Filtering by: heidi parkes
Art & Culture Tour of Japan with Heidi Parkes
Nov
2
to Nov 15
Event

Art & Culture Tour of Japan with Heidi Parkes

Savor the Beauty and Culture of Japan with WMQFA and Award-Winning Artist Heidi Parkes!

November 2-15, 2025

Total Cost: $8,950.00 (Deposit: $4,475.00; and Final Payment: $4,475.00, due June 27, 2025)

Please note, the Deposit is non-refundable. Membership discount code applies to both installments. Airfare to/from Japan is your responsibility. The trip is limited to 16 people.

Cost of the trip is for a single occupancy.

Experience hand quilting and design inspiration in Japan with artist Heidi Parkes. Featuring sewing time with Heidi (bring a project!), hands-on workshops, tours, and more, this intimate tour is the perfect way to travel.

This trip is for you if:

  • You are a creative person.

  • You want to travel with an artist and professional quilter who will help you find creative inspiration as you travel.

  • You want to travel with a Japanese native who speaks the language and understands the culture.

  • You want to try wonderful Japanese cuisine.

  • You want to experience something totally new & different!

Heidi’s Trip Inspiration Statement:

I love to sew while traveling! There's plenty of downtime on trains, in waiting areas, on airplanes, and while resting my feet that I find it's easy to return home with some stitching completed. I'm excited to invite you to join me in sewing and exploring Japan. I first learned about the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi in a ceramics class at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and I'm always eager to deepen my knowledge on this appreciation of the rustic, ephemeral, and collaboration with nature.

Takako is a dear friend and trusted guide. She first took me to Japan in 2024 to see the cherry trees blossom, and this trip to see the autumnal leaves, a quilt exhibition, and to explore more fabrics stores together is going to be a treat.

We'll learn about art, food, language, culture, and more, and return home eager to continue our sewing. Students are very welcome to join me in creating a Travel Diary Quilt, but they are also welcome to bring a project of their choice. Sashiko samplers, embroidery, patchwork, hexies, clothing, stitch journals, anything that can fit into a tote bag will be easy to transport and pull out for some sewing time. We'll meet together on Zoom before embarking on our journey to brainstorm our sewing, learn some of my favorite techniques, and create a strategy for the productive fun that we'll have together!

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Artist in Residence with Heidi Parkes
Mar
19
to Mar 21
Event

Artist in Residence with Heidi Parkes

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Heidi Parkes will be sewing in the exhibition space for a 3-day Artist Residency during her Soft Magic exhibition. March 19th -21 from noon till 4pm. This residency will allow Heidi to sew while inspired by the quilts in the exhibition. It will also allow museum attendees to ask questions and see her process. Portability is one of Heidi's favorite aspects of hand sewing, and she'll be creating some of her small framed quilts while activating a 'mobile studio.' Heidi will be engaging with our Fiber Friends group on Thursday, and will be working with youth at the museum on the Monday prior. Join Heidi to make a framed quilt of your own in her April 13th workshop here at WMQFA.

Heidi was recently an Artist in Residence at the historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee in 2024, at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI, in 2023 in connection with her solo exhibition Heidi Parkes: Reuse, Reflection, and Storytelling in Cloth, and was a 2020-21 ARTservancy Artist In Residence at Milwaukee's Lake Park.

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Opening of "Heidi Parkes: Soft Magic" on National Quilting Day!
Mar
15
1:00 PM13:00
Class, Event

Opening of "Heidi Parkes: Soft Magic" on National Quilting Day!

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join us in celebrating National Quilting Day on March 15, 2025, with the opening of the WMQFA exhibition "Heidi Parkes: Soft Magic."

This special day will feature a variety of engaging events, including a book signing, artist panel discussion, and gallery reception.

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Improv Hand Quilting With Heidi Parkes (2)
Oct
21
10:00 AM10:00
Class, Event, Workshop

Improv Hand Quilting With Heidi Parkes (2)

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Class Fee: $145/ WMQFA Members (with member code); $170/Non Members

Supplies Checklist

Workshop Description: Learn to quilt by hand, following your intuition and improvising as you go. In this class, you can make a 'wholecloth' quilt, using a single cut of fabric as your quilt top, or you can use an existing quilt top.

This workshop is both conceptual and technical. Heidi will begin with a trunk show, during which she will explain both why and how she quilted as she did. Stitch density, exposed or hidden knots, overlapping lines of quilting, and color choices will be expanded upon. Heidi loves to quilt with pearl size 8 thread for its high visibility and strength. Students can work with an existing quilt top or a 'wholecloth' single piece of fabric. We will cover basting, quilting with a tabletop and a heavy book to create tension, hand positioning, hand care, thimble use, and a variety of ways to balance planning with improv. We will not use pens to 'mark,' our fabric, but will learn a few tricks to anticipate our stitching. Heidi is an expert at creating areas of visual interest and activating the quilt top with the quilting functioning like a 'drawing' on the surface of the fabric. Students will not complete their quilt in class, but will get a solid foundation on improvisation and hand quilting.ing.

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Improv Hand Quilting With Heidi Parkes
Oct
20
10:00 AM10:00
Class, Event, Workshop

Improv Hand Quilting With Heidi Parkes

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Class Fee: $145/ WMQFA Members (with member code); $170/Non Members

Supplies Checklist

Workshop Description: Learn to quilt by hand, following your intuition and improvising as you go. In this class, you can make a 'wholecloth' quilt, using a single cut of fabric as your quilt top, or you can use an existing quilt top.

This workshop is both conceptual and technical. Heidi will begin with a trunk show, during which she will explain both why and how she quilted as she did. Stitch density, exposed or hidden knots, overlapping lines of quilting, and color choices will be expanded upon. Heidi loves to quilt with pearl size 8 thread for its high visibility and strength. Students can work with an existing quilt top or a 'wholecloth' single piece of fabric. We will cover basting, quilting with a tabletop and a heavy book to create tension, hand positioning, hand care, thimble use, and a variety of ways to balance planning with improv. We will not use pens to 'mark,' our fabric, but will learn a few tricks to anticipate our stitching. Heidi is an expert at creating areas of visual interest and activating the quilt top with the quilting functioning like a 'drawing' on the surface of the fabric. Students will not complete their quilt in class, but will get a solid foundation on improvisation and hand quilting.ing.

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Nov
11
10:00 AM10:00
Class, Event, Workshop

SECOND CLASS ADDED! Improv Hand Quilting with Heidi Parkes

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Price: $170 per non member

$145 per member (with member code)

Learn to quilt by hand, following your intuition and improvising as you go.  In this class, you can make a ‘wholecloth’ quilt, using a single cut of fabric as your quilt top, or you can use an existing quilt top. This workshop is both conceptual and technical.

Students will get a solid foundation on improvisation and hand quilting.

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Vignettes Quilt: Exploring Art Concepts In Quilting With Heidi Parkes
Jun
5
to Jun 6
Event, Class, Workshop

Vignettes Quilt: Exploring Art Concepts In Quilting With Heidi Parkes

  • Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

About the Artist:

Heidi is a quilter and mender living in Milwaukee, WI. She received her BFAEE from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005, and was a high school art teacher in Naperville, IL for 9 years. Heidi continues to pursue her passion for teaching by lecturing and leading workshops across the country. She shares her creative process with thousands on Instagram.

In 2016, Heidi won first place in Handwork and second place in Improvisation at The Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon, and is now a returning instructor there. Heidi has exhibited in The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, The Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art, The New England Quilt Museum, The Charles Allis Art Museum, The John Michael Kohler Art Museum, and more. Heidi was an Artist in Residence at Have Company in Grand Rapids, MI.

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Artists in the Pandemic Virtual Chat
Sep
4
12:00 PM12:00
Class, Event, Workshop, Lecture

Artists in the Pandemic Virtual Chat

  • N50 W5050 Portland Road Cedarburg (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

How has the pandemic influenced and affected artists? Join us to hear from Anne Katz from Arts Wisconsin, Angela Johnson from the Wisconsin Regional Arts Program (WRAP), and Milwaukee artist Heidi Parkes on how this unusual year is impacting artists.

The program is free, but donations are appreciated: https://www.wiquiltmuseum.com/products/artists-in-the-pandemic-virtual-chat

Watch via Zoom or on live on Facebook.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83296053403

For more information about WRAP, click here: https://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/wisconsin-regional-art-program/

For more information about Arts Wisconsin, click here: https://www.artswisconsin.org/

For more information about Heidi Parkes: http://www.heidiparkes.com/

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