I'm happy to offer a new series of lectures and classes, both virtually and in person, to quilt guilds, craft groups, and maker spaces! Here is my current list, and I'm developing more workshops and lectures as well. You'll also find my on demand video classes here.
Tell Your Quilt's Story
The first class I’ve developed is Tell Your Quilt’s Story, a fun and engaging hands-on workshop with all my tips for starting - and keeping - a sewing and crafts journal recording all the special details of your quilts (and other favorite projects). I have been keeping sketchbooks for more than 20 years and have 19 (and counting!) to look back on and revisit, so if I want to remake anything from a quilt to an ironing board cover, or just remember a special project, it’s all right there.
Then, let’s label your precious quilts to tell their stories - whether they’re a gift, to keep forever, or to donate to a special organization. It’s so satisfying to deepen your creative process, and preserve the history of a quilt, whether you inherited it from a loved one or just finished it today!
I teach two versions of Tell Your Quilt’s Story: a one-hour detailed overview of each process, or the full 2-3 hours as a hands-on workshop, including step-by-step techniques for recording projects and designing and creating labels in a variety of ways, with lots of examples (including demoing 3 methods for attaching the label to your quilt) and of course, we’ll finish with a colorful show and tell to see everyone’s newly labeled quilts! We can also work together before the class to design and mail out guild or personal labels, and order wholesale sketchbooks, if you’re interested. Just contact me and let’s tell your quilt’s story - together!
Rope Bowls with Susan Beal
Learn to make your own rope bowls in the sizes and accent colors you choose, creating a style all your own. This simple project is very customizable and makes a wonderful gift. You can embellish the bowls with symmetrical, intuitive fabric placement, or dip-dye your rope which creates a colorful randomized effect as the bowl grows in size. Fabric paint or other surface embellishments add vibrancy to an everyday favorite!
Rope bowls are not just quick, fun, and creative, but they’re an economical and virtually no-waste project, using cotton clothesline, thread, and small fabric strips and scraps from other sewing or quilting. One inexpensive skein of clotheslines is enough to make three small or medium bowls. They are useful, beautiful, and very beginner-friendly.
This 3-hour class is available as an in-person or virtual workshop! And Julie of Ribbon Jar. partners with me to make a special coupon code for Rope Bowls students - along with all the basic supplies, she carries beautiful Japanese acrylic cord, gorgeous silk ribbons, and so much more.
Modern Log Cabin Quilting with Susan Beal
Log cabin is both a deeply traditional and beautifully modern block, and its simplicity is only matched by its incredible, dazzling versatility. And for so many quilters, a log cabin block is a sentimental favorite as the very first patchwork we ever tried. The simple, intuitive process of starting with a center square to build the “cabin” outward with contrasting color “logs,” then choose an overall block setting for a stunning result, has been popular for two hundred years - the first log cabin quilts have been dated back to circa the 1820s! This quintessentially American pattern, with settings and variations like Sunshine and Shadow, Courthouse Steps, Straight Furrows, and Barn Raising has crossed the Oregon Trail, resurged again in popularity as economical approach to scrap quilting during the Great Depression, and has inspired truly elevated quilts as art from Amish communities, the Quilters of Gee’s Bend, and modern quilters worldwide.
In this lecture, we’ll trace the fascinating history of this much-loved block, with gorgeous visuals of antique, vintage, and modern log cabin quilts, along with tips and techniques for piecing, placement, and simply making your log cabin quilts truly your own. From the most perfectly symmetrical designs to dynamic wonky and improv piecing approaches, we will celebrate everything log cabin, including gorgeous work from museums and modern quilters alike. This one-hour lecture includes a Creativebug subscription for all attendees or guild members to take my 4-part log cabin quilting series on demand, as well as explore hundreds of other wonderful sewing, quilting, and craft classes!
Log Cabin Quilting: Creativebug Workshops
I teach a series of fun, beginner-friendly Log Cabin Quilting workshops with creativebug! I created four hour-long classes: Square Within a Square Pillows, Sunlight Baby Quilt, Modern Crosses Mini Quilt & Table Runner, and Quartered Log Cabin Tote Bags. Each project includes variations so you can add all your own personalized details, plus a look at log cabin quilting history and how alternate block settings and color and scale choices change your patchwork. I'd love to see what you make!
Try creativebug free for two months and watch any of their hundreds of classes!
Simple Sewing Projects for Beginners: CreativeLIVE Class
Join me for a fun CreativeLIVE Simple Sewing Projects for Beginners class and learn to make appliqued t-shirts and backpacks, oilcloth lunch bags, skirts, capes, art totes and lots more. I’ll teach you nine different colorful projects to make for your kids, or adapt for yourself!
Cozy Wool Wraps: Taunton Workshop
Join me to sew a cozy buttoned scarflet, stylish modern shawl, and stunning vintage-inspired winter cape in my Taunton Workshop, Cozy Wool Wraps to Sew and Love! These are three of my favorite garments and accessories from my book, Hand-Stitched Home, and they’re surprisingly easy to sew. I also share lots of tips about working with wool fabrics and using pattern and color in these special projects.
Easy Embellishment: Interweave Workshop
For my Easy Embellishment class, I shared my favorite techniques for creating unique garments and accessories with simple and pretty embellishments. This class will teach you the basics of choosing different design elements; all about the building blocks of good embellishment design; how to make gorgeous hairclips, fascinators and shoe clips, and much more.
Other Classes
I've also taught classes at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Modern Domestic, the Northwest Quilting Expo, and Brooklyn Craft Company.
And I've spoken at Maker Faire, Summit of Awesome, Hello Etsy, and the National Button Society.
Please contact me if you're interested in lectures or classes!
