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Quilted Artistry

Diane Roney
Aug 15, 2017
2 min read

This past Saturday and I took a fabulous class at the South Fulton Arts Center. This class is part on an ongoing series with the Atlanta Quilt Festival. During this time quilts are showcased from various quilters all over Atlanta. I signed up to take several classes and the class I took on Saturday was a Mask Class. As many of you may know, this is my year to say YES and take on new and challenging things in the areas of quilting, embroidery, sewing and crafting in general.

The class was conducted by Quilt Artist, Renee Fleuranges-Valdes of Mount Vernon, New York. Ms. Fleuranges-Valdes has had her work in shows and galleries across the United States and has won multiple awards...Quilt Artistry at its best.

There were about 15 women I believe in the class. Our instructor showed us three different masks that we could create two were smaller masks and one was a much larger mask. Of course, when asked which mask we wanted we all choose the smaller mask. But that was not to be. The instructor said Oh come on now challenge yourself. So, of course, I said okay let me take the larger mask, along with a few other ladies in the group. Well let me tell you I was intimidated when I saw the pattern. I thought to myself am I going to be able to do this? Of course you can my subconscious mind said. Remember, this is the year of YES or did you forget. So, I took it all in stride and began the process.

The process involved taking two of the patterns front and back. We have to trace all the pieces of the pattern onto Pellon Wonder Under, which is a paper backed fusible web and then cut each of those intricate pieces out. Once all the pieces were cut we traced the pattern onto our darker fabric and then picked out fabrics and started placing the cut out patterns onto fabric and ironed lightly onto our mask. Watching the mask come to light was really exciting. We took our masks home to complete because once all the fabric is placed it will have to be stitched.

It was truly an experience.