Sat, Aug 5,  10 - 3 PM 
Brush Art Gallery
256 Market St, Lowell, MA 01852
Questions: Esterita Austin: Esterita2@aol.com

$150 includes $18 materials fee

No sewing machine required.

Don't have the right fabric? Pieces not blending together well? Need a detail, a shadow, a highlight? You will create a quilt top following my easy fusible techniques, and embellish and enhance with textile paints. Learn simple techniques that will bring 3-dimensional life to your quilt images. No former painting experience necessary.

Ever wonder what to do with those "Splotchy" fabrics? The ones that have multi-colors/value/texture in them? This is the class in which to use them. Paints, brushes, pattern, fusible and paper goods included in materials fee. This is great class for learning how to convert those favorite photographs you've always wanted to interpret into a quilt but never knew how.

International award winning quilt maker, designer and teacher, Esterita Austin, studied for her MFA in graphics and photography at Pratt Institute. Her work has been exhibited in the American Museum of Folk Art in New York City. Esterita's quilt "The Well" was a prize winning piece in the museum's international competition "Quilted Constructions: The Spirit of Design" and then spent 4 years in a museum sponsored traveling exhibition. Esterita has been a guestspeaker at the museum's lecture series "Artists Speak." Her award winning piece is featured in the American Museum of Folk Art magazine "Folk Art," Esterita's work has been widely published in magazines as well as books on fiber arts. As a female entrepreneur, Esterita was featured on The Sally Jesse Raphael Show and written up in the "Threads" section of New York Newsday.

Supply List 

Basic tools:

1. *A small rotary cutter with a sharp blade
2. Cutting mat
3. Iron and board
4. *Straight pins (flower heads preferable, only if you have them)
5. *Xacto knife, or paper scissors if you prefer
6. Scotch magic tape
7. Ballpoint pen 
8. Core board ( for 15 x 20" piece) or some such board on which to work upright
(not mandatory, just suggested)
9. Extension cord

*will be available for sale in class if you don't have them

Fabrics:

1. 15" x 20" piece of pre-washed black cotton fabric.
2. You will only need 3-6 fabrics, but you may want to bring more for choices.

I can supply a fabric that works well for one of the two patterns at an additional cost of $3.50 ( the only fabric you will have to bring is 1- 15 x 20 of black) or you may bring an assortment of your own fabrics if you choose: What kind of fabrics?

If you have those wonderful batiks with the all over busy patterning/multi colors&values in one piece bring them. It may be patterned ­or the "watercolor" splotchy type of multi/value/color fabric, ( you know the ones, they look like someone used it to wipe up spills or clean their brushes!) an example is the "Color Flash" line by Heidi Stoll Weber, and Ricky Tims "Harmonic Convergence line" Or Hoffmans, the one's with many values that look like hand dyes. Caryl Fallerts Galcier park (I will have that with me) Or, hand dyes if there is enough contrast between values in one piece. The more values, from very dark to very light and the more color, there are in one piece the better. You won't need many of them, we are creating a small still life but as my mother always said, "More is better" we all like choices.

Teacher will supply kits with other supplies:

Kits supplied with workshop include: original patterns, necessary papers, photo, Esterita's new brand of light weight fuse, transfer paper, paint and the use of brushes, and paint tray. Emergency fabrics will be on hand for an additional charge of $3.50 per quarter yard if necessary.

Esterita Austin: Esterita2@aol.com