Join Heidi on a Mighty Network with four learning modules providing video instruction.

There will be one final optional LIVE Zoom Co-Working Session on Tuesday, July 29th 11am-1pm Central

🌎 🌍 🌏 This link to World Time Buddy will help you to easily understand the times. (Class meets in Chicago Time)

Diary Quilts:

Heidi has become known for her Diary Quilts at QuiltCon, Quilt National, as 2024 Artist in Residence at the Pfister Hotel, and in her current exhibition at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts: Soft Magic. Enjoy this unique opportunity to learn from her, and try your hand with this special approach to quiltmaking.

“Join this on-demand class to learn about Diary Quilting! You’ll be introduced to personal narrative, code, abstraction, logging daily life, dreaming about the future, and reframing the past. This healing practice focuses on hand piecing a quilt top, and allows you to work with any techniques that you like. I’ll offer guidance on composition, aesthetics, storytelling, technique, and the art of diary. If you’ve studied Diary Quilting with me in years past, this iteration holds the topic at a new angle, and welcomes you back.” ~Heidi

These are some qualities of a Diary Quilt:

1. In contrast with an ‘autobiographical quilt,’ a ‘diary quilt’ can conceal or reveal secrets at the discretion of the maker via abstraction and code.

2. A diary entry can reframe the past, track the present, and anticipate the future. There is magic in working with all three of these time zones!

3. Telling your story can be deeply healing, and engages the therapeutic benefits of cognitive reframing.

4. A Diary Quilt can be made with any technical skills that you already have, or with a handful of skills that will be taught in class.

Heidi will guide students in creating their own unique composition with an emphasis on the theme of abstraction for aesthetics and secret-keeping.

*If you’ve previously studied Diary Quilting with Heidi, this will be a fresh take on the topic! We will delve deeply into the concept of abstraction, both as a method of making the work beautiful, and as a way to maintain our privacy while digging into meaningful topics.

Class Format:

1. Four learning modules about Diary Quilting: Abstraction for Aesthetics and Secret-Keeping. These include video from Heidi, and links to a carefully curated selection of video on YouTube, etc.

2. Eight RECORDED co-working sessions where you can see students from spring 2025 ask questions, sew alongside Heidi, and converse with fellow students

3. An exclusive Mighty Network platform with a Studio Community conversation thread in which you can share progress on your Diary Quilt, and exchange comments and give feedback to fellow students

4. Class will center on making a quilt top. The techniques for completing the top with quilting and binding will be entirely at your discretion, and on-demand resources for these steps are available in the shop

5. Beginner Friendly: Module 1 includes instruction on threading your needle, appliqué, knots, basic stitches, and getting started

Class Itinerary:

To Start:

• Watch for the link to the PDF Welcome Letter immediately after checkout (and in your email). This will give you access to our Mighty Network

• Create a profile on the Mighty Network, and introduce yourself in our Studio Community by making a ‘Virtual Studio’ to share photos and text

Module 1:

• Watch the pre-recorded videos on technique, preparation, and concept (helpful for beginners!)

• Watch a lecture introducing Diary Quilting, and receive some creative prompts, and links to additional optional videos

Modules 2, 3, and 4:

• In video lectures, Heidi will share the stories behind some of her quilts, and provide a rich description of how Diary, Abstraction, Aesthetics, and Secret-keeping contributed to making them

• Heidi will link to some special resources that have influenced her quilting with these themes in mind

• Watch RECORDINGS of the spring 2025 co-working sessions as they correspond with each module (8 sessions total, 18+ hours to sew along with us)

Additional Resources:

• #HPdiaryquilt is an Instagram hub for students to connect and share

• The class website will include links to books, YouTube videos, and additional resources that Heidi has found valuable in her practice of Diary Quilting. There is also space at the end of each module for students to share additional resources that they’ve found useful.

After Class:

• Please keep posting updates about your quilt on your Virtual Studio in the Mighty Network! Existing and future students can continue to share and interact here for years to come. *This space is for sharing specifically about this quilt for this class.

Additional Info:

• This began as a LIVE class, and is now an on-demand class, incorporating recordings from our co-working sessions. The cost is the same LIVE and on-demand. Stay tuned to my email newsletter to learn about future iterations of Diary Quilting with new themes

• ‘Lifetime access’ to the class is connected to Heidi’s lifetime, and a continued career teaching quilting. We hope this will be a long time.

• You can see Heidi’s favorite sewing supplies HERE . The Little House Needle Gripper Silicon Thimble is a favorite that you can find with $5 off via this Snuggly Monkey coupon link. Further details on supplies will be shared on the class website, but the most important supplies are a needle, thread, thimble, and fabric.

• All purchases are final.

• ⭕️ BE READY AFTER CHECKOUT: that is the easiest time to download the PDF required to access this class. (You will also get an email from no-reply@squarespace.info with a link to the PDF, and a separate email with your receipt.)