Royce, Fern

• Following the Inspiration: Where does a quilt idea come from and how does it get from an idea to an actual quilt? Fern's lecture and trunk show describes the starting point (inspiration) of each of her quilts and the path it took to complete, including the steps or missteps, quick gestation or months/years long process.
• Confessions of a Whole Cloth Quilter and How I Found the Liberated Pathway: A trunk show illustrating Fern's beginnings from a timid quilter to a tiny piecer and all the influences along the way.
• One Thing Leads to Another: Improvisational quilting is an intuitive way of creating quilts. Fern often starts her quilts by playing with scraps or an idea, drawing a rough sketch or wondering: What if? In this lecture Fern describes her quilting process and how each decision informs the next, keeping her engaged, focused and often unsure of what happens next.

• String Quilts - Bring your string quilting into the 21st century and go paperless! String quilts were traditionally made with strips of leftover fabric sewn onto a paper or cloth foundation. This foundation-free technique makes it fast and fun. In the string intro class, students focus on making squares and triangles. Specific string quilt classes include Down the Rabbit Hole and Last Bits.
• Medallions - Medallion quilts start in the center, working outward with multiple borders. Liberated Medallions do not involve math. The quilt is done when it is the size you want or you get tired of going around and around.
• Parts and Pieces - Farm your scraps and shop your stash. I challenge you to take those mismatched, different sized, different  sized, different colorway leftovers and create something new and exciting using liberated tricks and techniques. 
• Slow Stitch - Learn, practice and perfect your handquilting stitches in this 3-hour handquilting class. Bring a project or quilt sandwich and stitch while you learn about needles, threads, quilting designs, using or not using a hoop and much more. 
• Working Small - Work small with a focus on technique, color and composition: exploring an idea for use in a larger quilt; working in a series, changing a few elements in each piece. Small quilts allow you to take chances you might be hesitant to take with larger quilts. 
• Marching Ladies - Inspired by the first Women's March on January 21, 2017, I created a pattern using a mixture of quilts: "Garden Girls" by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene, Freddy Moran's updated "Garden Party Ladies," and Gwen Marston's "Girls" - with arms extended and touching. While my version includes women wearing pussy hats, it moves beyond the political, becoming a celebration of the strength, power and friendship of women. Since writing the pattern, I have added block dimensions for a larger "medallion" size and a "mini marcher" version to my class instruction.
• Beyond Cotton - Give the quilting police and the "cotton only" rule a slip and make quilts from whatever fabric catches your fancy. Use upcycled clothing or fabrics including shirts, silk ties, rayon, linen, wool, corduroy or, god forbid, polyester. Use it up, make it do and have fun while you're at it.
• Use Your Words - Words in quilts have a long history, whether it's just names, initials, dates or phrases. Learn how to piece your words using Tonya Ricucci's method from her book Word Play Quilts. This is indeed a playful and easy way to add words to your quilts and truly liberated as the height, size and setting can all be modified to your specifications.

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