Art Quilts by Tina Curran

Lectures & Workshops for Groups/Guilds — either in-person or live via Zoom

I currently offer five lectures and more than two dozen workshops for your group or guild to choose from. Below is an overview of my offerings as provided to the Global Quilt Connection in March 2023. (I have a separate page offering workshops for individuals. See the link at the bottom of this page.)

Fee info is at the bottom of the page.

Lectures

My Excellent Adventure as a Quilter — trunk show

In this lecture, I show and share the stories behind three dozen or so quilts I’ve made — most are my own designs. I can either bring the quilts in-person or share photos of them over Zoom.

Trunk show #2 — Quilts no longer in my possession (hence photos only)

When Zoom lectures took off, I put together a second trunk show of photos of the quilts no longer in my possession — they’ve either been sold, gifted or donated. In this lecture, I share the photos and stories behind another three dozen or so quilts. This lecture can be delivered over Zoom or in-person via a slide show.

My Design Process — From Concept to Quilt

As a quilt pattern designer, I am often asked if my designs come to me fully formed. The answer, of course, is, “No.” The goal of this lecture is to demystify the design process I use by breaking it down into its elements. I'll provide many examples of the design & execution challenges I've faced and my solutions to overcome them. My hope with this lecture is to inspire other quilters to design their own quilts.

More Design Challenges and Solutions

As a follow-up to my design process talk, this presentation walks through more design dilemmas I’ve encountered over the years and how I resolved them. Like the original design lecture, the goal of this talk is to inspire other quilters to design their own quilts.

My Escape from Corporate America to a Creative Career

Appropriate for audiences of non-quilters as well as quilters, in this lecture I trace my career path -- starting in the advertising industry and transitioning to the quilting industry, highlight the joys and the challenges along the way.

Workshops

Whimsical Garden

My most popular workshop, this pattern uses two techniques -- regular piecing to make the background and raw edge appliqué to make the foreground. What’s fun about these quilts is they all come out differently, based what the students bring to class. If conducted in person, it’s a great opportunity for students to swap elements for greater variety in their compositions. (Supply list here.)

California Poppies

This quilt is made using the paper-piecing technique. Though I made my composition with oranges & greens, my students have used a variety of colors to make their poppy quilts. (Supply list here.)

Herringbone-anza quilts and/or quilted 20” pillows

Quilters are always surprised at how easily these wonderful quilts come together (the secret is partial seams). Students can opt to either make a quilt (that finishes approximately 40” x 50”) or a 20” quilted pillow. (Supply list for the quilt here; supply list for the pillow here)

Sought-after Neighborhood

This composition features 16 colorful houses set off by a black & white checkerboard. The houses are made using the paper-piecing technique.

Black & White & Blue All Over

This composition combines two classic quilt motifs, sawtooth stars and flying geese. It can be made either with regular piecing or paper-piecing.

Log Cabin Heart

These blocks give the impression that the heart shapes were cut from log cabin patterned quilts, but the effect is actually made via paper-piecing.

Seeing Stars

This composition features colorful sawtooth stars set off by black & white fabrics. It can be made either with regular piecing or paper-piecing.

Constellation

This quilt features rings of five-pointed stars and can be made in two sizes, depending on whether you make two or three rings of stars. The star blocks are made using paper-piecing. (Supply list here.)

Dancing Ice Cream Cones

This quilt is made from eight 15-1/2” blocks and some partial blocks. Each is made using paper piecing and then the maker’s choice of appliqué method (needle-turn, machine or raw-edge). Alternatively, a single block could be made and turned into an 18” quilted pillow.

Halloween Motifs

My “Halloween Flag” quilt features a field of candy and 13 stripes, each with a different Halloween motif. As seen in the close-up shots below, there are tombstones, mummies, tumbling witch’s legs, trick-or-treat bags, ghosts, pumpkins, black cats, witch’s hats, candy corn, bats, cobwebs, the phases of the moon and bones. This workshop can be customized to feature three Halloween motifs your guild members would like to make. Most of the blocks are made with paper-piecing and could be made in almost any size desired. This could be the start of a Halloween row-by-row quilt.

Flag

This is my first American flag quilt design. It features 13 stylized stars in the field of stars and more eight-pointed stars in the stripes. It is made using the paper-piecing technique.

Flag #2

With this American flag quilt design, the paper-pieced field of stars is the same as in my original design, but the stripes are made using the traditional Rail Fence pattern.

Flag #4

My next American flag quilt design kept the stripes made with the traditional Rail Fence pattern and used another technique to make the stars, where no two turned out the same and seem to dance across the field.

Flower Flag #1

Since I like to make flag quilts and floral quilts, a floral flag was inevitable. In this one, dark and light floral fabrics are used to make the stripes in the traditional Rail Fence pattern. In place of the field of stars, there’s a field of flowers with 50 flower heads added to a background fabric via raw edge appliqué.

Flower Flag #2

This floral flag features strips of colorful floral fabrics as the stripes and, as in the quilt above, a field of flowers with 50 flower heads added to a background fabric via raw edge appliqué.

100 Houses

For quilters who like a challenge, this composition features one hundred paper-pieced houses that each finish at 2” square. The picket fence is made via raw edge appliqué.

At the Beach

Inspired by the aerial photography of Gray Malin, this is my interpretation of a bird’s eye-view of a beach, decorated with colorful towels and umbrellas. These quilts are made with regular piecing and some partial seams. (Supply list here.)

Color Blocks

This quilt features squares of the primary and secondary colors set off by black and white fabrics. It’s a great pattern for all levels but especially for beginners, as all the pieces are one size.

Bunny Family

This quilt features two bunny parents and eight bunny kids. The bunny blocks are made using paper-piecing and the picket fence is made using regular piecing.

Wreath-o-rama Holiday 20” pillows

Guilds have the choice of one of nine different holiday-themed quilted pillow projects. These pillows are made from 18” paper-pieced quilt blocks.

Fees

• Lectures: I am paid $550 USD for a lecture of 45-60 minutes with Q&A

• Workshops: I am paid $650 USD for a six-hour workshop. If over Zoom, workshops can be split into two three-hour session for the same cost