Andrea Brokenshire presents “Journey of an Art Quilter”

If you had to miss DAFA’s October meeting (or even if you just want to relive a terrific program), here are photos of Andrea Brokenshire’s presentation for us. A rising star in the world of art quilts, Andrea came to us from Round Rock, bringing a stunning trunk show of her quilts. She traced her story as an artist from its beginnings, when she was a traditional maker of pieced and appliquéd quilts, through the changes that took place in her work following a life-threatening illness. 

Andrea Brokenshire (center) takes the DAFA audience along on her art quilt journey. With the help of Chuck Baber and Sherrie Tootle, she showed both early works (left) and recent works (right).

It took two years of knitting and other techniques exploration before Andrea returned to quilts, and it was in a workshop with Judy Coates Perez that Andrea discovered she “could paint.”  Soon this trained botanist had found her voice and had begun to produce the art quilts for which she is so widely recognized today.

In the Confetti Backgrounds mini-workshop Andrea (at right) showed a new, heavily embellished abstract quilt. At left is her first whole-cloth quilt, her earliest painted quilt.

Andrea explained that she loves techniques of all kinds. Many of the quilts feature painting on silk, fusible applique, and intricate quilting, with lines that are often no more than ¼ inch apart. She spends long hours thread painting, making the backs of her quilts as fascinating as the fronts.

Andrea’s stunning Christmas quilt (left) was among the many works that DAFA members and guests admired and discussed with her after the program.

Thanks to Andrea for her wonderful program and her generosity in sharing so much information with all of us!

                                                                                                      --Carolyn Skei, program chair