Offerings for Quilt Guilds

Friends Fabric Art  is the mother-daughter team - Ann Lee and Sonja Lee-Austin.  They operate from a studio in Lowell’s Western Avenue Studios building that has six floors full of artists working in all disciplines, media and styles. 

Download Quilt Guild Offerings as a PDF

Our Mission:

• To create beautiful mixed media textile art and art-to-wear
• To share our resources of supplies and expertise
• To assist and inspire other artists and crafters

As part of that mission, we are pleased to offer a variety of talks, demonstrations and workshops tailored for quilt guilds. 

Demonstrations & Workshops

Instructors

Program Pricing

Trunk Shows:

Running the Rapids - A Quilt Journey—This 45-60 minute presentation reviews Ann’s progression from making “follow-a-pattern” bed quilts to making wearable art and wall quilts incorporating a wide variety of materials and surface design techniques.  It is designed to give quilters confidence to experiment and try new things.
For a slightly different trunk show, Sonja tags along and shares how she gave Ann a shove into the art quilt world. She will show some of her mixed media fiber artwork as well as the art quilts and kimono that Ann and Sonja created together.

Art Quilts & Mixed Media Fiber Art– This 45-60 minute trunk show focuses on Sonja and Ann’s most recent art quilts and fiber art.  Our work typically incorporates a wide variety of materials and techniques such as using Mokuba watersoluble stabilizers for free lace machine embroidery and ink jet printing on fabric. We’ll describe our work in detail including techniques and inspiration.

Demonstrations & Workshops:

The following topics are offered as either talks that include demonstrations, mini workshops (30-60 minutes), or full-blown workshops (2-3 hours).  We are happy to accommodate the interests of your group and the time and space available.  For workshops there is a $5 to $15 per participant materials fee in addition to the professional fee. 

Spontaneous Textured Mini “Quilts”—We will create 5” x 7” colorful, textured quilts. Needle-felting natural fibers, sparkly Angelina fibers, Mulberry bark, silk rods, and funky yarns into fabric and batting will create the base for our mini-quilt. The quilts will then be embellished with flowers, leaves, or spirals made from silk cocoons and embroidery.   You will create a unique free-form creation and be encouraged to play with the materials and techniques to create something outside your usual “box” (assuming you have one).

Silk Cocoon & Rod Flower Quilt Postcards—We will create 4”x6” flowery fabric postcards with  flowers and leaves made from silk cocoons and carrier rods. Participants will be shown several fun things to do with the silk cocoons and rods in addition to making flowers. The postcards will be further embellished with sparkly Angelina fibers and embroidery.
In each workshop participants will learn techniques and use materials that can be used in a wide variety of other crafts such as jewelry making, scrapbooking, card making, quilting, embroidery, and collage.

Sonja Lee-Austin (BA) majored in studio art. Her day job is a health care policy analyst. She has taught art and craft for quilt guilds, the Essex Art Center, Littleton Community Education, and private lessons. She exhibits her artwork regionally and has had her work in several publications.

Ann Lee (MS) is a former teacher and market research professional who has been creating with fabrics and threads since childhood. She teaches art quilt techniques for quilt guilds, exhibits her artwork locally and is a juried member of the Merrimack Valley Artisans and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.