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Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting: Brenda Gael Smith

Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting: Brenda Gael Smith

Creating at Copacabana

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3 Hour Workshops

Overview

FUNdamentally Circles
Geometricks
Strip-Ease
Line Dancing
The X Factor

All 3-hour workshops have been specifically developed for learning via Zoom and focus on a different freeform piecing technique. The classes are standalone or you can pick and choose a series for your group. Please email me for my availability and rates.

Longer Format Workshops designed for in-person classes or multi-segment virtual events are also available. View the Serendipity Student Gallery.

Upcoming Zig Zag Zoom!: 6-8am Friday 10 October (Sydney time)

Create energetic designs with flair and style! Join me for a live, interactive Zoom where I will share with you FIVE different freeform piecing techniques exploring zig zag lines and shapes.

Book your place with Brenda

 

Logs & Ladders: Building with Improvisation

Build your own composition with improvisational log cabin and/or ladder units. Learn freeform cutting without rulers and how to join irregular blocks. Explore the design principles of repetition and variation.  Suitable for all skill levels. See the Serendipity Student Gallery – Logs & Ladders!

Metropolis © 2014 Brenda Gael Smith Unplugged © 2006 Brenda Gael Smith   Flourish © 2007 Brenda Gael Smith  Firebrand © 2007 Brenda Gael Smith

Line Dancing

 Learn versatile methods of piecing expressive fine lines and undertake improvisational design exercises to create small compositions. See the Serendipity Student Gallery – Line Dancing.

Lines of Beauty - Trio

Geometricks

Tips and tricks for creating geometric shapes with freeform piecing: triangles, quadrilaterals and hexagons. Explore the design possibilities of repeating motifs and learn how to join irregular shaped blocks. (The content of this workshop overlaps with the in-person workshop Improvisation Plus! ) See the Serendipity Student Gallery – Geometricks.

FUNdamentally Circles & Beyond FUNdamentally Circles

Focus on the core technique of freeform piecing circular designs without pins and templates. It’s liberating and it’s FUN. After some skill-building exercises, students will start on their own compositions with confidence. See the Serendipity Student Gallery – FUNdamentally Circles

FUNdamentally Circles Full Circle

Beyond Fundamentally Circles goes deeper into the design possibilities of half circles and curvilinear shapes and is designed for graduates of the first FUNdamentally Circles workshop. See the Serendipity Student Gallery – Circular Explorations: Beyond FUNdamentally Circles

The X Factor

Apply the X factor to a layer cake of your favourite fabric range to create cross design projects. Discover the liberation of free cutting and curved piecing techniques.No rulers, no templates and no pins! Also suitable for solids and scrap-busting. See the Serendipity Student Gallery – The X Factor!

    The Modern X   Suzanni Cross 

Strip Ease

Learn an effective, improvisational strip-piecing technique to create new “fabrics” layer by layer and explore design possibilities for incorporating these strip sets into your own compositions. Indicative designs shown below.(The content of this workshop overlaps with the in-person workshop Strata Various! ) See the Serendipity Student Gallery – Strip Ease.

Neapolitan © 2010 Brenda Gael Smith  Topsy TurvyRipples © 2007 Brenda Gael Smith

Book your place with Brenda

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Contact

Brenda Gael Smith
brenda@serendipitypatchwork.com.au

PO Box 131, Avoca Beach
NSW 2251 Australia

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High tea @orchard_house_kulnura. Highly recommend! High tea @orchard_house_kulnura. Highly recommend!
This year marks my 60th circuit of the sun; 33 yea This year marks my 60th circuit of the sun; 33 years since the Laundry King and I got together; 26 years since we got engaged and bought this home; 25 years since we got married; 22 years since we moved here full time; 3 years since his brain cancer diagnosis; and 2 years since he died in our bedroom overlooking the teal ocean. So much of my life is bound up in this place and he has left me many legacies.

The Laundry King was an accomplished woodworker and made this beautiful table out of recycled Australian hardwoods. We bought some pine chairs as a short-term measure. We never did find something more suitable. Until today when I took delivery of some new chairs made from blackbutt wood to match the table. They are perfect. I look forward to sharing many more meals around the table and jigsaws too.

I also have a collection of handmade cards including one from our 25th anniversary that features all 52 works from my weekly art project. Those works were part of my solo exhibition in 2018.
 
That same year @stephaniejoyhoughton had her solo  exhibition at Gosford Regional Gallery and I fell in love with her abstract teal and turquoise artwork. Fast-forward and I am thrilled that this piece was available.

I have been on a teal and turquoise kick since the Laundry King commissioned @lbjewelleryguy to make my teal sapphire pendant in mid-2023.

Other teal/turquoise things that make me smile include a card @sffeltworks; new salt and pepper grinders that go with LK’s 70s pottery; and a plate that I bought in Morocco after traipsing across Rabat my turquoise quest.

Teal is said to symbolise tranquility, clarity, and emotional balance. Similarly the colour turquoise represents calmness, clarity, healing, and open communication. Because its blue-green hue evokes the sky and the sea, it is associated with peace, emotional balance, and spiritual protection. 

This must be the place:
Home is where I want to be
But I guess I’m already there
I come home, she lifted up her wings
I guess that this must be the place
I can’t tell one from another
Did I find you, or you find me?
There was a time before we were born
If someone asks, this where I’ll be, where I’ll be

Copyright © 2003–2026 All Rights Reserved · Brenda Gael Smith