MAY SPEAKER

Helen Rice

Hello – I am Helen Rice, dedicated Quilter and Laura Heine certified collage quilting instructor.

My interest in quilting started back in Wisconsin by watching my maternal grandmother make clothes and utilitarian quilts on her old Singer treadle sewing machine. The house could be falling, and she would be still sewing away with great joy. Because of that, my mother hated anything home-made. Fortunately, my thoughts on sewing and quilting came down from my grandmother, not my mother.

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I am a great believer in recycling fabric, clothes and wool to be used in quilting projects. I haven’t found a scrap too small to save, though that perhaps isn’t always an asset.

I think of myself as a traditional quilter, and I still do a lot of stitching by hand. That being said, I own 8 sewing machines, 3 of which are set up to sew. I also have a collection of over 20 miniature sewing machines.

I also love doing wool appliqu
é using the embroidery stitches made popular by Sue Spargo.

My interest in collage quilting started with the Art Quilt Movement. I love art in quilts and collage quilting is the perfect medium for expressing that.

I met Laura Heine at the Road to California Quilt Show just before the pandemic and took one of her classes. I was hooked. I became a Laura Heine certified instructor in 2021 by completing a training workshop at her studio in Billings, Montana.

I now present programs as the “Bear Valley Quilting Academy” and our business is “Merlham Enterprises.”

One thing I really like about her patterns is that it gives you an outline but allows you to express your own creativity, in completing the finished piece of art. And, you don’t need to be a quilter to do it. Anyone can do collage quilting!


You can contact me by email at ricehm55@gmail.com or by text at 608-217-3420.

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Workshop

Helen Rice’s Laura Heine Class Details:
Teeny Tiny Collage Patterns by Laura Heine – Group 6 Rooster, Hen and Bee.
At the end of the class, participants will have produced a collage of a Rooster, 16 by 20 inches.
If the participant already has a Laura Heine pattern/kit, they can use that in the class instead.

Helen Rice’s Laura Heine Class Details:
Teeny Tiny Collage Patterns by Laura Heine – Group 6 Rooster, Hen and Bee.

If you make the Rooster Collage:
  1. Everybody must purchase their own pattern for $25, which I will bring, unless you already have purchased a Rooster Collage pattern previously.
  2. Fabric options:
    1. You can also buy a kit of fabric based on my sample, from me.
    2. You can bring your own fabric scraps. This needs to include:
      1. A 19x23 inch piece of fabric as background
      2. Scraps should include multiple bright colors small motifs such as flowers, leaves, feathers, etc.
  3. Goddess Applique Pressing Sheet 17x24 inches or Precision Fusing Mat 17x24 inches.
  4. Number 2 pencil
  5. Good scissors with a serrated blade (example: Karen K Buckley) for cutting motifs.
  6. 3 yards of 12-inch-wide Steam a Seam 2, which I will have available for purchase.




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During the class, we will construct the rooster on the Applique or Fusing mat. The completed Rooster will then be placed on the background fabric and further embellishments, such as flowers, will be added.
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