Bead workshop

This month the Maple Leaf Quilt Guild‘s speaker was Lisa Walton of Sydney, Australia. Often, when we bring in a special speaker, there is a workshop offered the next day. Way back in the spring I signed up for Lisa’s workshop. Why? I have followed her blog for a long time. I was originally taken in by her beautiful hand dyed fabrics. Then she started making amazing beaded creations. While she often teaches several types of quilting classes, I was especially excited that this was going to be her beading workshop AND her beaded button class all rolled into one.

I’ve done some beading before with knowledge I’ve gleaned from books and other publications but I’ve never taken a class. The first half of the day was devoted to a half dozen basic stitches used to add beading to fabric. Here are some pictures of my sampler.

The afternoon concentrated on putting those stitches to use in making a beaded button.

Lisa was a wonderful speaker. She gave us a great over view of the development of her fabric dyeing business Dyed and Gone to Heaven. She included her rising fascination with beads, pictures of her new studio and brought along a stack of lovely quilts, many of which I had seen before in pictures. What a treat to see them in person.

Lisa is headed to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, the ultimate in quilt show experiences. She’ll be teaching several classes there. What a treat it was to meet her and get to know her a little bit.