Introduction to Quilting
March 13 – April 3, 2025 | 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: High Museum of Art, Blue Workshop, Greene Family Education Center
Registration Required
Not a member? Join today!
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon open studio during the run of the class.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon open studio during the run of the class.
Explore quilts in the High’s collection while gathering design ideas to enhance your own creative vision. Learn traditional quilting processes like hand quilting, machine piecing, and appliqué before experimenting with forms of embellishment such as stamping, beading, and embroidery.
Week 1: Begin with an introduction to the basics of quilting, including measuring, cutting, and different types of hand stitching.
Week 2: Visit the museum galleries to explore different compositions, piecing techniques, and types of stitching seen in quilts in the Folk and Self-Taught Art collection. Back in the studio, begin to arrange and hand-stitch improvisational quilt compositions.
Week 3: Stretch your skills from hand-stitching to machine sewing. Learn to thread a machine, adjust tension, and select predetermined stitches. With the efficiency of the sewing machine, compose and piece more complicated patterns that play with color, pattern, and fabric textures.
Week 4: Working with your pre-stitched pieces, add additional embellishments through embroidery, beading, tying off, and other techniques. We will conclude our time together with a discussion about our work and a reflection on what we’ve learned.
About Studio Classes
Studio Classes enable you to expand your art-making skills through guided, step-by-step instruction with expert teaching artists. Over multiple weeks, you will learn alongside other creative adults and delve deeply into the artistic process, explore new techniques, and build your practice.
This is an introductory-level Studio Class; it is designed to accommodate all levels of skill and talent. If you have never taken a quilting class before, this is a great place to start. You will learn new skills that you can carry forward and build on in your artistic practice.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon open studio during the run of the class.
About Your Instructor
Marquetta Johnson is a textile artist and quilter residing in Stone Mountain, Georgia, who creates her works from her own dyed, printed, and stamped fabrics. She has over thirty years of experience as a teaching artist working in inclusive classrooms for all ages and abilities, and she is affiliated with VSA International/Kennedy Center, The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the Decatur Education Foundation, and Utah State University’s Arts Access Program. Her artwork has been featured in multiple publications, including Quilt Magazine and MARTA’s MARTA on the Go, and is included in several private and corporate collections such as the estates of B. B. King and Faith Ringgold, the University of Maryland, Turner Broadcasting, and The Coca-Cola Company. She is the author of the how-to book Hand-Dyed Quilts (2008).
Related Events
Explore a wide variety of techniques and materials in this exciting, comprehensive introduction to drawing. Experiment with lines, mark making, shapes, texture, tone, and composition to create drawings from observation, imagination, and memory, and learn how to use the principles of design to support your compositions.
Take inspiration from one of the modern masters while learning a variety of essential painting techniques. Drawing from the exhibition Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks,” this class will learn from O’Keeffe’s process, her approach to abstraction, and her renderings of both human-built and organic subjects.
Experiment with color, pattern, design, and composition while exploring a variety of fabric dyeing techniques.
Learn to paint from life and from imagination while looking to the museum’s collection for inspiration.
Explore the spontaneous and expressive potential of monotype printing. Using an approach similar to painting, make unique impressions by creating images through reductive and additive methods, in addition to experimenting with a combination of techniques on plexiglass plates.
Explore quilts in the High’s collection while gathering design ideas to enhance your own creative vision. Learn traditional quilting processes like hand quilting, machine piecing, and appliqué before experimenting with forms of embellishment such as stamping, beading, and embroidery.
Transform your smartphone snapshots into striking photographs that are rich in narrative. Familiarize yourself with your smartphone cameras and built-in editing capabilities before learning how to create an engaging composition and leverage natural light.