Quilt Design Schoolhouse by Lynne MacDonald 01/31/26

Are you interested in designing your own quilt, but are unsure where to start, or just need a gentle nudge to take the leap? This class is your nudge! Lynne will briefly speak of her own journey into design, outlining how she identified her own design roadblocks and how she works around them. She will also demonstrate a very simple, math-free method to convert your sketch to a small to-scale drawing. Furthermore, Janice Black will present a method she uses to enlarge applique sketches to desired size. Then the fun part begins: each participant will randomly select cards that illustrate an array of blocks, strips, and sets, then each sketch your own unique layout using the blocks you drew. You can trade cards, ‘go fish’ for alternative cards, if you so desire. Feel free to bring inspirational elements to class; Lynne often starts her own designs from a feature fabric. Work at your own speed. If you are as slow as Lynne, you may well do more than define a design and convert it to a scale drawing. If you are one of those speedy types, you can begin piecing blocks for your design. This class is suitable for beginning quilters.

Supplies:

What you need to bring:

• Pad of inexpensive paper, such as writing paper (for rough sketching)
• Pad (8×11 or so) of graph paper marked in 1” grid broken down into ¼” subunits (if it breaks down into the 5 lines to an inch unit, that works but is a bit less easy to use).
• Lead pencil and eraser
• Ink pen (for non-erasable sketching…standard writing pen works fine)
• 12” ruler (school ruler is fine)
• Paper scissors (I also use a rotary cutter I’ve designed for paper cutting)
• Tape (best if it’s blue painters tape so you can move taped pieces as necessary)

Optional supplies:

• Inspirational things (a printed fabric, an orphan block, etc.) you might like to design around.
• Colored pencils (just a few basic colors you envision using in a quilt)
• fine point Sharpie-type pen
• quilters ruler (to allow for easy marking of parallel lines or angles)
• If you anticipate moving on to piecing, bring your machine and usual kit, and fabrics.

If your design requires you to create a full-sized scale drawing of your design in order to piece it, Lynne will provide a larger piece of graph paper. The design can be no more than a smaller wall hanging-sized piece.