10 September 2008

Workshop with Lisa Walton

The workshop, arranged by London Quilters, was based on Lisa's quilt "Breaking the Drought". We learned tricks of embellishing, layout, and quilting this pattern. What a scene of concentration. Note the fabrics on the bench - these are Lisa's hand-dyes, and the ones spread open are painted, graded from one colour to another. Irresistible.
Lisa uses her painted fabric for whole-cloth creations. She paints several layers at once - including a top layer of organza. This piece is embellished with lots of beads -
By mid-afternoon we each had a few blocks ready. Here's Lisa giving us some tricks for getting the layout to work -Back home I kept right on working, embellishing all my hand-dyed recylced damasks - there are enough to make a piece 48" square. This lurid photo shows my blocks laid out, ready to sew together - and quilt, of course. The blue border (still to come) will have a block jutting into it -- which, Lisa explained, saves buying huge amounts of fabric, just to cut the long borders along the length.
Of course in a workshop you have to get out of your comfort zone at least once. I really resisted the eyelash yarn at first, but by the end of the day had to ask for some more....

2 comments:

RHONDA said...

What fun!... to arrive on your blog and find an entry about a good friend. I love Lisa's work, too...and get to brag that I've slept under a couple of her quilts when I've stayed with her in Sydney.

I'm looking forward to seeing a photo of your finished quilt!

Lisa Walton said...

Thanks for your kind words Margaret. I had a great day with you all and look forward to seeing lots of finished masterpieces.
Regards
Lisa