NOTE:  Because of my husband's health, I am available for day workshops and programs within only a day's trip of Springfield, Missouri. I can be available for weekday workshops four times a year, but only by special arrangement.
Other classes are now available at QuiltUniversity.com.

Audience participation programs

"Creative Color: The Bold, the Beautiful and the Ugly"   (tables; requires a dozen or more 2" to 3 1/2" x 12" or longer strips of assorted fabric for each participant; label each with owner's name.)

"Patterns for Paper Piecing" (original butterfly pattern provided for developing; learn to create your own designs)
    (3 hours, no-sew--may be expanded to 6 hours for sewing)

"Beyond Stack 'n Whack" (start with stacking, then creative whacking, and take off from there.)
    (3 hours--for those already familiar with the basic technique; fabric, sewing or fusing required; 6 hours--no experience with the technique, sewing preferred)

"The Squeezables, the Stretchables and the Hamburger Helpers™"   (designing for long, narrow spaces--sashing, borders, strippie quilts; designs may be adapted for piecing, applique or quilting)
    (3 or 6 hours--6 preferred; roll of freezer or shelf paper or roll of adding machine tape--may be shared, pencils, fine-medium markers, rulers, other drawing tools, scissors)

"No-book Bargello" (color, line and design; includes elements of the color program.)
    (3 hours, no-sew, requires pre-cut, pre-sewn fabric strips; 6 hours--for those unfamiliar with the technique--includes introduction to cutting and sewing techniques)

"Creative Scrunching" (fabric dyeing in baggies, shaving cream monoprints and stencilling, more)      (6 hours, requires water supply and dye-proof environment; participants need purchased basic dye kit, fabric, etc. A second or third (preferred) day follow-up and evaluation session (2-3 hours) is useful.)

"Easy as ABC"
Almost unlimited design possibilities based on a set of very simple blocks, including half-square triangles. (requires pre-sewing of a chosen set of basic blocks.)

First, let me introduce myself very briefly: I'm an art teacher, now retired. For the past 30 years, I have made a special study of creativity and creative thinking skills. For the past 11 years I have taught a variety of creativity/design-oriented workshops and programs for the Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Springfield, Missouri. The workshops listed and detailed here are the refinement of workshops taught for the guild and/or in my K-8 and adult art classes. At the present time, I limit most of my teaching to locations within one day's driving of Springfield. Over-night or longer trips require special arrangement since I am a primary care giver.

The following additional information is quoted from a page written for our United Methodist Women's web page on the subject of how we had found opportunities for ministry over the years.

I'm Vice President of this UMW unit and, with my husband, new residents at the Ozark Methodist Manor. I'm a PK (preacher's kid) and PW (preacher's wife). Ministry/mission has simply always been a part of my life. You may break your neck getting there, but you answer the telephone--someone might need the preacher!

Over the years, each move has opened a new chapter with new skills to learn, new areas of service. I am a teacher by instinct as well as training so this has been a common thread. I've taught preschool, remedial reading, art, creative writing, storytelling, quilting, Sunday School teachers' training workshops and more. I've found opportunities for ministry/mission in garden clubs, artists' groups, photography clubs, quilter's guilds, PTA's, teacher's groups, Women's Clubs and Scouts. I've worked on Christian Education committees, been a state WSWS (EUB) officer, written a newspaper column, worked as a darkroom technician, washed dishes for church suppers and just listened--while raising 4 kids. And once again, as my husband's Parkinson's Disease progresses and we leave our still-under-construction-after-15-years retirement home to join a retirement community--entirely new avenues of ministry/mission are opening for both of us. Ministry/ mission is what life is!

In my 65 years I've gone from a two room sod dugout home on the South Dakota prairie to parsonages set in Iowa corn fields to a hand-built 8-sided earth sheltered home of my own design in the Missouri Ozarks. I've gone from kerosene lamps to computers. As a child, I read in The Missionary Gem (children's mission magazine of the former Evangelical church) about the terror of Chinese refugees being bombed along the roadsides. As a youth, foreign students like Moses Mahoi (Nigeria) and Toshio Ota (Japan) visited in our home. Now, I get the same kind of thrill and sense of awe from problem-solving with persons in Denmark and Namibia via e-mail as I do from celebrating World Wide Communion Sunday and World Day of Prayer with my local church. Ministry/mission is truly world-wide. I'm glad I can be part of it.