Past meeting program information is listed below.
Driven to Abstraction
Monday, July 12, 2021
7:00 pm
Brenda Gael Smith
Brenda creates textile works made from a rich palette of her hand-dyed fabrics complemented by intensive stitching. Much of her work is inspired by the colour and patterns of the natural world with a focus on her surroundings at the “other” Copacabana in Australia and her New Zealand homeland. Using a process of abstraction, Brenda strives to capture the essence of her subjects in simplified form. Working improvisationally, she refines line, shape, colour and texture to evoke a sense of place, express an idea, highlight an issue or elicit an emotional response. Learn more about Brenda’s inspiration and process in this colourful lecture.
Stitching, Symbols, Signature Style
Monday, June 14 – 7pm
Deborah Boschert
Deborah shares her most recent art quilts and talks about developing her own personal style. She’ll share tons of examples of her favorite techniques, materials and themes. She’ll tell stories about exciting collaborations, surprising discoveries and finding inspiration in unexpected places.
Native American Indian Quilts: 150 Years of Sewing and Survival
Monday, May 10 – 7 pm
Teresa Duryea
Teresa Duryea Wong, who writes, quilts and blogs about quilts, will give an online lecture at our May meeting entitled “Native American Indian Quilts: 150 Years of Sewing and Survival.” She’ll talk about the tumultuous period from 1880 to the present when Native Americans all over North America were relocated and had to adapt to a new way of life. When Western missionaries introduced quilting, Native American women who had learned to sew using buffalo hides and other natural materials applied their skills to cloth and eventually began to make beautiful quilts reflecting their own cultural heritage.
Learn how the transference from sewing buffalo hides and other natural materials to quilting took place and see the beautiful quilts made in this period.
In addition to the lecture by Teresa Duryea, two additional important items of business will take place at our May meeting:
- We will vote on the 2021-2022 Board
- The drawing for the 2021 Opportunity Quilt will be held.
Improvisational Piecing Techniques and More!
Monday, April 12
7:00 pm
Carol Rossi
Carole Rossi, a beloved former PVQA member, will be the featured speaker at our regular meeting in April. Now living in Sacramento, CA, Carole continues to explore improvisational piecing techniques in her work, creating abstract and fanciful representational images, often loosely based on photographs from her travels. See the dynamic quilt art she has produced and share her experiences as she explores the Sacramento quilt world.
Unconventional & Unexpected – Quilts that Break the Rules
Monday, March 8
7:00 pm
Roderick Kiracofe
Roderick Kiracofe, a noted quilt collector and author from San Francisco, will give a lecture at our regular meeting on Monday, March 8, 2021. Titled “Unconventional & Unexpected–Quilts that Break the Rules, his lecture will feature quilts from his extensive collection. He’ll explain how old things from the basement, the garage or his grandmother’s house around the corner in Indiana intrigued and then hooked his interest. You’ll see his favorite quilts, which are pieced, often crudely quilted or tied and full of printed fabrics, yet at the same time quirky, funky and soulful expressions of quiltmakers who broke the rules. Join us for a memorable night of the exotic and unusual!
Mile-a-Minute Quilts
Monday, January 11th
7:00 pm
Sally Miller
Join Sally Miller, a Carmel quilter, as she details a nearly 20-year long joy ride, using up her scraps as efficiently and quickly as possible as she made Mile-a-Minute quilts. Inspired by an article in American Quilter Magazine, she embarked on an continuing project which resulted in many lively quilts, a tidier studio and an empty waste basket.
The Design Process – From Concept to Quilt
Monday, December 14th
7:00 pm
Tina Curran
We’re in for a treat in December! Instead of our traditional Holiday Party, Katie and Pam have scheduled an online lecture by Tina Curran, an art quilter from Southern California, at our regular meeting on Mon., Dec. 14, 2020. Besides making quilts, Tina designs and sells quilt patterns through shops on Etsy and Craftsy. People who buy her quilt patterns often ask, “Did that come out of your head?” Tina’s lecture, “The Design Process–From Concept to Quilt,” answers that question. In her lecture, Tina shares the process she follows, sometimes linear, sometimes circuitous, which ends with a finished quilt. Through her lecture, illustrated with many original quilts, Tina hopes to demystify the creative process and encourage others to start designing their own quilts. Note: Members, you can do this! The process of designing a quilt can be taught, and Tina will show you how.
Anatomy of an Art Quilt
Monday, November 9th
7:00 pm
Cindy Grisdela
Cindy Grisdela, an award-winning fiber artist, author and quilter from Reston, Virginia, will be joining us Monday, November 9, 2020, for her virtual lecture, “Anatomy of an Art Quilt.” Cindy will talk about how to create an improvisational quilt (improv quilt for short). She’ll answer these questions: How do you create an improv quilt without a pattern? Where do you start? How do you know when it’s finished? She’ll share her tips and tricks in an entertaining lecture about the process of working improvisationally from start to finish.
If you haven’t read it yet, Pam Rocco highly recommends Cindy’s book, “Artful Improv: Explore Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free-Motion Quilting,” available in paperback. Her book contains an excellent tutorial on how to get started with improv.
Social Justice Sewing Academy
Monday, October 12 – 7 pm
Sara Trail
Sara Trail, the talented and charismatic founder and Executive Director of the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA), will be our speaker at our October meeting. After graduating from U.C. Berkeley and enrolling in a doctoral program at Harvard, Sara dropped out after only one year, got a job at a California prison, and founded the SJSA, because she wanted to use her artistic voice as a quilter to advocate for social justice.
She’ll tell us about the hands-on workshops the SJSA conducts in schools, prisons and community centers across the country, teaching students how to use quilting to effect social change.”
Quilts made by SJSA students from both continuation and regular public school classes were displayed at the 2019 PVQA Quilt Show.
Learn more about Sara and the Social Justice Sewing Academy.
Design and Color
Monday, September 14th
7:00 pm
Tara Faughnan
Tara Faughnan, a professional freelance textile designer and quilter from Oakland, will be our featured speaker at our September meeting. In her presentation, “Design and Color,” Tara will discuss different design approaches and delve into the importance of how color and value can tell a story. She draws inspiration from the simple bold geometry of antique quilts, the gorgeous bright colors from textiles around the world, and the spontaneity found in unconventional pieced quilts.
Check out her website www.terrafaughnan.com to see her work.
Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing
Monday, August 10th – 7:00 pm
Sarah Goer
Sarah Goer, is a modern quilter and teacher from San Jose. She loves bold color and enjoys the geometry and math of quilting.Her quilt patterns are less about following a precise pattern and and more about learning to improvise. In her presentation, “Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing,” she’ll show how she uses her planning nature to develop rules for herself, which drive her Planned Improv quilt design work.
The Traditional Way and Mac’s Way
Monday, July 13th – 7:00 pm
Mac McNamara
Enjoy a mini-workshop from President Mac McNamara. He is going to demonstrate the traditional construction of several blocks and then his interpretations of how those blocks could be reconstructed. It should be a fun evening that will stretch boundaries and get our creative juices churning.
A Trip to Japan with Friends
Monday, June 8th – 7:00 pm
Shauna Moulton
Helen Klee
Ellen McCarthy
Ruth Smith
Join our four intrepid PVQA quilters — Helen Klee, Ellen McCarthy, Shauna Moulton, and Ruth Smith — who traveled with Okan Arts on their Japanese Quilt Festival and Textile Tour in January and February this year. They will take us on a virtual tour of highlights from their time in Tokyo and Kyoto, from the Tokyo Dome to various textile dyeing workshops to splendid temples & gardens. See you then!
Christine Barnes and Heidi Emmett
Monday, March 9 – 7 pm
A Kaffe Fassett Extravaganza
Join Heidi Emmett and Christine Barnes for their aptly titled, fast-paced, fun-filled lecture on one of the biggest names in quiltmaking. Kaffe’s patterned, striped, and shot-cotton fabrics have been favorites with quilters for decades, but he’s just as famous for his knitting, needlepoint, and mosaics. Their program includes a short bio (he’s a fascinating artist), two brief video 
interviews in which he discusses his color philosophy and sources of inspiration, and a trunk show of their 
quilts and wearables made from his fabrics and yarns.
Timna Tarr
Monday, January 13 – 7 pm
Flying Colors
If you love fun, colorful quilts, this program is sure to delight! During this trunk show, Timna leads the audience down the path of her quilting journey. She talks about her design and color choices, as well as the personal stories behind the quilts.
She explains: “My work is about color and small compositions. Each block 
in a quilt is made as its own element, independent of the other blocks. After all of the blocks are constructed, my goal is to arrange the small compositions to play off each other and work together to create a larger whole. What keeps me engaged is watching how the project changes and transforms with the addition of each color and texture.“
The resulting quilts are contemporary works, set in this time and place, which reference the rich tradition of quilt making.