Karen McTavish scheduled to teach in Arizona March 2007

Thanks to the tremendous response from our membership, the AZLAQ Board has approved bringing Karen McTavish to Arizona. It is important to note that class size is limited, so availability will be based on a first come basis. To register contact Janice Bahrt at weebee.1@cox.net.

Classes being offered:

Custom Heirloom Quilting (1 day) (8 people on 4 machines)
FEE: $225.00 per student for one day class
DATES: March 28, 2007 or March 29, 2007.
TIMES: 9:00am to 4:00 (includes lunch break)
LOCATION: Mesa Singer Sewing Center, 3716 East Main Street, #2, Mesa, Arizona, 85205

"Custom Heirloom Workshop" topics include instruction in traditional quilting, using heavy quilting, trapunto, stencils and full traditional feathering. Includes a trunk show of wholecloth/trapunto quilts, demonstration and instruction in designing traditional quilting for show or customer quilts. Hands-on instruction in "McTavishing", contemporary traditional background quilting, and in how to achieve "non-stop" cross-hatching and other very traditional background fillers. Discussion of shadow trapunto, use of stencils, color batting methods of trapunto, marking tools and feathering techniques for hand-quilted effects, as well as discussion of useful products and the business of longarm quilting. There are many question and answer opportunities. The class is geared toward the intermediate to advanced longarm quilter although others are welcome. Students must be able to use a longarm quilting machine. A small trapunto, shadow trapunto, or color trapunto wall hanging will be started in this class, then completed at home. This project could be hung in students studios to display or be shown in a wall hanging category for competition.

Wholecloth Design Class (1 day) -
FEE: $175.00 per student for one day class, space limited to available table space
DATE: March 30, 2007.
TIMES: 9:00am to 4:00 (includes lunch break)

"Wholecloth Design Class" is an all day event, where no quilting machines are needed. This is a class which results in a large wholecloth, which is entirely marked by the student and is ready for trapunto, hand-quilting, or machine quilting by the end of class. This one day class is for anyone who would like to design an original wholecloth from scratch. Table space will be provided for each student. Instructor will also have many wholecloth quilts in the truck show as well as a small lecture on the history of wholecloth.

(The following bio is from Karen's book, Whitework Quilting):

Karen McTavish specializes in crafting award winning quilts using techniques which allow machine quilters to replicate traditional "hand quilted" effects. She has been featured on PBS's Quilt Central and HGTV's Simply Quilts. Her work has appeared in Joanne Line's books, "Quilts from the Quiltmakers Gift #1 and #2", and numerous national magazines and journals. Karen's first book, "Quilting for Show", was published in 2002. Her second book, "Whitework Quilting," was published in 2004, and her third book, "Mastering the Art of McTavishing", was published in 2005. Karen has been a full-time professional longarm quilter since 1997. She lives in Lake Superior's North Shore.