Habits with Heidi Parkes

How can we observe our habits? When we see them clearly, how do we create change? This lecture will investigate habits around creativity, bodily movements, diversity & inclusion, and more. This subject will be approached with humility, as a person attempting to see and adjust their own habits. It is offered with background knowledge in hand quilting, art education, and yoga therapy. This lecture will not tell you which habits are good or bad, but will instead pose questions for self-reflection so that you might be better able to see and understand your own habits. Then, it will offer specific and practical techniques for creating change. This change can help to break through limiting beliefs, and can help in areas where willpower is not enough. "The practice of yoga is about repeatedly realigning our values and actions, both on and off the mat." - Rolf Gates, 2012 (Heidi’s Yoga Teacher Training Instructor)

*This lecture is also available on-demand here.

Hand Yoga and a Quilt Update

Enjoy 20 minutes of Hand Yoga live with Heidi, based on requests from your group. Then, see an update of Heidi’s most recent quilts, and a tour of her online presence. This lecture offers a fun window into the present moment in Heidi’s studio.

*If this lecture is presented virtually, things like a studio tour can be incorporated too, but beware, it’s a real working studio, and isn’t always super-tidy. ;-)

Hand Yoga and the Ergonomics of Hand Quilting

Enjoy 20 minutes of Hand Yoga live with Heidi, based on requests from your group. Then, Heidi will demonstrate the key principles that she keeps in mind while sewing to work efficiently and economically. Tools, thimbles, cushions, knees, arms, finger pressure, etc will all be explored.

*Please remember that Heidi is not your doctor. She may raise good questions for you to ask your doc, and will share her own experience of when she knew she needed to see an Occupational Therapist, and will share the things that work for her now to sew in good health.

Heidi Parkes: Improv Life, Improv Quilts

Improvisation is a way of making art that mirrors life, with no take-backs or re-do’s. We must move ever forward making the most with what we’ve got. Heidi will share her journey as a quilter, and will offer insights into her creative process. This intimate lecture will dig into the existential and inspire you to find beauty and potential in any situation.

Improv Hand Quilting

Heidi discusses her approach to hand quilting aesthetically and practically. Basting, exposed or hidden knots, hand positioning, thimbles, hand yoga/hand care, improvisation, and economy of movement are all introduced practically with photos and video.  Design aesthetics and 'planning' to improvise are discussed conceptually, and with photos of in progress and completed quilts.

Mending Philosophy

Heidi will share her journey with mending in this lecture. As a Highly Sensitive Person, HSP, she has been particular about clothing since childhood. Heidi started mending her clothes in jr. high, and still finds it easier to mend the clothes she loves that to hunt down new garments that feel comfortable in stores. This lecture follows her early feelings of being ashamed of her relationship with clothing, into taking pride in ‘feeling her clothes more than others,’ the impact of fast fashion and mending on the environment, and in appreciating the aesthetics of the ephemeral. Now, as an advocate of mending, she shares her approach to making an ‘apology free mend,’ and to keeping mends comfortable. Key concepts like drape, hand, stretch, knots, and maintaining fit will be described in detail. Most of Heidi’s mends are done with the same tools and techniques that she uses to hand quilt, and this lecture if often very exciting for quilting guilds.

Quilting a Series 

What is a series, and why would a creative person want to work that way? These questions will be answered with a story of a series of quilts Heidi made, featuring “But, I Tried to Remember.” Hear the story behind the origin of this quilt, and the others in the series, which is still in progress. This lecture will cover concept, titling, technique, exhibitions, inspiration, and a variety of details about Heidi’s series as an example.

*This lecture is also available on-demand here.

Quilting as Therapy with Heidi Parkes   

Quilting as therapy is a common concept in the quilting world, and quilting can help heal sadness and grief in many forms. In this lecture Heidi will discuss quilts made about the pandemic, the passing of her father, and the impact of the quilts that were part of her own childhood. Heidi will also discuss the concept of reframing, and the way that storytelling in a quilt can help to give a new perspective on things, and help aid in the healing of emotions and the building of courage, compassion, and self esteem.

*This lecture is also available on-demand here.

Quilts and Art with Heidi Parkes

Let's get more quilts seen by more people, and exhibited in a larger variety of spaces! One of those spaces is the art world. This lecture is intended to demystify, give permission, and offer guidance on how to connect with the art world. Heidi will tell some of her personal experience, but will also focus on simple steps any quilter can take to engage in the art world.

*This lecture is also available on-demand here.

Wellness for Quilters

Heidi Parkes is a hand quilter and yoga therapist. This empowering lecture will begin with tips on physical wellness 'during' quilting, and restorative practices for after quilting. We will perform a live 5-minute hand yoga practice, and Heidi will introduce many of her favorite tools. Then, we will dive into emotional wellness, including the ways that quilting can be therapeutic for the maker, as well as ways to care for our fellow makers and the people around us. Finally, we will explore ways that quilters can be conscientious in their intake and waste as it affects the environment and economic systems- creating wellness for the planet. This wholistic talk about wellness will leave you and those around you feeling refreshed, with lots of practical tips that you can put into practice right away. This advice for body, mind, and planet will apply to machine and hand quilters alike.