Visible Hand Piecing
Sunday, October 5 from 10am-4pm
Class level: All experience levels welcome
Age requirements: 16 and older
Teaching artist: Heidi Parkes
Class fee: $200
This exciting and relatively fast approach to hand piecing allows your handwork to stand out. Using a thick and visible thread, you will learn to piece curves and straight lines with an appliqué-inspired approach, using large and small pieces of fabric. Instruction will focus on the running stitch, whip stitch, and ladder stitch, as well as clever and poetic solutions for ‘innie-corners,’ acute angles, and finished-edge textiles like handkerchiefs and napkins.
Your class fee includes on-demand recorded videos of each stitch, which you will view ahead of time and begin sewing before class meets. You will then attend in-person to view Heidi's quilts up close for inspiration, ask questions, see demonstrations, and address technical challenges as you sew your quilt top. A PDF with links to the pre-class instruction videos will be sent to registrants 4 weeks in advance of the class.
It will be possible to complete an entire quilt top by the end of class! A minimalist design can be completed within class, while a maximalist look can be achieved with additional sewing in the coming weeks or months. Large-scale appliqué, negative space, and incorporating the work sewn before class will allow for a beautiful abstract composition. A quilt top can be a lovely textile all on its own, but it can also be fun to quilt it! You're welcome to quilt in any style on your own after class, and students will receive a coupon code if they would like to take Heidi's on-demand Improv Hand Quilting class.
Required Supplies: *Please see photos and more specifics about Heidi’s favorite supplies on her website at: https://www.heidiparkes.com/my-favorite-supplies
Your hand piecing samples from watching the introductory videos! (We will start class by sharing and asking questions about these samples)
Fabric - I’d suggest using anywhere from 2’ x 2’ to 5’ x 5’ of a solid fabric. A solid background fabric allows you to see the impact of the visible hand piecing. Also bring scraps or other fabrics to piece or applique onto your base fabric. Any colors, sizes, and shapes are welcome! Handkerchiefs, napkins, and table linens are also fun an efficient to use.
Thread - I prefer pearl cotton size 8. Use a color that is high-contrast with your fabric.
Needle - I like Dritz milliners
Pushing thimble - to protect your fingers while sewing (I LOVE the Clover Protect and Grip Thimble, which is in my Amazon Shop: https://www.amazon.com/shop/heidi.parkes)
Pulling thimble or gripper (I LOVE the Little House Needle Gripper Silicone Thimble, which I purchase from Snuggly Monkey, linked on my favorite supplies page with a $5 off coupon)
Safety Pins
Straight Pins and/or applique pins
Scissors
A small embroidery hoop - any size 3-7” in diameter, I especially love my tiny 3” hoop!
Additional Optional Supplies:
A hera marker or other marking tool
A needle threader
Approximately a foot of aluminum foil
Thin cardboard (a cereal box, a soda can box, or a Kleenex box, etc)
REGISTER*
(*Note: All registrants will receive a PDF with links to the pre-class instruction videos will be sent to registrants 4 weeks in advance of the class. The value of these online instruction materials is $50, therefore any workshop cancellations made less than 4 weeks in advance of the class will incur a $50 cancellation fee in addition to TAC’s standard $10 cancellation fee.)
Teaching Artist Bio:
Before Heidi Parkes was born in Chicago, IL in 1982, her grandmother organized a collaborative family quilt to commemorate her birth. Now based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, her quilting and mending celebrate the hand, and her works tug at memories and shared experience. Engaging in the worlds of art, quilts, mending, and social media, Heidi is an advocate for the domestic realms, slow stitching, and mindfulness; find her on Instagram and YouTube. She was the 2024 Pfister Hotel Artist in Residence, and is a 2005 graduate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Heidi will be exhibiting at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison this September. Soft Magic was her recent exhibition at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts. Her quilts have received awards at Quilt National and QuiltCon, she has exhibited internationally in France and South Korea, and she has taught in Italy and Japan.
Website: heidiparkes.com
Social: @heidi.parkes