2026 October “Surface Design Quilts with Sue Cortese”

 

Sue uses surface design, specifically fabric dyeing techniques, to give her quilts a unique look and voice. Her first quilts used solid-looking hand dyed fabrics, allowing her to create her own palette of colors. Soon, she moved into printing her own fabrics, ice dyeing fabrics, and learning to create texture with shibori. Shibori is a Japanese method of using pressure as a resistance from the dye. What a wonderful afternoon looking at Sue's quilts as she described her techniques and how she developed each process.

Left click to enlarge an image and right click to "save an image".  Click the x in the right corner to go back from an enlarged image.

This is the back, her stitching is wonderful.

Sue sometimes uses cheesecloth in her pieces.

Sue used an improvisational log cabin technique with these two pieces.

The squares are all separate pieces stitched on top of a quilted piece.

After putting this together she thought it needed more so she 
appliqued (needle turned) circles on the top.

Thank goodness for tall people.

Somtimes things just work out for themselves.

Sue hopes to do more Octopus tentacles.

A few close ups of Sue's hand stitching.

Sue had several improv pieces that she showed us.  Incredible.

Show and Tell

Coleen's big pieces are still on the loom, but she continues to make small samples.

Priscilla wove this tapestry of a lady similar to a larger
one she made a few years ago.

 A long twill type scarf with the thread coming from the edges
and meeting in the middle..
Priscilla highly recommends the book above.

Judy had lots of items to share.  This is a purse she made in a wet felting
class at the Allegan Fiber Festival.
She loved making it and using it.

Another felting project.

Judy made all these painted fabrics in a class with Sue Cortese.
She said it was a lot of fun, and she learned lots of techniques.

Gargi took the same class from Sue as Judy, and these are her
pieces.

This is a 6 inch felted piece that Gargi made using cashmere.

Jill had fun putting pieces together and slow stitching on them.
She said she struggled to make bigger stitches uneven.

Wendy made this flower collage with patterns
from Emily Taylor.

A lot of looking at the show and tell table and the auction table.