneny and Yvette Stanton. Each tutor was teaching 2 workshops which lasted for 2 days each. Over the next few days we will be posting photos from each of these workshops. 

Our first tutor is Sandra Leichner. Sandra is a top internationally awarded and recognized Master Applique Artist and is known for her masterpiece quilts that showcase her unique illustrative approach with hand applique and hand embellishment techniques. To quote Sandra "My illustrations are brought to life with pieces of fabric and a large palette of threads to create intricate Artisan applique quilts that embrace my passion for handwork and design." 

Sandra's first workshop was Naturalist Notebook. This is a series of blocks which is an ongoing project of Sandra's. The quilt is made up of several individual bird blocks and a centre panel. The students had a choice of two of the bird blocks to work on. 

 

Below are some of the photos from the workshop.

   

 

 

Sandra's second workshop on the Monday and Tuesday was Lapis and Lemons. This small quilt was simply breathtaking and I can't wait to see the finished products from the students.

 

Sandra on this trip brought several of her quilts with her. American Still Life is a beautiful quilt. The details are amazing.

Jason's Grasshopper Block which is the centre panel for Sandra's Naturalist Notebook series was also another of the quilts that Sandra brought with here. Here is a close up of the grasshopper.

While Sandra is known for her amazing hand applique and embroidery she is also a very talented machine quilter. She was recent part of a challenge for one of the US Quilting Magazine and this is the piece that she created for them. It is all trapunto quilted.

We are very happy to announce that Sandra's patterns are now available through Berrima Patchwork. If you are interested in any of these pattern CLICK HERE. Sandra will also be joining us for Quilting in the Highlands 2014, details will be released shortly.