Karen McTavish

PUBLIC CLASSES: Public class/lecture size, price and location will be set by my host.: Check my teaching schedule for dates and availability. If you are interested in inviting me your guild or in having me teach at your event, simply email me at kmctavish@designerquilts.com. Classes and workshops can be customized to your guild/show or convention based on need. Some of my classes only need table space, while other classes are hands on with either longarm or domestic machines. See below for a detailed description of my workshops. Please keep in mind that these can all be customized based on need.

Custom Curved Heirloom Crosshatching

Topics include instruction in traditional quilting, using heavy quilting, trapunto, stencils and full traditional feathering. Includes a trunk show of trapunto quilts, demonstration and instruction in designing traditional quilting, curved and straight crosshatching and how to achieve "non-stop" cross-hatching and other very traditional background fillers. Discussion of marking tools and feathering techniques for hand-quilted effects, as well as discussion of useful products and the business of longarm quilting.

Wholecloth Design Class

Wholecloth Design Class is an all day event, where no quilting machines are needed. This is a class which results in a large wholecloth, which is entirely marked by the student and is ready for trapunto, hand-quilting, or machine quilting by the end of class. This one day class is for anyone who would like to design an original wholecloth from scratch. Table space will be provided for each student. Instructor will also have many wholecloth quilts in the truck show as well as a small lecture on the history of wholecloth.

Mastering the Art of McTavishing Certification Class

Mastering the Art of McTavishing Certifcation Class is for instructors or those who would like to teach this class. This class will help you master, understand and quilt the popular background filler called McTavishing. This background filler is all the rage! Quilts become award winning from appliqué to wholecloth. Become a certified trainer in this quilting style - you will then be able to teach this technique to others at local quilt shops and/or offer this class if you are already teaching quilting techniques.

How Am I Suppose to Quilt That?

This class is for any quilter who needs help and/or fresh ideas in designing un-quilted tops. I will take the mystery out of designing quilt tops with very simple instructions. You will learn to figure it all out and turn an empty canvas into a beautiful finished product.
Supply list: pencil/pen, paper and students must bring un-quilted quilt tops to class!

How to Draw Original Quilting Designs

This is a drawing class. Students will learn how to draw custom original quilting designs and place them into a quilt using marking techniques. Please provide a white board for instructor. Students will need a paper and pencil for this class.

One Hour Lecture + Trunk Show

This 1 hour lecture is for Quilting Guilds, Quilt Shops and other organizations who would like to host the speaker at their location. Instructor will provide a lecture on her history of quilting, including wholecloth and trapunto, and her techniques including "McTavishing." Karen brings her unique and humorous style to her lecture - it's a "laugh out loud" event. Lecture includes stories about her quilts but also covers techniques using a machine instead of hand-quilting and information about competition quilting. She comes with her award winning trunk show and book signing opportunities. Fees are based on distance to travel and expenses. Please contact instructor for details.

Victorian Feathers

This class is all about Victorian Feathers - how to place the feathers in a quilt without marking and how to make them look hand-quilted. It’s a very fast way to achieve today’s heirloom style without the time commitment of marking the quilt. This is a great class for those who are in a rut and need something new! Hands on class. Bring your favorite quilt tops to this class!!

Quilting for Show

This lecture is based on competition quilting and what is involved in the judging process. This is a very casual setting where all topics relating to judging, winning awards, and competing are answered. Discussion of all current quilting for competition guidelines and expectations will be covered. Take the mystery out of show competitions and feel confident entering your quilts in the future! Students may bring paper and pencil to class.

Custom Heirloom Quilting

Custom Heirloom Workshop topics include instruction in traditional quilting, using heavy quilting, trapunto, stencils and full traditional feathering. Includes a trunk show of wholecloth/trapunto quilts, demonstration and instruction in designing traditional quilting for show or customer quilts. Hands-on instruction in "Mctavishing", contemporary traditional background quilting, and in how to achieve "non-stop" cross-hatching and other very traditional background fillers. Discussion of shadow trapunto, use of stencils, color batting methods of trapunto, marking tools and feathering techniques for hand-quilted effects, as well as discussion of useful products and the business of longarm quilting. There are many question and answer opportunities. The class is geared toward the intermediate to advanced quilter although others are welcome. Experience helpful on a longarm but it's not critical. A small trapunto, shadow trapunto, or color trapunto wall hanging will be started in this class, then completed at home. This project could be hung in students studios to display or be shown in a wall hanging category for competition.

Review of my lecture/workshop

I was Vice President ~ Programs and Workshops for the Quilter’s Guild of Dallas from September 2006-August 2008. I was contacted by a guild member about booking Karen McTavish for a lecture. I had never heard of her (I guess I spend a lot of time living in a cave!), but consulted a few longarm quilter friends to get their feedback. They all confirmed that Karen’s techniques were just as easily applied to a home machine, despite having been developed on a longarm quilting machine. In any case, I booked her to visit us in August of 2008, not really knowing what to expect. I’d spent a little time perusing her website, and knew she had recently gotten tattoos of her quilting patterns. I figured anybody who would be that committed to her quilting had to have something interesting to say!

The Dallas (Texas) guild is quite a large one, with over 500 members on the roster, and an average of 150 men and women attending the monthly Guild meetings. It is a mixture of diehard traditionalists, arty-farty types (like me!), and those that fall somewhere in the middle, dabbling with both ends of the spectrum. In our programming, we try to strike a balance between these varied interests when selecting lecturers and workshop teachers. Needless to say, finding someone who can appeal to EVERYBODY is a challenge at best, but pleasing our most senior members is our biggest challenge. So, when I hear through the grapevine that the "little old ladies" give a speaker their stamp of approval, I know for sure it was a successful program. And the word that got after Karen’s presentation was that once the L.O.L. network returned to their small friendship groups with tales of her lecture, the women who stayed home that evening regretted having missed the whole thing.

What did they miss? They missed the story of a very unconventional single mom making a rather unconventional journey to becoming a quilter - and one who specializes in decidedly traditional wholecloth designs, at that! Based on the laughter that was rockin’ the meeting room during her comments, I’d have to say the money we spent to ship her in from Minnesota to show a carload of quilts and talk was some of the best money we’ve spent on a program this year! Even members who usually pack up their stuff and sneak out the door as soon as the lecture begins felt compelled to sneak back to their seats and stay to hear the whole story.

Judy Kriehn, Quilter’s Guild of Dallas, Texas

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