I was lucky enough to take a two-day quilting class with Frances Holliday Alford. Her intensely embellished quilts are magical and mesmerizing and overwhelming. These pictures simply do not do them justice!
Class began with a brief meditation and then Frances and her sisters introduced us to the materials we'd be working with: yantras, tarot, numerology, feng shui, and more!
As you can probably guess from the photos above, I pulled "the Hermit" card. It was fascinating to see the differences in how the Hermit is portrayed in different tarot decks, and even described differently in the various tarot books. After gathering our personalized materials (images, cards, numbers, etc.) Frances (in purple in the photo below) gave us a brief demo of how she wrote about these elements on her quilt base layer and then sewed elements on top of the text.
Here is my quilt base layer all written out:
I then started to add elements on top of that base layer.
I chose to allow a lot of the base layer to show through. It's totally personal preference.
Over time the quilt evolved with stitching and coloring into something new.
After day one, I took my quilt home to wash it — so that it would shrink up and the raw edges would get all ravel-y. I had used alcohol ink markers to color my fabric and they faded quite a bit in the wash.
When I got to class on day two, I wasn't sure which fabric to use for binding, so I auditioned a few of them:
In the end, I decided that I liked them ALL and so I pieced together a binding made up of many fabrics!
I also started to add embellishments, like sequins and beads…
..and some big fat embroidery stitches!
One of the many things that I love about taking in-person classes (I will never stop going to in-person classes!) is the sharing and community. Especially in a two-day class. I met lots of super talented, super interesting women and we all got to share something that we love to do! If you scroll down, you'll see that everyone's pieces turned out spectacularly different!
I haven't quite finished my quilt for this class, but I'll be sure to share as soon as I do!
Hope you enjoyed coming to class with me! Thanks for stopping by!
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Her work is so rich with detail, pattern and color. The entire process of making the quilt is something I’ve never heard of before. Please share your finished quilt.I guessed you’d use all the colors for the binding before I saw you did:) Why use only one when they are all so luscious.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Magnificent quilts and yours is stunning! Beautiful how you incorporated your personality and introspection in the piece. Quite inspiring and soul feeding with goodness. Looking forward to the finished piece. So happy you shared this process.
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Wow…the quilts are beautiful. I especially love that the class began by creating a sacred space using Medicine cards and Tarot. I love and have both. Sounds like a powerful quilting class. I love how your guilt square is personalized while incorporating symbols. Lovely!!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
Those quilts are awesome and yours is wonderful. What an explosion of creativity and color!
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
good Morning Julie,
This quilt project is so inspiring. I am in awe of all the quilts. They are all spectacular. I seriously love the idea of adding in the metaphysical tools into the quilts.
This is an awesome avenue to walk down. What I do too is try to incorporate some of the metaphysical in my own crafting. At present I have made Crystal Grids. I worked them out in scan n cut canvas and then brought over to my snc2. I drew them out on card stock then I laminated the drawing and scanned them in and cut out the grids with my scan n cut.
The grids to buy cost something like 28.00usd. Some are made out of press board, wood, glass etc. I call my girds the poor mans grid because they are just made of paper and plastic.
I love the tarot and numerology and Feng Shui Yantras I will have to check that out.
You could find out what you number is for this year 2017. You add your birth month and birth day to the year 2017 and then reduce it to the lowest single digit. That gives you the number for this year. I think mine is a number 4 this year.
With my birth date only I am a number 3. I have several decks my favorite is the Raider waite deck. The Hermit card to the right is from that deck.
I bet that class was a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing these awesome quilts. I am going to add Frances to my list of favorites.
Fabulous
You have a fantastic Tuesday
Fawna
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
WOW!!! That looks like it was hella fun!
amazing!
amazing!
amazing!
amazing!
amazing!
amazing!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!
How’s youur mola coming along? Did you finish it, and I missed it? I love your color sense! It just makes me happy to look at it!