Denise is also an active and appreciated lecturer and teacher. She has worked both domestically (USA) and internationally; highlights include being an invited instructor teaching a week-long fiber and textile landscape arts workshop at Georgia O'Keefe's (America's foremost landscape artist) Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and teaching the most recent (September, 2017) Séminar Post Carrefour (a workshop held at the end of each year's annual Carrefour Européen du Patchwork quilt exhibition). She has exhibited, taught, and lectured in the USA, Ireland, Spain, China, South Korea, France, and Italy – and, in 2018, in Luxembourg, Germany, and The Netherlands (and, of course, the USA). In 2019 she is scheduled to teach a week-long workshop at the prestigious Hudson River Valley Art Workshops (USA).

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View French TV's news video showing Denise teaching last year's Séminar Post Carrefour Art Quilt Design Intensive workshop.

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“WOW!! I loved your Fabric Painting workshop – for several reasons. First, I learned so many great and unexpected
techniques for creating intriguing textures while painting fabric. Second, you were so willing to share your knowledge
and experience, and you didn't hold anything back. Third (and this is so important to me), I didn't feel pressure to complete
a specific number of (pre-selected) pieces or to keep up with anyone else. Unlike some other workshops I have taken,
I felt the freedom of just being able to relax, explore, learn, and create.”  Sandy Jung, USA

“Your Construction Techniques workshop was just wonderful. I came away with much more than just an understanding of
appliqué and its many (often surprising) applications. You helped open my eyes to a multitude of both understandable yet
innovative techniques, and ideas for new quilts. And you were so patient with all of us.”  Eileen Hayes, USA


Teaching in France (2017 Séminar Post Carrefour)



Teaching in South Korea (2017)



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2018 and 2019 Class and Lecture Schedule

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Denise’s lectures typically illustrate how her art has evolved (both technically and creatively) and matured over the years, with topics variably including: key lessons learned; how she constructs her stone structures and landscapes; construction techniques selection and best practices; the nature and use of her own hand-painted fabric; her approach to quilt composition and design; her integrated management of color, texture, and dimensionality; her struggles relative to perspective and shadowing; the role of sound craftsmanship in catalyzing creative expression; the nature and importance of both her early (pre-art quilting) and continuing sewing technique and art-related training; and the importance and role of peer reviews and multi-discipline design critiques.

Denise’s workshops focus on fabric painting, design and composition, and/or construction techniques and craftsmanship (her Quilt National quilt Dun Aengus Stone Fort won not only the People’s Choice Award for most popular quilt, but more importantly – from both an instructional and benefit-to-the-student standpoint – the McCarthy Memorial Award for Craftsmanship). Her workshops include:

Fabric Painting and Texturing:

A two-day workshop on helping students explore and discover new (and often surprising) techniques for using multiple layers of sun-reactive transparent color paints to create their own uniquely textured and colored fabrics. The focus is on how best to use and layer the paint, how to use various resists, and – depending on each participant's desired results – how to most successfully influence or cause (and control) layer-by-layer differential paint absorption, diffusion, blending, and/or mottling. Resulting fabrics can be remarkable.

Construction Techniques

Either a one-day workshop on turned edge appliqué, raw edge appliqué, reverse appliqué, and insetting, or a two-day class that additionally includes couching, free-form strip piecing, “thread shadowing” (similar to thread painting), and quilt finishing.

Art Quilt Design Intensive

An in-depth, project-focused four or five-day workshop that includes all of the above (Fabric Painting and Texturing, and Construction Techniques), plus Working from Photographs. This is the workshop that Denise taught both at Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch and the Séminar Post Carrefour, and will be teaching in 2018 at the International Quilt Festival of Luxemburg and in 2019 for the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop.

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Note that these workshops are not about stones per se, or even landscapes, but instead about "best practices" relative to improving quilt dimensionality, texture and color, craftsmanship, and design integrity, regardless of quilt theme or focus. Lectures and workshops can, of course, be customized or structured as desired.

Denise's experience and knowledge is deep and wide-ranging, and she has the requisite ability, knowledge, and practical experience to teach the comparative strengths, benefits, and use – basically, the "what, why, when, and how" – of both new and (oftentimes repurposed) traditional fiber art and quilting techniques. Her lectures are very "unstiff" (and fun), and her workshops are highly interactive, hands-on, and focused more on the development of participant creativity, confidence, and experiential exploration and learning, than on rigid, one-size-fits-all lesson plans or patterns – her objective is to teach useable techniques and "lessons learned" that each participant's own creativity can confidently expand on. Denise is an instructor that enthusiastically, energetically, openly, and warmly shares both her knowledge and design sense, without reservation.

Teaching in China (2016)



Teaching in Spain (2012)