Selected Upcoming National Workshops

• On Hiatus

Booking Inquiries:  Workshops'at'MakeItSimpler'dot'com  

I book Guild events no further than 20 months in advance. I like last-minute bookings too

What Beverly had to say

A presentation to the ebullient Connecticut Piecemakers

Photograph by Sally Rogers
             

Luncheon lecture to the Utah State Guild (the oldest state guild in the US) Photograph by Anny Opfar              

Classroom Pictures

 Workshop, demo, trunk show, and book signing at The City Quilter, New York  

Lecture and Workshop Westerly, Rhode Island Ninigret Quilters

Teacher bio

With a degree in fine art, Anita Grossman Solomon moved to lower Manhattan in 1975 to paint. Within 3 years she put down her brushes to work with contemporary art collections. In 1990 she took up quiltmaking becoming a full-time quilt teacher and author.

She makes artful bed quilts from classic blocks using her signature non-traditional methods. Her “Why didn’t I think of that?” innovations make quiltmaking faster and easier. She has been a guest on HGTV’s “Simply Quilts” twice, “The Quilt Show”, “Quilt Out Loud” and authored three books for C&T Publishing: Make It Simpler Paper Piecing, Perfect Blocks in Minutes, and Rotary Cutting Revolution.

Her original techniques, efficient construction shortcuts and no-waste methods have been featured in magazine and books including Quiltmaker, Experts’ Guide to Foundation Piecing, 100 Tips from Award Winning Quilters and Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Quiltmaking. Anita’s Simple Foundations vellum and her Make It Simpler® Interfacing product are distributed internationally.

Her Workshop Blog is an indication of what you might expect in her classes. Follow her quilt exploits in her occasional blog Pages from the Make It Simpler Notebook She posts her quilt news and events on Facebook. She is a regular columnist for the Craftsy Quilting Blog and teaches two popular classes online. Her favorite solid KONA fabrics are now sold by bundles

Watch me teach

What you see is what you get



January 2003                          January 2005

Six HGTV Simply Quilts segments serve as an example of what you might expect of my abilities as a teacher. The episodes were taped in January 2003 and January 2005 in Burbank, California. Look for Anita as a guest on #905 of The Quilt Show  2011

Watch HGTV videos

About Supply Lists

Be Up-to-Date

Before packing up for a workshop,  be sure you have the current version of the supply list.  Please check the date at the bottom of any previously downloaded supply list against the current online version. The supply list may have been updated.

The First Pancake

Don't plan your quilt in advance of the class. That's what these workshop are for. Come to class, learn the block and explore its possibilities.

Enjoy the opportunities of working among other quilters and sharing information with them. You will be unpressured to make a few sample blocks. Learn from your the workshop samples; you needn't incorporate them into your quilt. They are the first pancakes, not necessarily keepers. The workshops are concerned with design and a multitude of techniques that can be applied beyond the particular workshop

Be Prepared

You'll find preparation for one day classes is minimal. Beginners are always welcomed. Sewing machine and rotary cutting experience required.

Print

If a supply list doesn't print well from the link please try to download the document and then print it.

Exceptions
My Supply Lists are 'general.' A Guild will often supply an ironing set-up. A national venue may limit   irons because of electrical limitations. Sometimes students and the teacher can't manage to bring everything when traveling by air.  We share. We make do. We enjoy ourselves. 

About Anita's Classes

The workshops are six hours with generally a one-hour break for lunch.  If  we begin at 9:00 a.m. we'd conclude at 4:00 p.m.

I prefer to spend my time arranging fabric patches rather than cutting them out. If I can't make a quilt simpler, from start-to-finish, I don't offer it. My techniques are invisible; your quilt looks like you. It won't be recognizable as a Make It Simpler quilt. Only your rotary cutter will know for sure.

What's in your collection of fabric? What is your palette? Please imagine the quilts below in your fabric. Your blocks should reflect you.

The Two-Color Pineapple: A Classic Set Anew

Supply List Two-Color Pineapple

This is the easiest Pineapple Quilt ever to complete. Patches for conventionally sewn, not foundation pieced, blocks are constructed using streamlined methods. This is an easy lesson to prepare for because you need choose only  two different fabrics, one-half yard of each.  

You’ll be astonished to rotary cut 64 trapezoids and triangles to shape, enough for 2 blocks, in only 14 strokes without measuring or wasting any fabric. Place a photocopy of Anita's CuttingLines pattern on top of the fabric and... cut on the lines. It's that simple and inexpensive.

Rotary Cutting Revolution back cover

Working with only 2 fabrics, there will be time for relaxed piecing and honing your machine skills. The “points” needn't match in this unique setting. After one day you'll understand how to make   two-color and scrappy blocks and the three different settings.  After 2 days an effortless two-color 70” square heirloom quilt will be well underway.  Sewing machine and rotary cutting experience required.

The Quilt Show Episode #905. Ordinary Pineapple blocks,
not paper pieced, will form Anita's unique Two-Color Pineapple Quilt

Anita's Arrowhead: Three Strokes and You're Done

1 day Block Class or multiple day Quilt Workshop
Supply List Anita's Arrowhead

Believe it or not, each traditional 9" unfinished Arrowhead block is made entirely from a pair of different 8" squares of fabric. Each block has 10 subunits which Anita's method creates with just 2 seams and 3 rotary strokes.

• There are no templates
• There is no wasted yardage 

The fast and radical technique allows for the time and opportunity to combine  fabrics and compose the quilt. The ease of the block construction belies the sophistication of the quilt’s appearance. Make the quilt any size you wish. Sewing machine and rotary cutting experience required. Suitable for all levels of experience.

Made entirely of Liberty of London brand fabrics

Christmas fabric Kits for this quilt are currently available from QUILTMAKER Magazine

Huntington (NY Quilters)

(Video) 

As seen a Monday meeting of the Friendship Knot Quilters Guild in Sarasota, FL following  the Saturday workshop,  two days earlier.

by Molly R of Berks (PA) Quilters Guild. She chose Cherrywood fabrics

Anita's Fancy

Pending

Anita's Fancy Small (6" unfinished)
and
Anita's Fancy Large (12" unfinished)
are two distinctly separate workshops. The blocks may appear similar  but are constructed differently

Please select one or the other for a one-day workshop.

Bow Twist

This workshop is a straightforward project class. As you might expect there are a few unique shortcuts to simplify construction of this new block.
Supply List upon request

Solid Snowball Twist

Baby Bow Twist

Double Wrench

Double Wrench Supply List

This traditional block is made modern using Anita's unique and deviously clever

paper sewing guide. This Wrench is pre-sewn on paper, cut apart, and resewn. You don't need a ruler except as a cutting edge

The technique contributes to a special appearance among backgrounds of 

directional fabrics. It is not a paper-pieced pattern. Truly, this block has never 

been made more easily and it happens to be great fun to construct. There are at least 10 possible variations for the block's components.

Jewel

Be Jeweled Supply List

This traditional block is made modern using Anita's unique and deviously clever paper sewing guide. The block is pre-sewn on paper, cut apart, and resewn. Create perfect blocks without measuring in less time than any other method. You'll marvel at the steps you've skipped! Each block   takes merely two rough-cut pieces of fabric and Anita's magic. There's very little preparation or workspace required. 

An excellent choice for a retreat, little teaching, lots of sewing, good for physically limited workspaces.

Make It Simpler Paper Piecing

Supply List  Make It Simpler Paper Piecing
The Key West Beauty and The Old Italian block have been combined into a one-day paper piecing workshop.

There is no paper piecing like Anita's paper piecing.

Both block patterns are in  Make It Simpler Paper Piecing This out-of-print block book includes paper piecing foundations, rotary cutting dimensions and templates for over 40 blocks. It MUST measure 9" x 11" (not 8.5" x 11"); it is not required for the workshop.

Both the simple block and the average block are taught together with tips and techniques useful for all the blocks in the book.

What makes the Old Italian Block block simple?
1. Its Cutting.
Nine patches (enough for 2 blocks) are cut with only 4 rotary cuts and no measuring. These patches are positioned onto the uncut foundation pattern with a re-positional glue stick. No pinning and nothing to cut up and pin back together again.

2. What make a block less simple?
More patches, not less,  in a block

My little Key West Beauty  Times Square, New York

The Old Italian Block Quilt

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Supply List

Foolproof  9" Monkey Wrench blocks from

• Two rectangles
• One square
• Anita's CuttingLines pattern

Once you have tried one, there's no going back to measuring and to squareing up.

This unique method saves many steps in making the traditional Monkey Wrench block and its variations. You'll quickly create the components to make a block and then go on to stretch of your understanding of fabric and design possibilities

Monkey Wrench variations

My method premiered in Quiltmaker Magazine

 By Tina Craig  http://seaside-stitches.blogspot.com