Quilters Calendar & Guild Network

resources for quilt guild volunteers

art

Leni Wiener

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Leni Levenson Wiener (2)Home: New York City, New York, USA

Leni Levenson Wiener is an art quilter, author and instructor living just outside New York City. Her work, which has been exhibited across the US and internationally, can best be described as fabric collage. Photo-realistic in nature, her themes focus mainly on the faces and body language of people caught in ordinary moments of their everyday lives.

“As a former commercial photographer, I still see the world through a camera lens. I am drawn to subjects that are photographic in nature–I like to capture a fleeting moment in the life of a stranger. I often depict an insignificant moment, but one that causes the viewer to look closely, to fill in the story, and in that way to be drawn deeper into the work.” All of Leni’s pieces begin with a photo or a combination of photos which are translated into commercially available fabric.

Leni has authored four books; Thread Painting (2007), Photo-inspired Art Quilts (2009), 3-Fabric Quilts (2011) and Pictorial Art Quilt Guidebook, which will be released in the spring of 2014.

Leni’s workshops cover color, value and print scale; how to choose the right fabrics for your art quilt; making a pattern from a photo; and then the steps required to learn her easy technique. She also gives talks on her process with an overview of her work and on finding your artistic voice. Workshops can be customized to fit the specific needs of the guild or group.

Visit Leni’s Website for information on workshops, talks and to see more of her work.

Please let Leni know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Rami Kim

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RamiKim2Home: Rocklin, California

Rami Kim is a DNA scientist-turned fabric artist/quilter/instructor known nationally and internationally. She is a 17-time Best of Show winner, distinguished for her innovative art-to-wear.

Her passion is in contemporary art-to-wear, quilts, cloth dolls and bags with special interest in 3-dimensional textures and she is known for her own distinctive colors and techniques. Her first book, Folded Fabric Elegance, published by AQS, is about her 3-D texturing techniques and new projects. Her second book Quilted Elegance, also published by AQS, focuses on reversible wearable arts, bags and two-sided quilts. The third and most recent book, ‘Elegant Cotton, Wool, Silk Quilts’ was published in autumn 2012.

She graduated from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) majoring in endocrinology and worked at the Cancer Research Institute at UCSF before her passion and talent in fabric art drastically changed this biochemist’s career years ago.

She says she’d rather spend even more time with beautiful fabrics and threads and beads than with DNA sequencing gels and radioactive isotopes of cold, gray science. In her website you’ll find information on upcoming workshops, lectures and trunk shows hosted by Rami, as well as a gallery of her art. Enter Rami’s world of fascination and take a look around! Visit Rami’s Website and her blog for what’s new in her world today.

Please let Rami know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Shannon Shirley

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ShannonShirleyHome: Woodbridge, Virginia

Author of Creating Children’s Artwork Quilts. Shannon Shirley has been quilting since 1989. She is an award winning fiber artist, an instructor, speaker and author. She has been teaching professionally since 2006 and loves to share her eclectic styles of quilting with students of all levels, whether in her own studio or on the road.

Shannon makes commission pieces and loves the challenge of designing to meet the needs of each of her clients.

She creates children’s artwork quilts, incorporates vintage linens, makes art quilts from her own photographs and makes memory quilts just to name a few.

She grew up in an Air Force family and loves to travel but settled in Northern Virginia in 1975. Visit Shannon’s Website.

Please let Shannon know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Susan Brubaker Knapp

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Home: Charlotte, North Carolina

I am a fiber artist, quilt pattern designer and teacher. Quilting started as my hobby, but has turned into a passion and a business. I teach classes at quilt guilds, at quilt festivals – and occasionally online — and have published patterns and books for my original quilt designs.

I love traditional hand quilting and needleturn appliqué, but have embraced innovative machine techniques. I started making “art quilts” — works of art executed in fabrics and fibers — in 2005. My quilts have won national as well as local awards, and have been exhibited at national and international venues. I have won seven Best of Show awards at three different quilting guilds, with six different quilts.

My work has been featured in several national magazines, in five calendars, and has graced the covers of two issues of Quilting Arts magazine. I am the author of two books – Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art (C&T Publishing, 2011), and Appliqué Petal Party (C&T Publishing, 2009).Visit Susan’s Website

Please let Susan know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Laura Wasilowski

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laura-wasilowskiHome: Elgin, Illinois

Laura Wasilowski is both contemporary quilt maker and creator of hand-dyed fabrics and threads. Her pictorial art quilts (created from fused fabrics and hand-embroidered or machine quilted) are collected and exhibited
internationally.

Wasilowski’s narrative quilts begin with her unique hand-dyed fabrics and are inspired by stories of family, friends, and home. The whimsical wall pieces often chronicle her life.

Owner of the dye shop, Artfabrik, Laura is also a lecturer, surface designer, quilt instructor, pattern designer, and author of Fusing Fun, Fuse-and-Tell, and her latest book: Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts.

For more information please visit Laura’s Website

Please let Laura know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Cynthia England

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Cynthia England Quilt TeacherHome: Dickson, Texas

Cynthia England is a graduate of the Art Institute of Houston and has been creating quilts for more than thirty years. Experimentation with quilting techniques led her to develop her own unique style “Picture Piecing”. Cynthia’s quilts have been honored with many awards, including two Best of Shows at the prestigious International Quilt Association. Her quilt, Piece and Quiet was distinguished as one of the Hundred Best Quilts of the 20th Century.

Cynthia teaches and lectures nationally and internationally. In addition, she is the designer and owner of England Design Studios which is a publishing/pattern company which specializes in the Picture Piecing technique. She has over 50 patterns and two books using this technique. The books include a beginner book called “Picture Piecing Traditional Quilts”, and now in it’s third printing “Picture Piecing Dramatic Pictorial Quilts”, which explains how to take a photo and turn it into a quilt using this process.

Her technique is NOT a foundation or paper piecing technique. Visit Cynthia’s Website for free tutorial videos.