Although the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with plans for Maria to travel to Toronto last spring to do an in-person lecture and workshops at York Heritage Quilters Guild, we a pleased to have the opportunity to host Maria virtually at the guild meeting on May 18th at 7:00pm via Zoom.

Alaskan quilter Maria Shell started out as a traditional quilter, but she soon found herself making abstract pieced art quilts that looked surprisingly modern. She will share her journey in the traditional, art, and modern quilt movements. Can you be all three? Come and find out for yourself!

Two of Maria’s quilts recently won major awards at QuiltCon Together 2021!  “Mosh Pit @theGolden” won for “Best Machine Quilting, Framed” and “Everything All At Once” won 1st place – Piecing.  You can see Maria’s winning quilts, and all the QuiltCon Together 2021 winners here:

https://www.quiltcon.com/quiltcon2021-winners

Hosting workshops virtually also allowed the guild to offer both a weekday and a weekend class with Maria.

On Wednesday May 19 9:30am-3:30, Maria will be teaching “Riffing on Tradition – Exploring Design Elements with Quilt Blocks”, where attendees will explore new territory in making contemporary quilts using traditional quilt blocks as a foundation, . Learn how to take simple, traditional quilt blocks and blow them up, repeat them, distort them, and create fabulous new compositions.

On Saturday May 29 9:30am-3:30, Be empowered to take the basic shapes of patchwork to a new level in the “Lines & Triangles = Squares” workshop. Learn how to create improvisationally cut and pieced stripes. Then learn how to turn these “stripes” into traditional patchwork shapes.

For more information and to sign up for classes, visit:

https://yhqg.org/speakers-and-workshops/