Take a class
Learn the ins and outs of quilting with our expert, experienced, and enthusiastic instructors!
We offer classes for novices and seasoned quilters alike - there’s always something to learn, and any time spent in the company of fellow fibre lovers is always well spent.
Classes for the FALL 2025 Classes starting in September 2025 are now being worked on and will be posted as information is received. Registration will be open in August 2025 at the store. Come see the samples at the store, check the bottom of this page for updates, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Facebook!
***JOIN US ON Wednesday, September 3rd, at 5:00pm to 6:30pm 2025, 5:00 pm to 6:30pm for our CLASS SHOWCASE evening to see all the classes, samples and meet the Instructors!
What do you need to take for every class? THE KEY BASIC: A sewing machine in good working order, as the store cannot supply one (and your machine manual if possible, for trouble-shooting). For quilting classes: cutting mat, ruler, rotary cutter, pins. The supply list for the class will tell you what else you need for that specific one.
Key Registration Fee Information (you will receive a more detailed handout when you register): Full, non-refundable payment is required for registration. If you must withdraw, you can send someone in your place. If a class must be cancelled, you will receive a full fee refund. Do not buy patterns, fabric, supplies etc. until five days before the class, as these are not refundable when a class is cancelled. We do not call our customers with a reminder for the class. We will only call you - 5 days before - if the class is cancelled. Please make sure you have ALL THE SUPPLIES you need for the Class as the Store may not be opened at the time of your class and the Instructor will NOT be able to help you with anything you may need, as she is busy teaching the class.
Note: The minimum age to take a class is 17 years of age.
Fall Classes 2025
Beginner’s Quilting
Our ever-popular and – if we say so ourselves – excellent Beginner’s Class is offered at the start of every season in September and January.
In it, you will be guided by an expert teacher and experienced quilter Hazel Wainwright to learn everything you need to know for future quilting projects: fabric choice; accurate cutting; piecing and pressing; design aspects; layering, quilting and binding.
Hazel has taught this course for many years. She has superb problem-solving advice for practically every issue a beginner encounters. The class always starts on a Saturday, continues the following Friday evening, and finishes the next day (Saturday). This format gives students adequate time to learn and hone their skills by completing a baby quilt from start to finish, from choosing fabric to the final stitches on the binding. You will be so proud of what you can accomplish!
Beginner’s Quilting
Instructor: Hazel Wainwright
SESSION - Saturday, September 13 2025, 9.30-4:30, Friday 26, 6:30-9:30 pm, and Saturday, September 27, 2025 9.30 am-4:30 pm
COST: $150 plus GST (plus supplies and fabric; must have your own sewing machine and know how to use it)
Always wanted to try quilting? This class is for you. You will find out all about the neat tools quilters use. You will learn to make a quilt from start to finish in class. You only need a sewing machine, in good working order with which you are familiar and a few basic precision tools to start. Pattern will be provided.
SQUARE ON SQUARE QUILT
This bed size quilt is fast and easy to make. It uses just two differnt prints in pairs or multiple prints in pairs. Five pairs ( 10 fabrics were used in the samples for the store). Add a contrasting fabric for the sashing and inner borders, then choose your outer boarder. Appliques are optional. It looks great in fall colours like the sample or blues with a polar bear applique for a northern quilt. Strip piecing, accurate cutting and piecing techniques will be taught and the use of forked pins to make seams match esily will be shown.
Instructor: Hazel Wainwright
DATE: Friday, October 3 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm & Saturday, October 4, 9:30 am-4:30 pm
COST: $90(plus supplies)
More information to follow
*Pre-requisite beginner class or equivalent
CRIMSON CHRISTMAS
iNSTRUCTER: Marilyn Moran
DATE: Friday October 17 , 6:30-9:30 & Saturday October 18, 9:30am-4:30pm
COST: $90.00 (plus supplies & pattern)
Pre-requisite: Beginner Class or equivalent
HOLIDAY TWISTER
Make this special wreath to hang on your door or your wall for the festive season. This is a cut-sew-cut-sew project made easy using the little ruler that comes with your pattern, and you will only be sewing squares together, no odd shapes.
DATES: Tuesday, October 21; Tuesday October 28 & Wednesday, October 29 - 6:30pm-9:30pm
COST: $90.00 (plus supplies & fabric)
Pre-requisite: Beginner Class or equivalent
ROOM FOR SQUARES
Instructor: Donna MacDonald
DATE: Friday, October 24, 6:30 pm-9:30 pm & Saturday, October 25, 9:30am - 4:30pm
COST: $90.00 (Plus supplies)
The
Pre-requisite: Beginner Class or equivalent
JELLY ROLL RUG
Join us to make this run roll with a pack of jelly rolls! You just need sewing experience, no quilting! Once you make one you can’t stop!
Instructor: LINDA WHITFORD
DATE: Friday, November 7 - 6:30pm to 9:30pm & Saturday, November 8, 9:30am to 4:30pm
COST: $90.00 (Plus supplies)
CROOKED CHRISTMAT TREE (wall hanging)
This cute project can be hanging from your door, a table topper, or a pillow top. Make it in traditional colours or go wild! Learn to paper piece to get perfect points each time. Makes a great gift!
Instructor: Hazel Wainwright
DATE: Tuesday, November 18 & Wednesday, November 19 6:30 pm-9:30 pm
COST: $60 (plus fabric & supplies)
Pre-Requisite: Beginner Class or equivalent
BARGELLO CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT
Instructor: Mary Rivers
Create a beautiful Bargello Christmas Tree skirt with some of your favourite Christmas fabrics. One of the great things about this tree skirt is that it is a ‘‘ quilt as you go’’ method. Your festive tree skirt will be a wonderful addition to your Christmas Tree!
DATE: To be announed
COST: $90 (plus supplies and pattern)
Pre-requisite: Beginner Class or equivalent
HOLIDAY STAR
In this class you will do the ripless paper piecing method. This patter could be done in one of three different ways. Traditional paper piecing, ripless paper piecing and foundation piecing. I have choses the ripless method. It is a great opportunity for you to add a new skill to your technique as well as being able to add a beautiful table runner or wall hanging to your holiday decor. No more ripping ryour paper away when you have completed your blocks.
Instructor: Mary Rivers
DATE: To Be Announced
COST: $90.00 (fabric & supplies not included)
**Pre-requisite Beginner Class or equivalent
CHRISTMAS TABLE GRACES PLACEMATS
For this Class you will focus on the placemats. They are so easy, you will want to whip them up every occasion. Piece and quilt at the same time. For a fabulous gift you can add the lined cloth napkins later. Just make sure you get enough at the same time.
Instructor: Linda Whitford
DATE: TO BE ANNOUNCED
COST: $90 (Plus supplies)
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Instructor:
DATE:
COST: $ plus supplies & pattern
Pre-requisite - beginner class or equivalent
More classes…coming soon!
Instructor:
DATE:
COST:
TBC
Instructors
Hazel Wainwright
My love of sewing was inherited from my granny and I have been using a sewing machine since my early teenage years. I was introduced to quilting about 20 years ago and have explored many techniques & ways of using fabric which come under the heading of “Quilting”. I have been lucky enough to participate in workshops given by national and international teachers in addition to learning new skills on my own. I have been teaching classes for over 15 years in Yellowknife and more recently in Inuvik also. I so enjoy sharing my favourite hobby with students and seeing them enjoy the process and the results as much as I do.
Quilters make great friends too!
Donna MacDonald
After moving to Yellowknife from Sydney, NS in 2000 as a dental hygienist at the Adam Dental Clinic, I became a quilter! The obsession began small: attending (reluctantly) a Quilt Guild meeting in September 2000 and winning the door prize (rotary cutter, ruler, mat). It was obviously meant to be and I signed up for my first beginner class with Hazel Wainwright. As the passion grew I honed my skills through practice and studying with numerous local, national and international fiber artists. I am particularly interested in creating art quilts and hand-dyeing fabric - I’ve taken classes in these areas at the Empty Spools Seminar (Pacific Grove, California) and the Crow Barn (Baltimore, Ohio). I also enjoy teaching: in Yellowknife for the Quilted Raven and the YK Guild of Arts and Crafts, and in Inuvik for the Quilt Guild there.
Linda Whitford
In late December 2012, my daughter Amber asked me to come down to Red Deer – to “sweatshop the quilts she needed to get finished”. While I had done a fair bit of sewing (thanks to Ms. Mansell and Hay River Home Ec), I had never seen the point of cutting perfectly good fabric into little pieces to sew it all back together again. Still, crafts of all sorts have been part of my life and other family members quilted, so why not. The group included Shona Barbour and her mom; while the girls pieced and quilted, the mom’s cut and pressed. Back at home and after some debate with myself, I bought some Walmart fabric to play with, starting with rag quilts and working up the courage to take a beginner class with Marilyn Moran. The rest is history. I am inspired by what others do and I love retreats, quilt shows, show and tell, and learning from other quilters. Sharing the “how to” of things I have learned is a way to pay forward what this quilting community has provided to me.
Marilyn Moran
Marilyn is a Certified Instructor with Quiltworx, which was started by pattern designer and quilter Judy Niemeyer, for the past 10 years. Marilyn has extensive experience in teaching quilt classes in numerous styles and techniques specializing in foundation piecing. Other than teaching classes in Yellowknife, she has also taught in cities in Canada and the USA. She was a partner in a quilt store for 8 years and is also expanding her skills as a long-arm quilter. She is an elementary school teacher in Yellowknife.
Shona Barbour
Shona Barbour is a quilter and textile artist in Yellowknife, NT. She has been quilting since 1998, after being given a beginner pattern from her godmother. Shona leans towards modern versions of traditional quilts, improv quilting techniques and loves joining online challenges and sew-alongs (SAL). Most recently Shona has been busy completing her collection of Tula Pink fabric and teaching her young niece to quilt. She is continually inspired by other Northern quilters, including her network of 8 textile friends in Yellowknife and Inuvik.
Shona was a founding member and President of the Inuvik Quilting Guild from 2006- 2017 and a previous NWT Regional Representative on the Canadian Quilters Association (CQA). She has taught classes with the Inuvik Quilting Guild, Open Sky Festival in Fort Simpson and at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik. Shona won a CQA Judges Choice Award at the 2018 Quilt Canada. Shona tries to travel once per year to classes and workshops in other parts of Canada and regularly attends the Yellowknife Quilters classes held with out-of-town instructors.
Mary Rivers
Mary started sewing as a teenager in high school home economics class and received her first sewing machine at 15. Before moving North, she completed a Food studies and Fashion diploma. When she lived in Rae-Edzo/ Behchoko, she ordered her first quilt kit from a magazine and her passion for quilting was ignited.
Many of you may know Mary from her teaching of decorative painting to both adults and children. She was able to take this skill and paint on some of her quilts.
To improve her knowledge and skills in the quilting area, Mary has taken classes locally and from instructors while in Ontario and Alberta. In addition, she has just completed an online class, learning new techniques in applique, piecing, long arm quilting, free motion quilting and colour. Mary has an eye for colour and enjoys helping students learn new techniques.