Quilting Classes Offered at Waverly in Regent Square

Georgia Moncada is bringing her colorful brand of quilting to new classes offered at , where she will teach beginners the art of the fabric beauties.

“I have been sewing since I was eight and started messing with quilts when I was about 12,” the Point Breeze woman said. “I didn’t make one worthy of being called a quilt until later.”

When she moved to Pittsburgh from New Orleans more than 20 years ago, she was thrilled to see a wide variety of quilting shops. Today, masses of quilts hang displayed in her home, on racks and other areas.

The quilting classes at Waverly, located near the corner of Forbes and Braddock avenues in Regent Square, begin this weekend and run on the second and fourth Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon.

“In that two-hour period, they’ll learn how to make blocks and I think they will want to continue on to learn the finishing,” she said. “It’s tedious because it’s not as creative, but if you want to have a quilt you have to finish it.”

Moncada’s favorite aspect of quilting are the variety of colors she can incorporate into one work of art. Many of her quilts are vibrantly colored with nontraditional items.

“Early on in my teaching career a student said, ‘Now I know why you dress so plainly because you put all of the color in the quilts.’ In a way, she was right because I put all of the color in the quilts. You can come up with these great ways to be very precise.”

A huge quilt hanging in her dining room depicts vines and leaves complete with multicolored critters chasing after different objects, lying about and roaming the quilt. Ladybugs, lizards and beautiful bugs are arranged around the quilt.

“It kind of became a story for me,” she said of that particular piece. “I get these pieces of fabric and start putting it together. I just can’t do the ordinary stuff I see in the magazines. It just doesn’t resonate with me.”

The bugs have big eyes and they all have something to look at within the quilt. Green vines weave in and out of each other and have been hand placed on top of each other.

“My quilts tell stories because I love kids and have eight grandchildren, and I can make up a new story each time,” she said.

One scrap of wood-colored fabric in the quilt also contains two little otters peeking from behind a stump. Tiny frogs also are in the quilt. Six stars on the quilt signify her grandchildren while two more children came after it was done.
For anyone apprehensive about learning how to quilt, she says not to worry.

“It’s not hard,” she said. “They learn the basic rules of this and some safety measures you need to take. We start out making simple blocks and use colors to make them look more involved. There is a lot of illusion in quilt making because of the geometry. Quilt making is basically applied geometry.”

And most importantly, she said—”We have a good time.”

For more information, contact Amy Dove at amy.dove@goodwillswpa.org.