Photos to Quilts – Landscape Version with LeAnn Hileman
Looking to take your quilts to the next level? Transform your work with realism under the guidance of expert narrative realist quilter, LeAnn Hileman.
In the Photos to Quilts – Landscape Version Workshop, techniques will be shared to create perspective and realism in art quilts. LeAnn will discuss and demonstrate ways to use color theory and art principles and apply them to each student's photo. LeAnn will be happy to work with you so you can find a great photo for you to work with. By using the student's photo and the individual's experience and feeling about the photo, you can create not just a realistic photo quilt, but an art quilt that is very meaningful to the maker and the viewer. Students will be taught to create a foundation, establish perspective, and detail using techniques such as thread-painting.
A complete supply list will be provided when you sign up for class. LeAnn will have fat quarters and half yards of fabrics, which are suitable for skies, and will be available for purchase. A small kit of products LeAnn uses for thread painting will be for sale for $15.
Event Details
Date: Sunday, March 29 – Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Time: 10 am – 4 pm, with lunch break
Location: Rosie's Calico Cupboard Quilt Shop, 7151 El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, CA 92115
Cost: $400 for Members – open now here, $450 for Non-Members – opens 10 am, Friday, February 6, 2026
The class is limited to 15 participants. Please use our contact page to be put on a waiting list.
DAY 1:
- Photo selection and editing
- Creating a working drawing
- Creating a foundation
- Seeing shapes and planning the sequencing
- Working by unit
DAY 2:
- Establishing realism and perspective
- Fabric selection
- Temperature – color theory
- Texture
- Value – identifying and using knowledge of values to create realism and perspective
- Application of pieces – methods
DAY 3:
- Detailing
- Thread painting – materials and methods, types
- Using fibers and other materials, cheesecloth
- Quilting and finishing
About LeAnn
Growing up on a small farm in Eastern Nebraska, my art supplies included dirt and mud, leaves from cottonwood trees, and paper grocery bags. A fresh sheet of white paper was a treasure inviting me to draw on it. Farmers use what they have, and out of that lifestyle comes from my veneration of practical materials, ordinary landscapes, and family.
I didn’t begin making art quilts until 2015 when I took a class with David Taylor. Since then, I have taken classes, taught classes and developed my own style which I call Narrative Realism. I work almost exclusively from my own photographs. The realism I achieve in my work comes from a collage style of placing bits of fabric from templates drawn onto freezer paper, as well as improvisational cutting and pinning. I combine raw edge and turned edge applique techniques, as well as trapunto and thread painting. Although I do some painting of fabric, I turn first to fabric as my medium, and the painting and printing by third parties is kept to a minimum. I do use the inspiration photographs as just that, inspiration, but there is always some degree of interpretation in the piece as it grows into itself.
My work has been shown in national and international shows, including Quilt National 21 and The Festival of Quilts in the United Kingdom in 2021. In Road to California 2019 I won the award for Outstanding Artistry, and two of my quilts have been inducted into the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame.
