Teaching Perspective

I’ve spent time working my own way out of these same places, and while each of us is unique in how we pursue our work, I hope my experience can be a positive guide to those on the search for authenticity in their own work.

Contact Cynthia to schedule a workshop or lecture.

Seat Of The Pants Classes

Seat of the Pants Composition and Construction
Class Description:   2- to 3-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

Students will explore a direct and freehand approach to composition and construction, beginning with simple arrangements of forms, and then working in a series towards more complex compositions. Particular focus is on generating powerful, evocative forms. Longer workshop allows for additional studies in more depth.

Flying Free
Class Description:   4- to 5-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

Challenge yourself! This class is an in-depth exploration of a direct and free-hand approach to composition and construction. Each day we focus on a new series of abstract studies, considering for inspiration everything from traditional quilt blocks to primitive human figures. We consider complex fields, complex forms, and the structure of a composition—in a direct, experiential process. We explore, analyze, and refine to achieve work that is satisfying and fresh.

Deceptively Simple Classes

Deceptively Simple
Class Description:   2-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

Using a direct and freehand approach to construction and design, students will create two separate series of abstract compositions. Each series will begin with a complex arrangement and work towards an elegantly simple composition. Total 12 hours teaching time over two consecutive days.

  Arriving at the Essentials
Class Description:   3-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

Begin with an idea, a picture, a photo, or a sketch. Reduce that image to its essentials of line and form to arrive at a completely new composition. Through the analysis of existing compositions, learn what works and how to make the ideas your own. Students will construct one or more series of small studies based on the essentials they discover in their compositions.

  New Directions
Class Description:   4- to 5-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

First the idea! How do you get it? Then what? How do you take an idea through a process that leads to a truly unique quilt—one that communicates who you are and what you want to say as a quiltmaker? This class is for students eager to use what they know about quiltmaking and to take it in new directions. Beginning with generating and developing their own ideas, students use an approach to design that culminates in unique and personal work.

Explore your language of quiltmaking—whether it be traditional, ethnic, commemorative, personal, realistic, or abstract. Whether you employ the traditions of stitching or other methods of joining fabric to fabric, fiber to fiber, find ways that develop the character of your own work. The goal is to design quilts that work, that communicate and illustrate your unique personality and vision.

In an encouraging atmosphere, students will explore the use of small studies to find and evolve their ideas. The studies will be preliminary work leading to a final project to be completed in class.

Black Fabric Sketch Classes

In my own work, I have occasionally used what I term a black fabric sketch. It is a way to compose directly and spontaneously, as well as to see clearly the structure of a composition. Thinking of the technique as “sketching” on black fabric with the rotary cutter, a composition is cut (automatically making fabric templates*) and arranged on a design wall. The black fabric sketch becomes the pattern for a series of studies and variations, as well as a visual aid to composition

*Note on templates: There are templates and then there are templates. The way I use templates is, well . . . casual. That is to say, I simply use a template to get myself  “in the ball park” —as a relaxed reference to size and shape. You won’t need to obsess about precision here.

Structure & Variations
Class Description:   2- to 3-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

Consider a composition, its structure of lines and forms. Using the black fabric sketch, students will explore structure, paying particular attention to the evocative nature of line. Each student will develop a series of studies that will be preliminary work for a larger piece to be completed in class.

Variations: Black Fabric Sketch
Class Description:   5-Day Workshop
All Levels/Comfortable with Sewing Machine

In this class, the emphasis is on variations. Each student will compose a minimum of two black fabric sketches. These will be the basis for an extensive series of studies, carrying each composition through systematic variations, and exploring a wide variety of fabrics, from solids, hand dyes/painted, to commercially printed fabrics. Studies will be based on explorations of value relationships, pattern scale relationships, color, adding complexity in field and form, and construction techniques.

Current Lectures

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

This lecture is a ride in the many directions I have traveled looking for a way to work that felt honest and true. Along the way, I focus on those points of transition that seem to come again and again, and which drive me to explore new directions in my work.

Working in a Series

This lecture focuses on several series that I have worked on in recent years, including my most recent work. Each is an exploration—it might be experimenting with my hand dyed and painted fabrics, or considering the structure of seams that make up a quilt, or exploring pattern and texture. Whatever my questions are, the series of studies I work through provide me with a way to approach finding the answers.

  Bread Crumbs or Sign Posts: Finding a Way

I’ve decided that there is no right or wrong way to go about it, and this lecture reflects the convoluted path I have taken. I focus on my own process—asking questions of the work I do, and using the work to find the answers. It’s all about the process, the experimentation, and even the mistakes.

  All the Bad Quilts

And don’t worry, I’ve thrown in a few slides of successful work so we won’t get too depressed. What the heck is bad, anyway?