Meet the Teachers

 

We take the time to search out the best in the industry, introducing you to exceptional designers, best-selling authors, creative thinkers and visionaries. Taking classes at Original Sewing & Quilt Expo adds to a memorable and satisfying experience.

 

Deb Atchison

Prosper, TX

debatchison.com/quilting.html

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Deb Atchison is an experienced educator, international technology consultant, and quilter that enjoys leading students of all ages through the process of creating beautiful works of art with fabric! Teaching is her lifelong career and quilting is her passion. Combining them both...her dream job! Deb has many years of training students of all ages including adult learners. As a technology education expert, Deb has taught numerous workshops virtually as well as face-to-face! She is certified in Scrappy Applique, and is a Legit Kits Ambassador and Educator and enjoys teaching quilters of all experience levels how to make beautiful works of art with Legit Kits! Deb enjoys sharing her love of applique using embroidery machines as well. 

 

Ilene Bartos

Urbandale, IA
Ilene Bartos Designs

ilenebartos.com

YouTube

I discovered quilting a number of years ago when a friend invited me to a guild meeting, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Quilting combines my passion for color with my love of fabric and gives me infinite possibilities for creative expression. I authored two traditional quilt books in 2008 and 2010 but have since been devoting my time to designing art quilts and writing patterns for them. I love teaching others how to make quilts that are slightly beyond their comfort level or outside the traditional box. I work with a variety of techniques as I always want to try something different to see how it works. I use a lot of bright colors because they make me happy. I like to think my quilts spread joy, one quilt at a time.

 

Eric Drexler
Port Charlotte, FL
Sulky of America
sulky.com
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Eric has been in the industry over 40 years. Free-motion artistry has been his life-long passion. He has made numerous large and small works of machine art, some of which have been featured in Sulky Books and at Trade and Consumer Shows all over the country. Through his association with Sulky of America since the beginning, he has had the pleasure and honor of being inspired by some of the world's greatest creative sewers and quilters. Eric loves life and he loves to teach and share his exuberance for creative sewing. He is passionate about inspiring students of all ages so they can discover and enjoy a lifetime of creative fun. His infectious smile and warm humor puts everyone at ease and makes them ready and eager to learn. He is widely sought after to teach and share his contagious enthusiasm at Consumer shows, Sewing and Quilting Guilds and on many PBS shows.

 

Stephanie Folsom
Cape Coral, FL

Beach Potato Embroidery

beachpotatoembroidery.com

Stephanie is an embroidery instructor and business owner of Beach Potato Embroidery. She has been sewing since she was nine years old and learned about machine embroidery in middle school. She has been a part of the sewing, embroidery, and longarm communities for the past ten years. While she loves making new designs, helping others is her first passion. She is a former 911 dispatcher and mother of two. Now as embroidery designer and instructor she loves sharing new techniques and making unique in the hoop projects. Stephanie and her husband Joe travel the United States teaching machine embroidery as well as vending at large expos and shows. Stephanie is excited to meet you in person for an awesome hands-on event!

 

Lynn Gerard
Nappanee, IN

The Cork Emporium

thecorkemporium.com

Lynn Gerard is the owner of The Cork Emporium. This unique store is for eco-conscious fashion enthusiasts and creative artisans alike. The Cork Emporium specializes in offering a diverse range of thread, cloth and ornate accessories crafted from an environmentally friendly and versatile material: cork fabric. Derived primarily from the bark of the cork oak tree, this high-quality fabric is sourced from Spain, Portugal and France, regions known for their abundant cork oak forests. One notable aspect of cork fabric is its sustainability.

 

LuAnn Hartley

Lexington, NC

Sanluchell Designs

LuAnn Hartley has been teaching a variety of classes for over 30 years. Her background includes education consultant, sewing machine sales, and a store owner for over 25 years. She has a passion for embellishing, quilting, and creating new ways to use techniques for both sewing and serging. She has taught all over the country and at major quilting shows.

 

 

Allyson Heidenfelder

Burnsville, NC 

Quilt-N-Code

quilt-n-code.com

Allyson Heidenfelder was taught by her mother and has been sewing since she can remember. She created her first solo apparel outfit at the age of 13. She began quilting in her 20’s and has enjoyed the art ever since. Allyson and her husband, Lanny, started Quilt-N-Code in 2018 to offer quilters and sewers in the Burnsville, NC area a place to shop and learn. They carry a variety of fabrics and notions to meet your needs, and also offer classes if you are interested in learning to sew or learning new ways to sew.

 

Joanne Hubbard

Milan, OH

joanne-everyonedeservesaquilt.blogspot.com/

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Joanne Hubbard swears by the motto "Live, Laugh, Love and Quilt!" She is a wife, mother, and grandmother who loves everything quilt related. Quilting is her passion whether it's creating or teaching and she loves to share that passion with others at quilt shops, guild meetings/workshops, quilt shows, or by providing private lessons. Joanne has ventured into pattern design and writing and especially enjoys seeing what others create using her patterns. Staying true to her “Live, Laugh, Love, and Quilt” motto, classes with Joanne are fun, informative, and productive.

 

Angie Lamoree
Weaverville, NC

Angie’s quilting journey began in 2005 when she took her very first class and was instantly hooked from the lesson. Driven by a passion to share the craft, she envisioned a business dedicated to inspiring others and fostering a community of fellow quilting enthusiasts. In April 2017, that vision came to life with the opening of 5 Little Monkeys on Main Street in Weaverville, North Carolina. Nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains just outside Asheville, the shop thrives in a vibrant community of handcrafters and artists. As an educator, Angie believes that quilting, sewing, and crafting are powerful ways to transform thoughts and emotions into beautiful, one-of-a-kind handmade items. Through her guidance, she is dedicated to helping students bring their creations into the world by providing the highest-quality fabrics, tools, and supplies, alongside friendly, supportive instruction.

 

Susan Luaces

Tampa, FL

susieluaces.com

Susie began sewing at nine, taught by her mother, and honed her skills through high school classes, sewing magazines, and books. She created her own clothes, including tailored suits. Despite college and a career in engineering limiting her sewing time, her passion never waned. After leaving engineering to focus on family, she dedicated more time to sewing. Susie has sewn clothing, Halloween costumes, wedding dresses, home décor items, quilts, toys, and nursery items, with garment sewing being her favorite. She has teaching experience from her engineering career, as a part-time fitness instructor, and as a sewing instructor at Joann Fabrics. Since 2002, Susie found the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo, to be a great source of knowledge. Discovering Lorraine Henry’s fitting classes, she resonated with the Seam Method of pattern alteration. Susie trained with Lorraine and Judith Rasband in 2024 to ensure the method's continued availability and is now ready to share her expertise.

 

Donelle McAdams
Marion, IN
Representing Sew Steady
sewsteady.com
sewbizmarion.com
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Donelle McAdams is the owner of SEW BIZ, Marion, Indiana, now an online quilt resource. Donelle is the designer of Quick Easy Mitered Binding and Border Tools for the Sewing and Quilting industry that are sold internationally and she is also a pattern designer. Previously a Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, she has been a quilt store owner for 36 years. She has taught a variety of SchoolHouse and Take & Teach classes and Business Management Seminars at International Quilt Market, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff Sewing Conventions, Vacuum & Sewing Machine Dealers Trade Association Convention and has participated as a Quilt Store Owner/Educator on numerous panels and advisory boards. She writes a column Profitable Promotions - for FabShop News, an industry magazine and also writes for VDTA. As a promoted Educator for Sew Steady/Westalee Design Templates, Donelle teaches classes in Ruler Work Quilting. Her love and enthusiasm for sewing and quilting is infectious. Taking a class with Donelle is guaranteed to be information-packed, inspirational and FUN!

 

Jill McCloy

Euclid, OH

Jill McCloy Designs
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Jill's sewing career started at an early age – she received her first sewing machine for Christmas just after her fourth birthday. In high school, she did custom sewing and taught at fabric and sewing machine shops using original patterns. In 1992 Jill was hired by Viking Sewing Machines, Inc. as a national educator designing projects for the Viking Club and teaching at Viking World Conventions. She then became an independent educator working with many brands of sewing machines. Jill was featured in the Threads magazine design challenge in 2000, wrote for McCall’s and Threads magazines, designed embroideries for Cactus Punch and taught at many Expo events. Her specialties are machine knowledge and creating original designs. She has over 50 patterns and recently had a truly beautiful line of fabric come out with Northcott fabrics.  

 

Linda McGehee

Shreveport, LA

Ghee's

ghees.com

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Designer, Linda McGehee has a diverse sewing background with 50 years experience from garments to handbags, piecing to heirloom, surface manipulation to combining a variety of methods into a sampler of various techniques. Linda has traveled the globe demonstrating and lecturing from her books and patterns. She is much sought after at trade and machine conventions, consumer shows, guilds, shops & television. Her style is easy and fun with a flair for detail.

 

Kathy McMakin
Birmingham, AL

Kathy McMakin is one of America’s foremost authorities in machine embroidery and heirloom sewing. She teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced sewists worldwide and inspires confidence in her students. Kathy has taught for 40+ years as the President of Martha Pullen Company and Editor-in-Chief of Classic Sewing Magazine. Today, she lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, and she follows her greatest passion, teaching at events nationwide.  Kathy has been a guest instructor for every major sewing machine manufacturer worldwide. She has authored several smocking, sewing, and serging books and has produced and appeared in numerous machine embroidery, sewing, and serging videos. Her guest appearances on sewing television shows are many.  She and her husband have two grown children and several precious grandchildren.

 

Pattie Otto
Falling Waters, WV
Great Copy Patterns and Embroidery
greatcopy.com
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Pattie Otto, the creative force behind Great Copy Patterns, brings boundless enthusiasm to the world of sewing. With expertise spanning garment design, machine embroidery, and alterations she not only creates but also imparts that knowledge and shares her inspirations through classes across the country. Beyond her professional endeavors, Pattie finds joy in spending time with her husband, Rick, and their grandsons in Ellicott City, MD. Their travels along the East Coast further enrich their experiences. In her well-stocked home studio, Pattie's passion for sewing shines through as she crafts patterns for beautiful garments and accessories. She has also been busy building her alteration business which encompasses everything from prom and pageant attire to menswear and for everyday. Pattie Otto is not just a sewing enthusiast; she's a creative powerhouse whose love for the craft knows no bounds.

 

Shanna Pappas

Ashland, NE

GlitterBugFairy

glitterbugfairy.com

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Shanna is the owner of GlitterBugFairy, a small family owned business that provides all your bag making supplies. From vinyl to zipper to hardware, GlitterBugFairy sells it all, and in the cutest way possible! Come take a class with Shanna, and see just how fun and easy sewing bags can be!

 

Cynthia Peck
Saginaw, MI
SVP Worldvide
Cindy Peck is a sewing enthusiast who learned to sew as a young child using a sewing machine with a knee controller because her legs were too short to reach the foot controller on the floor. Cindy enjoys sewing garments, crafts, gift items, and quilts as well as embroidering or embellishing ready-made items. Her career as a scientist and as an educator helped her develop an interest in sewing products which reduce the use of one- time plastics and repurpose natural fibers to contribute to the maintenance of a greener earth. She has taught sewing for more than 20 years and believes learning should be fun. Her no-nonsense approach (including everyday anecdotes and examples of what can go wrong and how to recover) empowers everyone to expand their skills and take time for sewing each week “just because they deserve it”.

 

Catherine Redford

Naperville, IL

catherineredford.com

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Catherine Redford was born in England where she learnt to knit and sew as a young girl. After relocating from London to Naperville, Illinois, she learned to quilt and never looked back. She's an award-winning quilter, an active member of her local guilds, and a popular teacher at the local and national level. Catherine is a frequent magazine contributor and has enjoyed being a guest on Quilting Arts TV and The Quilt Show. She is enjoying the resurgence of interest in handwork with an embroidery book, Butterfly Stitches, published Fall 2020, and, with two DVDs and a book on Modern Machine Quilting techniques, Catherine delights in finishing her own quilts on a domestic machine!

 

Amy Regal

Cedar Rapids, IA

Uniquely Crafts

uniquelycraftsllc.com

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I’ve been doing shows since 2010 all over the US. I love to design and make products to make others happy and sometimes laugh. Coming up with new ideas is always a favorite of mine.

 

Cris Roach

Berkeley Springs, WV

Highview Quilts
GE Designs Certified Stripology Instructor

My Grandmother taught me how to sew when I was a young child. I learned to quilt over 40 years ago by taking a Beginning Quilting Class. I started my journey hand quilting and piecing. As quilting and technology evolved, I continued to learn and grow. I took my first Freemotion Quilting class over 20 years ago (on a domestic machine) and moved to a longarm over 15 years ago. One of my quilt club members admired my quilting and became my first client. This led to the creation of Highview Quilts, my Custom Longarm and Edge-to-Edge Longarm Quilting business.

I was asked over 4 years ago by my local quilt shop to become a quilting instructor. I love sharing my experiences and helping others enjoy the magic of quilting! I admired the GE Stripology® Rulers and quilt patterns, so I followed the training to become a GE Designs Certified Instructor. I currently teach (or have taught) Beginner to Advanced Freemotion, Ruler Work, Longarm, Prostitcher, Stripology, and piecing classes.

 

Nancy Sapin

Franklin, NC
Sulky of America  

nancysapin.com

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Nancy Sapin is a Freelance National Educator representing Sulky of America.  Nancy has been working with Sulky for the past 19 years, both as a National Educator, designer, and a sample maker.  She has worked numerous consumer shows for Sulky, lecturing and teaching. Nancy also lectures and teaches workshops at various quilt and sewing guilds across the United States. You can find some of Nancy’s designs in the last 3 Sulky books and see some of her other works on her website, nancysapin.com.

 

Jim Suzio

Pittsburgh, PA
facebook
Jim Suzio is an award winning artist, designer, digitizer and sewing instructor (including embroidery software, heirloom, fashion and serger sewing). A self taught sewer, Jim was inspired to try the craft after watching a neighbor's enthusiasm in the art. A new sales position at a machine dealer found him literally "thrown" on stage at an ASG convention where he was discovered by Sue Hausmann, host of the PBS series "America Sews with Sue Hausmann." Jim soon found himself teaching all over the US, Canada and Australia for Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff Sewing Machine Companies. His work has been featured in numerous books and magazines and several ads for Husqvarna Viking and the launch of Ty Pennington's new fabric line. he has been seen on several television programs here ("America Sews with Sue Hausmann,"and "It's Sew Easy") and in Canada ("the Big Breakfast Show").

 

Joyce Teng

Houston, TX

teacherstamp.com

Joyce Teng is a quilter, mixed-media artist, and surface-design specialist known for her vibrant colorwork and creative fabric-art techniques. As the founder of TSC Designs, Joyce is celebrated for her mastery of Tsukineko inks, using them to blend, shade, and transform fabric with painterly depth and detail.

She teaches a wide range of surface-design methods—including painting, stenciling, foiling, and stamping—helping quilters add rich texture and personality to their projects. A popular instructor at quilt shows, guilds, and online workshops nationwide, Joyce is known for her clear instruction, playful style, and ability to make artistic techniques feel approachable to all.

Her work continues to inspire makers to experiment, explore, and bring more artistry into their quilting.

 

Jess VanDenburgh

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Hi I'm Jess! I was born and raised in upstate New York where I still live with my husband & 2 dogs. My grandma taught me at a young age how to sew and encouraged my creativity. I stumbled upon bag making in 2005 due to a major obsession with bags and a large fabric stash. I started making bags for friends and family at first and then selling them. From there my company, Sew Many Creations was born. Originally the company focused solely on making custom bags but slowly developed into a pattern company after many requests. In 2012 I expanded my pattern company to also include bag hardware, cork, fabric, kits, zippers and more. In 2020 I finally started my Youtube channel where I chat live every Friday about anything and everything bag making. I also upload tutorials, free patterns and educational videos. Teaching is my absolute favorite and if you watch any of the hundreds of YouTube videos I have on my channel, I think you'll agree!

 

Joe Vecchiarelli
Glendale, CA
French European Dress Forms

frencheuropeaninc.com

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Joe Vecchiarelli, founder and president of French European Inc., has worked in the fashion industry for over 40 years. During his college years, Joe worked in the family business, sharpening scissors for the industry's top designers. He later graduated from USC's business program and began to realize that opportunities in the apparel business were unlimited. Mr. Vecchiarelli's career took another fascinating turn when he made a foray into the entertainment business working in production with shows like Dancing with the Stars and The X Factor. A few years ago he was approached by NBC to help produce the competitive design talent show, Fashion Star. Presently Mr. Vecchiarelli is ever so busy maintaining his business and helping fashion students and enthusiasts grasp their dreams and become successful within the industry.