Quilter's Fancy owner and author Cindy Oravecz has been the featured speaker at major quilt shows — including West Palm Beach, FL., Orlando Fl., Hershey PA. Book Cindy O. to speak or teach for your guild, group or quilt shop. Available programs range from an hour-long talk to multi-day workshops.

Find out more about Cindy O.

Lectures

What's Weird & Wacky, Old & New In The Sewing World
Watch Cindy pull all sorts of unusual projects from her sewing bag of tricks. The stories will be as wild and wacky as the projects. What Fun! One hour to one-and-a-half hours.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Victorian Crazy Quilting
Bring pencil & paper to take notes. We will journey through the poetry, the history, styles of yesterday and styles of today and the out-of-print references on this intriguing fancywork. Cindy will give you every bit of the how-to of piecing and stitching these quilts. One hour to one-and-a-half hours.

History of the Baltimore Album Quilt In America
Travel back through the 1800s in this lecture and slide presentation and look at the exquisite album quilts that marked this time in history. We will examine how and why Baltimore Album quilts were made and how their influence spread across our country. Two hours.

Lecture and demonstration

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Ruching
Learn everything from the history of this ancient technique to precisely how to do it (and pronounce it correctly). We will look at all the ways to vary ruching -- to change it using fabric changes, decorative thread changes, color play and size variations. We'll finish up taking a look at all the ways ruching can be used in quilts, garments and other embellishments. You'll want to bring a pencil to jot down tips and measurements. One hour to one-and-a-half hours.

Classes

A delightfully easy class where students work with fusing fabric in interlocking rows and applying fusible bias. Machine sewing is done with a twin-needle. You will get this project done! Complete fabric and pattern kit available.


The 3-D Pansy and Rose
Create a realistic pansy and rose, and then learn a fast, fun leaf. Leave class with a finished lapel pin and the ability to create pansies and roses for crazy or album quilts, wearables and other crafts. Please bring scissors and chalk marker. Kit includes pattern, French ribbon, and lapel-pin backing. All levels.


Mastering 3-D Folded Roses
with the Vintage Rose Spindle from Australia
Hands on! Create a breathtaking 3-D unfolding rose and the scalloped petal rose using French wire ribbon by spinning it on this tool from Australia.


The 3-D Ruched Mum, Pansy and Daffodil
Learn 3-D flowers faster by the strip from fabric and/or ribbon -- whatever you enjoy working with. Create a ruched mum using one ruching pattern, learn a different ruching pattern while creating a pansy and learn the 3-D daffodil as well. Add some quick 3-D leaves and leave class with a lapel pin if you like, or add them to your next album block.


The 3-D Bleeding Heart, Canterbury Bell and Bluebell
Learn some of Cindy's most popular small garden delights: The Bleeding heart, Canterbury Bell and Virginia Bluebell, all made from fabric and ready for your next quilt or wearable.

Basic Silk Ribbon Embroidery
Create a silk ribbon edging on washable velvet for a denim shirt while learning the basics of how to embroider with ribbon in the needle. Students will learn the spider web rose, lazy daisy leaves, Japanese ribbon stitch petals, Colonial knot and rose buds. The project will be completed in class.

All-Day Workshops
(Minimum 6 hows)

Roses, Roses, Roses
Spin, twirl and gather silk, organza and French wire ribbon into lovely roses of all sizes. Learn to master Australia's favorite flowermaking tool -- the Vintage Rose Spindle as well as makes roses with needle, thread and ribbon. This class is from Cindy's book Dimensional Roses for Quilts, Clothing & Accessories.

Flower basket quilt block or wearable embellishments
Spend a day making dimensional flowers from fabric and ribbons. Twist and fold a basket handle and fill the basket with pansies, daffodils, Bleeding Heart, roses & greenery for a 12- or 16-inch quilt block for an album quilt or wallhanging. Visit our Gallery Photos on this web site for samples of students' work of this basket. You will work in the colors you prefer as you choose ribbons and build color throughout the day. All hand work. Homework instructions mailed to you when you register.

Beginner 3-D Bouquet
Fill a 3-D bouquet with ruched mums from French ribbon, ruched pansies from bias hand-dyed silk ribbon, a daffodil from silk and organza, roses from silk curled petals and charming beaded rosette flowers. Learn to apply silk cord for stems, leaves and a tied ribbon bow for in a 12-inch quilt block.

Silk Rummaging & Crazy Piecing
Learn the many ways to piece crazy quilting. Pick your own silk kit for a a 10-inch block or small purse from 100s of pieces of pure silk that will be in mountainous piles about the room. Sewing machine cleaned & in good working order required.

The Ying & Yang of Crazy Quilt Stitches:
Messy Stitching That Looks Dreamy & Perfect Stitching Without Trying
Our fastest handwork seam finishes will be yours in this class using silk ribbon, beads, buttons & leaf ribbon. And find out about a little known technique for stitching perfectly straight & evenly spaced crazy quilt stitches without any rulers or measuring.

Tulips In A Flash
Create a beautiful vase of stately tulips surrounded by a scallop & tear drop border for a quick wallhanging. Fused fabric tulips will come to life when surrounded by the vivid colors in 1/8-inch wide Rainbow Miniature Bias. The wallhanging will be completed, quilted and bound very quickly. Sewing machine cleaned & in good working order required. This class is from Cindy's book "Flowers In A Flash".

The Rose Topiary
Learn to make dimensional roses from two sizes of French wire ribbon and create a lovely topiary rose tree in a clay pot wallhanging. The icing on the topiary is working with hand-dyed silk cording to make tendrils that wind around the stalk and feathery yarn for moss. Homework before class: Applique clay pot and stalk to background block. This class is from Cindy's book "Dimensional Roses for Quilts, Clothing & Accessories".

Silk Ribbon Draped Heart
Unusual, Advanced Silk Ribbon Flowermaking. Create silk ribbon flowers like the Columbine, Fuchsia and the Twisty Rose. More flowers and different leaves and buds will be added as time and students abilities and needs permit.

Victorian Wreath of Wildflowers Quilt Block
Shape fabric and ribbons into colorful wildflowers that will bloom as a Victorian wreath on a 12-inch quilt block. This class will feature all-new techniques that are not from Cindy's first two books. Relaxing hand gathering stitches that do not have to be perfect will form flowers like the yellow sand Verbena, Milkwort, Prairie Acacia, Bunchberry, Camilla and the New York Ironweed. The quilt block can be part of an album quilt or trimmed with a 3-D swag border for a wallhanging.

Two-day Workshops

Victorian purse
Journey with us into a world of ornate Victorian embellishment. Make a silk velvet purse in your own chosen colors with ribbon flowers, dyed lace, charms, beads & buttons. Choose your preferred color of variegated silk velvet for your purse. Options are: sable browns, olives, dark blue-greens, light blues-pinks-greens, khaki with purple, charcoal gray-black, off-whites, yellow-red. Call for the color list as these hand-dyes can vary.

Miniature 3-D Flowers for a 4-Block Wallhanging
Make all the 3-D special effects for "The Garden Sampler", four blocks from Cindy Oravecz's second book, The Enchanted Garden. Taught by the author, you will learn a fun machine sewn 3-D bird's nest, along with Sunflowers, Hepatica, Mums, the Pansy, the Old-Fashioned Rose and 3-D leaves. The four blocks from the book include "Elegant Bounty," "Love is ...," "Friendship's Bond" and "Sunshine's Joy." Master all the 3-D techniques in class and finish the appliqué behind the blocks either before or after class.

The 3-D Bell Basket
Create a spectacular three-dimensional basket for an album quilt block in many pastel shades of blues, pinks, purples and yellow. Learn to make a 3-D basket by folding long strips of French wire ribbon and applying with hidden machine sewing. Fill the basket with 3-D flowers of bluebells, Canterbury bells, bleeding heart and a tiny wildflower. Use both hand and machine sewing to create this block. Students will applique stems by machine and hand with instruction and precut strips at home before class.

Weekend and Week-long Studies Available Upon Request

For more information or to book a program:
• E-mail Quilter's Fancy
• Call:
Toll-free: 866-953-0722
Local calls: 330-637-3106
Fax: 330-637-3124

• Write to:
Quilter's Fancy
P.O. Box 457
Cortland, OH 44410 USA