Home: Walnut Creek, California
Alethea Ballard creates vibrant and exciting quilts using clear colors and cheerful images. Bouncing between making pieced quilts using large-scale prints to creating interesting collages and commissioned pieces, Alethea fills her working life with beautiful fabrics and eclectic imagery.
A veteran teacher, Alethea is always eager to share her working style and approach to quilting with students of all ages. Alethea’s enthusiasm for her subjects is contagious to her students and her expertise and easy working style makes them feel inspired.
Alethea Ballard approaches the design of her quilts with a cheerful feeling in her spirit. She looks for something a fabric which makes her heart skip a beat when she sees it, like a fabulous face; a beloved character; or a beautiful animal. Combine these images with flowers and trees and she’s off and running. Then, she sets about finding way to use these creative sparks in a quilt which tells a story to delight a viewer. She is especially drawn to a sardonic sense of juxtaposition and loves to imagine her characters doing things which they ought not or might not get the chance to do.
Alethea offers a virtual guild lecture called Exuberant Applique – Inspirations and Explorations. She shares everyday objects like wreaths and vases which inform the shapes she uses, the talk delves into the unusually-shaped quilted textiles which are her signature work. The talk includes her small pieces and amazing wall hangings and ends with her line of people and her larger selfie quilts.
Alethea can accompany the guild lecture with a workshop to create delightful collages using her raw-edge style. Focus on sourcing images from fabrics and extracting them for collage, she will share her cutting tips and tricks. Then students will have the opportunity to create a unique art piece in a subject of their choosing. Alethea can also create kits for the classes if a guild would request that. Information about tools, materials and discussions and examples of design, scale and layout will round out the lessons.
Alethea Ballard was the guest on The Quilt Show Number 2602 where she shared her wonderful collages and even played the accordion! She is also an author and contributor with C & T Publishing, including Maverick Quilts, Using Large-Scale Prints, Novelty Fabrics and Panels with Panache and Dream Chair Quilts, 7 Blocks for Whimsical Wallhangings.
Join Alethea and create the unexpected! In addition to her guild offerings, Alethea has an online workshop that is designed for individual at-home learning. Her Exuberant Appliqué Basics is fun online offered through her website. Students from all over the globe or right across the street can explore the world of raw edge collage from the comfort of their own sewing space.
See more of Alethea’s work on her website https://aletheaballard.com/ and on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe5UOK0kZ15xZBuwaYiYFCQ
Be sure to tell Alethea that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!