CQA/ACC Guild Education Grant Sponsors Weekend Workshop by Janie Séguin The members of Fort Saskatchewan Quilting Guild were very excited when we got the good news in 2001. We were the recipients of a $250.00 grant from the CQA/ACC to be used to hire a member teacher for our guild. After considering our options, most of the membership agreed that having Dianne Sutton give a weekend workshop on Pictorial Quilting would be wonderful. The weekend of June 1, 2002 was chosen. More than half of our guild were able to attend –21. We were all quite excited as we brought our proposed “picture” to the Friday evening opener. Dianne did not disappoint! She “wowed” us with her trunk show. The number and beauty of the incredible pieces and photos she brought were overwhelming! We were not at a loss for long, thankfully! Her down to earth approach, and “ If I can do it, so can you” attitude inspired us. We left that night with our minds full of things we could hunt for at home to build our “picture”. Saturday was a big day. For many of us, stretching our imaginations around the “use anything that works” attitude was a challenge. For some of us, having no patterns or guidelines made it especially difficult to get started. Diane was a patient and effective teacher though, and brought us all in to hear tips she had for each of our different pictorials. The projects we chose were very diverse. We chose our projects from photos, favorite pictures, and calendars. There were tropical locations, homes and homesteads, sunsets, mountains, animals, and buildings to name a few. For each person, Dianne was able to get us to envision our finished project, with permission to change our minds as we went, of course. Many of us spent a lot of time auditioning a variety of fabrics and textures. She described different embellishing techniques – fancy threadwork, such things as silk flowers. tulles (to overlay other fabrics), and cording. It was very liberating to have permission to break “the rules”. We continued working most of Sunday, as well. Most of us got a good start on our projects. Even if we did not finish our piece, we came away with a wealth of information shared with us by Mrs. Sutton. Her experience and willingness to teach us everything she knew was definitely invaluable to us. We left the weekend utterly exhausted, but truly enlightened and inspired about making pictorial quilts.   Big Sur Coastline By Peggy Fleet Group with Dianne Sutton