French TV produced a great video of Denise's recent 2017 Séminar Post Carrefour workshop. The Carrefour Européen du Patchwork Exhibition is briefly highlighted starting at 1:03 into the video, with a more detailed (five minute) look at Denise and the workshop beginning at 2:01. It's in French, of course, but somehow that makes it all the better!

Denise will also likely once again be returning to this year's 2018 Carrefour Européen du Patchwork Exhibition (September, 2018), this time happily rejoining her 2017 Séminar Post Carrefour students who have continued to stay in touch with one another (they now have their own Facebook page), who continue to actively share ideas and accomplishments, and who are hoping to return to the Alsace as a group to exhibit (in a dedicated Exhibition gallery) their Séminar Post Carrefour initiated quilts. Getting back together and celebrating everyone's hard work (and beautiful quilts) will be a delight.

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Here’s Denise’s latest quilt – a present to her son Essie and daughter-in-law Leslie, who were married in Scotland (in a magical old medieval castle) and who then honeymooned up North in the Orkney Islands (where the Stones of Stenness are located).

"Aurora Over the Stones of Stenness" (completed December, 2017)
40" wide x 33" high (102 x 84 cm)

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Denise's next major event will be the 2018 International Quilt Festival of Luxemburg, May 10 –13, 2018. The Festival is held every other year, with exhibitions spanning four adjacent villages. Denise will be a featured exhibitor and will also teach her four-day Art Quilt Design Intensive at the conclusion of the Festival (the first such major workshop that the Quilt Festival has ever sponsored). The workshop is scheduled for May 15 – 18, 2018. Come and attend!

Two weeks after Luxembourg, Denise will be a featured exhibitor at the 2018 Patchwork Gilde Deutschland (Germany) Annual Meeting being held June 2 – 3, 2018, in Celle, Germany. She will also teach a two-day Fabric Painting workshop on the same dates.

A week later she will then travel to The Netherlands where she will be a featured exhibitor at the 2018 Quiltfestival Noord Groningen, June 8 – 10, 2018. Her quilts will completely take over the medieval Church of Rottum (located in the small village of the same name) !

Denise will also teach a two-day Fabric Painting workshop May 26 – 27, 2018 at the DIY Textile School in Amsterdam.

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2018 and 2019 Class and Lecture Schedule

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"Friary Steps" (completed August, 2017)
40" wide x 34" high (102 x 86 cm)



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Denise recently returned from France (September, 2017) where she taught the annual Carrefour Européen du Patchwork (European Patchwork Meeting) Séminar Post Carrefour (Post-Exhibition Workshop), a four-day immersive, hands-on Art Quilt Design Intensive workshop highlighting and teaching her approach to "stonescape" quilting – especially how to create the type of fabric and quilt top textures, depth of field, and perspective that characterize her work; key areas of focus included fabric painting, working from photos, and "the what, why, when, and how" of selecting and effectively using different construction techniques, including: raw edge, turned edge, and reverse appliqué; insetting; free-form strip piecing; couching; and “thread shadowing” (a variation on "thread painting").

It was a great workshop. A wonderful work room, located in a small Alsacian town without significant distractions (other than good food), and just across the street from our very comfortable (and very accommodating) hotel. Lots of light, huge windows, and more than enough room to continue painting (the main focus of days one and two) even after bringing out the sewing machines (for days three and four). Thanks to Bernina for providing machines for each of the nineteen students. Participants came from seven different countries, and really bonded; everyone is continuing to stay in touch (via their own Facebook page) with the goal of displaying, as a group, their completed quilts at the next (September, 2018) Carrefour Européen du Patchwork Exhibition. Everyone was both sharing and caring, with many often working (very) late into the night – just for the fun of it! The work was (and continues to be) remarkable.

The Carrefour staff was also great – everything was ready to go, and well planned and managed, with no frantic scrambling around at the last minute trying to somehow make sure that everything was actually available and in its proper place. The workshop’s reputation (as well as that of the Exhibition itself) is well earned, and Denise was thrilled and honored both to teach this most special of workshops, and to join the list of very select and recognized prior instructors.

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Upon completion of the Séminar Post Carrefour, Denise attended Turin's (Torino, Italy) "Manualmente" Exhibition (Lingotto Fiere), where a comprehensive collection of her quilts was on exhibit. In addition to visiting the Exhibition (co-sponsored by Quilt Italia), she taught a one-day Construction Techniques workshop.

Quilt Italia was the best possible host, and Denise was treated to two very personalized tours of Turin, starting off, of course, with "Italy’s best gelato". The workshop was great fun, and very well attended – outside teachers tend to be somewhat of a rarity, and the attendees were amazingly eager to learn and absorb everything possible. Denise can’t wait to return.

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Further out, Denise will be teaching a full five-day Art Quilt Design Intensive workshop August 25 - 31, 2019 at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop (USA). Mark your calendar and join us at this very well known and highly respected US artist retreat and premier art world teaching venue!

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"Cathedral Arch at Glendalough" (completed in April, 2017)
38" wide x 50" high (97 x 127 cm)



Detail

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Throughout March, 2018 Denise will both lecture and teach (one-day Construction Techniques workshops) at a number of local Colorado venues, including: the Palmer Divide Quiltmakers (Colorado Springs, Colorado), the Columbine Quilt Guild (Arvada, Colorado), and Front Range Contemporary Quilters (Westminister, Colorado). See Class and Lecture Schedule.

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Earlier in 2017 Denise attended South Korea’s QFIK 2017 ("Quilt Festival in Korea", April 22 – 24, 2017), sponsored by the CQA (Corea Quilting Association), where as a featured artist she not only exhibited but also taught (a one-day Construction Techniques workshop) and lectured. See photos below. Everyone was so wonderful, welcoming, and friendly; certainly the conference folks, but also – as an example – getting lost after wandering around Seoul and having absolute strangers taking her by-the-hand and getting her to the (correct) subway line. And so many beautiful, small, very thoughtful, hand-made presents and gifts given to Denise by many of the attendees.

The quality of the art was absolutely top notch. It is a well-established, medium sized show – thus very approachable – and all of the selected work (primarily from Korean quilters) was of the highest quality. The CQA was a great and caring host, and ran a very well managed show. Quilting is alive and thriving in South Korea! Thank-you to all involved.

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Flying back from Seoul, before going home (to Colorado) Denise took a detour to Lincoln, Nebraska to attend the 2017 SAQA Annual Conference. Here she is (very jet-lagged) presenting an overview about her approach to quilting and her body of work at the conference’s banquet.

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In both 2016 and 2017 Denise's art was featured in multiple international magazine articles.

Major in-depth articles and photo spreads profiling Denise and her art were published in the January, 2017 editions of Quilt Italia (Association Nazionale di Patchwork), the Italian National Quilt Guild's quarterly magazine, and in Art Quilt Collector (Issue #6), a quarterly SAQA publication (she was a previous SAQA Featured Artist back in May, 2012). Her work was also recently featured in "Stitching Rocks" in the September-October, 2017 edition of Machine Quilting Unlimited (USA).

During the second half of 2016 feature articles were similarly published in four major international quilting and fiber art publications – Burda Patchwork and Quilting Magazine (France and Germany), Magic Patch Magazine (France), Art Quilting Studio Magazine (USA), plus the Corea Quilt Associates (CQA, South Korea) semi-annual national newsletter.

Art Quilting Studio Magazine (USA), Featured Artist, Summer 2016


Magic Patch Magazine (France), Featured Artist, September-October 2016 (#124)


Burda Patchwork and Quilting Magazine (both France and Germany), Featured Artist, November 2016


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By the way, for a fun and more "historical" perspective of Denise and her work, take a look at The Quilt Show.com on-line video #106. Denise was one of the very first guest artists profiled in this now decade-long video series.

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Late in 2016 Denise was a featured artist and instructor at the 2nd Annual 2016 China International Patchwork Invitational Tournament and Patchwork Arts Show, held in Beijing.

This is a major new Asian exhibition highlighting both domestic (Chinese) and a select number of international quilt artists. The Chinese love patchwork and quilting (they showed some amazing and innovative quilts, plus some truly astonishing stitch work), and intend to make this show into a major international showcase – they are eager to share their country's fantastic breadth of quilting (the show highlighted work from many of its indigenous regions and peoples), very much want to learn about new techniques and approaches (particularly the innovative use and application of color), wish to meet and interact with other quilters and, in general, want to become mainstream and active members of the growing international art quilting and fiber arts family.

In addition to exhibiting and teaching (working with her students was one of the highlights of the trip), Denise also joined other invited international attendees – from Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Portugal, and the USA – in jurying the exhibition's multiple quilt competitions.

Befitting its pending importance as a key quilting venue, the exhibition was held at Beijing's International Design Center. Show management (and interpreters) were the most cordial and welcoming of hosts, bending over backwards to make the trip truly memorable. Denise was honored to be an early invitee and participant.

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Denise's participation as a featured artist – with ten quilts – at the 22nd European Patchwork Meeting and Exposition (Le Carrefour European du Patchwork), September 14–18, 2016, in Sainte Marie Aux Mines, France, was a fantastic experience and success. This most prestigious of all continental European quilt exhibitions hosts 20,000+ worldwide visitors each year, completely "taking over" three adjacent villages within the Alsace's lovely Val d'Argent. It was both wonderful and overwhelming for Denise to be an invited exhibitor at this most remarkable of fiber art events; the significant positive feedback from the many visitors purposefully seeking out her exhibit was also rather stunning.

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Denise is often asked about her construction and layout techniques. A particularly interesting example of her willingness to experiment with new techniques was her use of clay 3D modeling and Photoshop to help visualize the deep shadowing found in her Poulnabrone Dolmen (click to see write-up).

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During Le Carrefour European du Patchwork, multiple visitors wanted to know about Denise's earliest stone quilts.

Piper Stones I (1998)
34" wide x 44" high (86 x 112 cm)

Piper Stones I (above) was Denise's first contemporary stone art quilt. Lovely colors, and an obvious but raw talent, but little (or no) use of shadowing, depth-based perspective, or texture. Her works have most certainly evolved over the past two decades!

For fun, compare the above Piper Stones I quilt with the same scene made three years later:

Piper Stones II (1998) 44" wide x 36" high (112 x 91 cm)

But Denise actually made an even earlier "stone" quilt – a variation of a traditional Irish Chain patchwork design, with the diagonals being the stone walls and the green being the fields of Co. Donegal's (Ireland) rugged, stone-hewn pastures:

Fields of Donegal (1994)
71" wide x 60" high (180 x 152 cm)