Julia McLeod is a quilt maker living and working in northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area. She specializes in making quilts from rescued textiles, particularly silks. Neckties, saris, kimono and furnishing fabrics all find their way into her quilts. Born and raised in England, Julia worked as a menswear textile designer in the woolen- and worsted mills of Yorkshire and Scotland, and later for a company on Savile Row, in the heart of London’s bespoke tailoring industry. She moved to New York City in the early 1990’s, and America has been her home ever since. Julia enjoys lecturing and teaching on the subject of quilting-making with unusual and reclaimed textiles.
To prepare for this class, watch these short videos on How to Deconstruct a Necktie and Applying Fusible Interfacing. Click here for the Starting with Silk Supply List
Many of us have silk treasures from trips abroad, neckties or prom dresses that are too special to cut up so we leave them tucked away in a drawer or box. It’s time to get them out and make something beautiful!
This workshop has three elements: You’ll begin by determining the fiber content of your fabrics by using the burn test. We will then cover two very different ways to work with silk: First, a very free, improvisational crazy piecing technique and second, a foundation piecing method that gives stability and ultra-precise results, even with the lightest weight silks.
Working with your stash, you’ll construct elements in these two techniques that can be combined into a small, pillow-sized finished piece.
This 3 minute video describes Starting with Silk in more detail.
