Lectures & Workshops

I'm happy to offer workshops and lectures for quilt guilds, shops, and events, available both in person and virtually.

Please contact me to check availability or book a session. I'm currently booking for 2026 & 2027.

Workshops

Improv For Planners - 6 hours / full day

Are you overwhelmed or intimidated by improv quilt techniques? Do you feel like you're too much of a planner to enjoy making a quilt without knowing what it's going to look like, and possibly "ruining" fabric in the process? 

Join me for Improv For Planners, a full-day workshop where I teach you my easy, not-intimidating method of making an improv quilt while still having control and structure throughout the process. And yes, the use of rulers is very much encouraged ;-)

I suggest combining it with my A Planner's Adventures in Improv lecture.

Up to 20 students - full day

Foundation Paper Piecing for Beginners - 3 hours

Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) is a fun technique to create intricate and precise quilt blocks, but it can feel a bit intimidating to get started.

In this 3-hour class we'll cover the basic technique of FPP using one of my beginner-friendly FPP block patterns (your choice). Once everyone is comfortable with the basics, we'll also have a look at the Freezer Paper method, which makes removing the paper much easier.

Up to 20 students - half day

Design Your Own Quilt - 3 hours

In this workshop, we turn an everyday object into a fully-fledged quilt design that you can sew up at home.

I'll walk you through the process of finding inspiration in everyday items and developing it into a design that can be rendered in fabric following my easy 4-step framework. 

There is no sewing in this class, we only work with pencils & graph paper to bring your inspiration to life.

Combines well with the From Idea to Quilt trunk show.

Up to 20 students - half day

Full Quilt Pattern  - 1-2 days

Choose any Penny Spool Quilts pattern to make as a class. 

We'll cover all parts of the pattern, and I will guide students through any tricky spots to make sure they can complete the pattern successfully. Depending on the pattern and length of the workshop, students will either have a completed quilt top, or have made significant progress through the most important parts so that they can easily finish the top on their own afterwards.

Visit the shop here for all available patterns.

Up to 20 students

Lectures & Trunk Shows

All lectures & trunk shows include an additional 15 minutes of Q&A time at the end.

Modern Scrappy Quilts - 1 hour

Let’s talk about creating scrappy quilts that feel cohesive, colourful, and intentionally modern. Instead of the traditional “everything but the kitchen sink” approach, I’ll share how I use coordinated colour schemes like rainbow, ombré, or curated palettes to turn scraps into stunning designs. Through a gallery of real quilt examples, I’ll walk you through how I sort and select fabrics, and how I adapt almost any modern quilt pattern to work beautifully with scraps. Expect plenty of quilts to admire, along with practical ideas you can bring back to your own sewing room.

A Planner’s Adventures in Improv - 1 hour

In this lecture I take you along on my journey into improvised quilting as someone who once insisted that “improv gives me hives.” I’ll share how I developed a simple, structured approach to “planned improv” quilting that naked me feel creative and excited instead of overwhelmed. Going from the first quilt to my most recent ones, you’ll see how I’ve grown more confident experimenting within this framework, trying new fabrics, colour palettes, and ideas each time. I’ll also share how this approach eventually led to my “fridge cleanout quilts,” where leftovers from past projects become intentional and playful improvised mini quilts.

I suggest combining it with the Improv For Planners workshop above.

Make Your Own Precuts - 30 min

Are your scrap bins overflowing? Does the thought of having to dig through an unruly pile of scraps to make a quilt feel too overwhelming to even start?

In this mini lecture I walk you through a simple technique to help you get past the scrap overwhelm and get organized in a way that works for you and the kind of quilts you like to make. And I show you the easy technique I use to always have my scraps ready to go for any spur-of-the-moment quilt ideas. 

This lecture is ideal for online quilt groups or virtual guild meetings but can be adapted to in-person as well.

Trunk show: From Idea To Quilt - 1 hour

 

Join me as I take you on my journey from first quilt to full-time quilter & pattern designer. On the way, I talk about how I learned to quilt, the mistakes I made and the lessons I learned. With each quilt shown, I'll take you behind the seams and show you where my design inspirations came from, and the (many) twists and turns they took to become quilt patterns.

Combines well with the Design Your Own Quilt workshop.