Instructor: Ed Johnetta Miller
Monday - Friday
July 7 - 11
9am - 12pm
5 sessions
Open Studio Mon - Thurs, 1pm - 4pm

Teaching an improvisational approach to quilting is like a creative and rewarding endeavor. The beauty of improvisation is that it allows individuals to express their creativity freely and explore new possibilities. By encouraging students to begin where they are and continue to grow, you foster a supportive and inclusive learning environment. It’s empowering for students to realize that they have the ability to create and develop their quilting skills at any level.

Students will explore surface design and learn the improvisational method of piecing as they create quilt patterns using fabrics from around the globe. We will incorporate scrap quilting/weaving on the embroidering hoop as well. This workshop is a plus for everyone who uses fabric for clothing, quilts, wall hanging and pillows. I will have unique hand dyed fabrics, and fabrics from many different cultures, to share with students.

materials list

Ed Johnetta Miller is an author, fiber artist, teacher, independent curator, former Management Envoy from the US to Cote D’Ivoire, Ivory Coast. Widely exhibited in the US and internationally, her quilts can be found in numerous important museums, and private collections such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Washington DC, The Contemporary Quilt Museum, Golden Colorado, The Wadsworth Museum of Art, Hartford Ct., Nelson’s Mandela’s National Museum, Cape Town, South Africa, Safeco Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Corporation, Hartford Hospital, Michigan State University, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, US Embassy in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa and in 2019, US Embassy in Chad, US Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia commissioned by the West Hartford Art League to design five quilts for a mural project on the grounds of the Art League, One Woman exhibition, Art For the Soul Gallery, Springfield, Mass., Nov. 2021, and in 2022 my quilt, And I Have Lived with Injustice All My life, was acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Sunday New York Times featured Ed Johnetta in the Best of the Best series, and again in 2020 one of her quilts, around Black Lives Matter, was featured in the New York Times, Best of the Best series and she has received many awards for her role as an artist, community leader, including Connecticut’s most prestigious artistic award, The Governor’s Award, July, 2022, the William A. Yandow Educators Award from the Bushnell Performing Arts Education Department. Ed Johnetta has been featured on HGTV, Simply Quilts, Modern Master’s Holiday Show, Debbie Allen’s series “Cool Women”, Visionaries, WGBH-Boston and 2020, Christian Science Monitors “People Making a Difference”.