Kestrel's Creations: A Trunk Show
with Kestrel Michaud
This presentation features a deep dive into my creative history and artistic process. My award-winning quilts are the culmination of a lifetime of artistic growth, and the first half of this presentation explains how I got to where I am today. It's a biographical look at my artistic life, from when I started drawing and won my first art show as a 9-year-old kid, through discovering fabric in High School, re-discovering fabric in art college, and finally transitioning to quilting in my late 20s. I'll share artwork I made in every phase of my life, although the focus is on the fabric.
The second half of "Kestrel's Creations" is about my process. I've used the same fundamental creative process for every fabric picture or quilt I've ever made, although my workflow underwent a major overhaul as I transitioned from analog to digital. Using behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the makings of multiple quilts, I'll take you step-by-step through the process of my design in its entirety, from initial sketch to free-motion quilting.
Check out Kestrel's Workshop on January 10th HERE
About Kestrel Michaud:
Kestrel Michaud is a classically-trained, imaginative realism fine artist with a passion for illustrating in fabric. She started working with fabric in 2004 as a Junior in high school. By the time she graduated in 2006, Kestrel had developed her own unique style and technique and had completed almost 30 unique fabric pictures. Kestrel had also won more than 50 local, regional, national, and international awards for her artwork.
All of Kestrel’s quilts are in the style of imaginative realism. Kestrel has an entire imaginary steampunk world in her head, complete with characters, locations, and events. Kestrel combines the lessons about visual storytelling she learned in college with her talent working with fabric to create quilts that tell stories from this fictional realm in a visual style that makes the imagery look real, even though it’s not.
Kestrel’s technical style is called fused, raw-edge appliqué, and her quilts are notably different from her early fabric pictures because the fabric pictures did not include stitching. Each quilt is comprised of hundreds or thousands of individual pieces of fabric, some even smaller than the tip of a fingernail. Kestrel cuts and assemble them like a puzzle made from overlapping pieces. Each piece of fabric is fused in place with a heat-sensitive fabric glue before being quilted at a density of 1/8”-1/16”. Kestrel stitches her designs by free-motion quilting, which means she moves the fabric under the needle of her sewing machine to “draw” lines out of thread.
Today, Kestrel works as a full-time, professional quilt artist, exhibiting and selling her work around the world. She also shares her knowledge by teaching her process through Patreon, live and virtual lectures, and live workshops. Her fine art training, creative mind, inventive nature, decades of experience, and unique style make Kestrel’s work unlike that of any other artist.
Learn more about Kestrel Michaud on Social Media:
Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
This meeting will be both IN-PERSON and ONLINE via Zoom. Both meeting rooms will open at 6:15 pm and the meeting will begin at 6:30 pm Mountain time. Guests are also welcome to attend this meeting for $8.00. Please register ahead of time . If you will be attending via Zoom, please ensure that you know how to use Zoom prior to the meeting. The link will come by email when you register.
ACQ Members: Please sign in and register for free—it's so helpful to know how many are coming AND you'll be eligible for door prizes when you register. Attendees must be present at the meeting OR online via Zoom to win door prizes.
