Original Sewing & Quilt Expo Teachers

futurefashiondesigners.com

Karen has 45 years of sewing experience that she loves to share in a patient, informal atmosphere.She continues to stay current in the quilting world, learning and teaching techniques and new tools. Karen is owner of Little Red Quilt House in Medina, Ohio and lives her dream of sharing quilting with others on a daily basis.

Barb Callahan
Oxford, CT
Barb Originals

barboriginals.com

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Barb designed and constructed one-of-a-kind garments using her label Barb Originals and sold them at art shows for almost 25 years, alongside her antique linens, buttons and trimmings. After years of hearing customer requests for patterns and instructions for these very wearable items, she decided to accommodate them. Today Barb travels the U.S. sharing her expertise in using vintage linens, buttons, hankies, trimmings and more to create stylish, flattering and easy-to-make clothing and accessories. She holds a bachelors degree in education and a masters degree in administration and counseling, and has also attended classes at FIT in New York. Her articles have appeared in Threads, Sew Beautiful and her company’s newsletter.

Shawnelle Cherry

Mooresville, NC

Future Fashion Designers

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Shawnelle is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles and the UCLA extension program, where she studied costume design for film. She worked in the Los Angeles garment industry early in her career and then opened her own design studio in Pacific Palisades, where she designed bridal gowns and evening gowns for the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and the Daytime Emmys. In the mid 90s she became a costume designer for feature films, and is a member of the Costume Designers Guild in Los Angeles and has costume designed over 30 films to date. Shawnelle now has a fashion design and sewing school, Future Fashion Designers, in historic downtown Mooresville, NC. She has classes from beginners to advanced and teaches kids to adults. On her YouTube channel "Sew Shawnelle", she upcycles garments into new outfits and shows creative sewing ideas. She also has online classes for aspiring fashion designers and fashion sewists, as well as sewing retreats for the fashion sewists: Camp Sew Social (because adults want to camp too)!

June Colburn
Largo, FL
June Colburn Designs II, Inc.

junecolburn.com
June's odyssey began in 1973 with itchy feet and a Master's degree in library science. While working for international schools, June's motto, "Have sewing machine, will travel" led her into adventures hunting for fabrics in souks, bazaars and temple sales from Quito to Paris, Istanbul to Singapore. Talking with the people who wove, dyed, embroidered, sewed and sold native textiles influenced her life. The exquisite kimono fabrics of Japan defined her creative direction. June's work has been featured in many exhibitions, collections and design shows. She shares her knowledge and love of Asian textiles through lectures and classes.

Nick Coman
Ridgway, CO

Dragonfly Creative
dragonflycreative.art
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Nick Coman has been teaching garment and quilt construction and design for almost 20 years. He has a degree in fashion design from FIDM in Los Angeles, and has written numerous articles for sewing publications and has a book on surface design. In addition to a private clientele, Nick is owns a retreat center in southwest Colorado that specializes in retreats for Fiber artists of all types.

Rae Cumbie
Baltimore, MD
Fit For Art Patterns

fitforartpatterns.com

Rae Cumbie is Creative Director at Fit for Art Patterns whose three core patterns yield one great wardrobe! Her coaching, blog posts, Threads articles and Sew News fitting column encourages stitchers to sew successfully: adding fun, comfortable, fabulously fitting, artful and creative additions to their wardrobe. Catch her blog, Sew! Let's Get Dressed for everything from basic sewing to artful inspiration.

Pam Damour
Champlain, NY
The Decorating Diva

pamdamour.com

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Known as the "Decorating Diva" Pam learned early in life, while spending time on her grandparents’ farm, that making something from "scratch" was not only a way of life, but it was the better way of doing things. Holding on to those values she went from farm to fabric and has had a very successful 30+ year career as an interior designer and sewing professional. Pam offers professional drapery workroom training. As a seasoned career speaker, she travels internationally teaching her specialty techniques that have brought her years of continued business as the "Couture of Home Dec Sewing". She is the author of Pillow Talk, Cheaper by the Dozen, Got Quilts?, The Tangled Home, Hold Everything and producer of 12 Home Dec DVDs. She has designed many patterns, rulers, scissors and other sewing related notions. An interior designer by profession and a quilter by passion, Pam lives on the shore of Lake Champlain in a log home, nestled at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, where she teaches sewing retreats. Her down to earth nature, never forgetting her roots, combined with her professionalism creates a warm and creative experience.

Eric Drexler
Port Charlotte, FL
Sulky of America

sulky.com

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Free-motion artistry has been Eric's other life-long passion ever since he was inspired by Joyce when, at age 10, she first taught him the technique. 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 during all the years of its existence, 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, Sew Exciting Seminars, Guild Programs and, more recently, on PBS shows.

Tammie Gerke

Cincinnati, OH

Gerke Enterprises LLC

tgquilting.com

Tammie started sewing at the age of 8 and have been hooked ever since. She has been teaching at the college level for 18 years. During all of this time she has continued to sew mainly garments but during the last 4 years she has been focusing on quilting, embroidery and starting a longarm quilting business. She teaches garment construction, embroidery and digitizing software classes, and quilting classes at stores in her area. In addition she has taught basic sewing demonstrations at her university for faculty, staff, students, and the general public. Tammie is never happier than when she is teaching others how to sew, taking an image she has for a garment and seeing it come to life, and exploring unique ways to use the longarm to make fabric or how to enhance a garment she is making with embroidery designs.

Michelle Gillombardo

Middleburg Heights, OH

Pins and Needles

pinsandneedles.com

Michele made her first quilt 30 years ago and that's when her fascination with fabrics, thread, and her imagination began. She learned the basics at an early age with her grandmother, but has come a long way through self-training along with Baby Lock, Kimberbell, and OESD certifications. She has been working for Pins and Needles for 5 years, teaching embroidery, quilting and serger classes. Michele also teaches all of the store's Kimberbell special events. Her approach is to teach within a relaxed, stress-free atmosphere. She enjoys sharing her knowledge, making sure everyone is comfortable and has the best time creating, whether a beginner or advanced student.

Lorraine Henry

San Diego, CA
Lorraine Henry for Conselle

conselle.com

Lorraine is a specialist in sewing, fitting and pattern alteration for Conselle Institute of Image Management. With a degree in Clothing and Textiles she has been a university instructor. Teaching pattern alteration and fit is her favorite thing to do. She has done this at international sewing shows for many years. Her Two Easy Measuring tape set has been an aid for achieving good fit for fashion sewers throughout the world. With 40+ years experience as a custom dressmaker/tailor/teacher, she has a wealth of knowledge to share with you about sewing and fit.

Lauren Jackson

Rockledge, FL

Bold Notion Quilting

boldnotionquilting.com

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Lauren is a Free Motion quilting instructor and Longarm quilter at Bold Notion Quilting.com; she is a military wife and mother of two, who found her love of quilting while learning to make memory quilts for her little ones. Not knowing there was a difference between piecing a top and quilting your quilt, she soon found out there was a whole new world to quilt making. Lauren began longarm quilting in 2014 and the rest was history! Over the course of the next few years she dove into the artful world of Free Motion quilting, realizing there was a real need for good content and direction, she taught herself and others, at local shops, how to be bold, jump in and tackle new designs. Her passion is to use the love and craft of quilting to create fun and innovative content; and to develop a supportive network for quilters to learn new techniques and reach their fullest potential. Her vision is to embolden quilters at every skill level through quality instruction and implementation of innovative techniques.

Marsha Kirsch

Bay Village, OH

The past 12 years Marsha has been a national educator for SVP worldwide. She is greatly loved for her enthusiasm and lively presentations while sharing masterful technical skills or the inspiration that sewers take away from her events. Using her education background she imparts an empowering "can do" attitude, opening up doors to creativity, and fun ways to embellish projects with exciting results. Student smiles at the end of her events are her reward. Marsha enjoys creating and designing garments, purses and home decor projects which incorporate a creative touch, especially through embellishment. She has had publications in Design in Machine Embroidery and Classic Sewing magazines and had appeared with Sue Hausmann on PBS and Behind the Seams, an internet sewing show through SVP.

Heather Kojan

Owings Mills, MD

Heather Kojan Quilts

heatherkojan.com

sew-happy-quilting.blogspot.com

Heather has been sewing since her teens and quilting for more than 25 years. She considers herself a modern quilter, with traditional roots. Heather is the founder of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild and loves speaking to different groups and sharing the modern aesthetic. Foremost a teacher, she teaches modern quilting classes in local shops, guilds and shows across the country. Heather was a contributing author to the book Classic Modern Quilts and a featured quilter in The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood. You can also find her work in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine and Modern Patchwork magazine.

Kaye Koler
Amherst, OH
Sew Happy Quilting

DebbyKratovilQuilts.blogspot.com

Kaye began sewing at age eight with the encouragement of her sister, making doll clothes and purses on her grandmother’s old Singer sewing machine. From there it was on to garments, enrolling every sewing class she could in junior high and high school to improve her grade average. (the A’s in sewing made the C’s and D’s look a little better to her mom!) She always loved everything fabric-y and crafty especially if was small! That lead her to teddy bears in miniature and then naturally to quilts in miniature when there was little room left for big quilts! She discovered foundation/paper-piecing was the way to go for precision and machine quilting for speed. She enjoys sharing her knowledge, is dedicated to positive and patient instruction to help develop new skills in each student ! Kaye has won awards for her miniature quilt “Home At Last” in Ireland, Houston, Paducah, NQA in Columbus, OH and at Indiana Heritage Quilt festival.

Debby Kratovil
Herndon, VA
Quilter By Design

Debby Kratovil has been "sewing for the camera" for 27 years. As an editor for Quilt Magazine (14 years) she designed and sewed hundreds of quilts and created almost 1,000 "how to" articles to make even the most difficult quilting techniques easy enough for a beginning quilter. She has published 3 books, 11 quilting calendars and hundreds of patterns. She sews and designs for several fabric companies and says she's never met a fabric she didn't like!

Cindy Lohbeck

Scottsdale, AZ
Hands On Hand Dyes

handsonhanddyes.com

Email: jillmccloy@gmail.com

Having worked in textiles and fabric dyeing for over 30 years, Cindy Lohbeck is truly a DYEHARD at heart! She started Hands On Hand Dyes in 2007, to share her love of textile arts through an extensive line of fabric dyeing kits. Believing in the right tools for the job, her helpful kits and classes are full of tools, tips and tricks, and have helped thousands of quilters and crafters share in the empowering experience of dyeing their own fabric. Humor, productivity and organization are key components to her fabric dyeing workshops, making them among the favorites at quilt shows, fabric shops, retreats and guild events, across the nation.

Cindy Losekamp
Cedar Grove, IN
Sew Artfully Yours

sewingart.com

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Cindy is a fun and enlightening teacher known for her incredible amount of samples and ingenious way of creating. She has been a guest on many TV shows and has traveled extensively...nationally as well as internationally, inspiring people to draw on their own creativity. She has been teaching for over 30 years and her students love her patient and understandable style. Cindy began her business Sew Artfully Yours, Inc. in 1998. In the sixteen years since, she has authored 100s of patterns, design disks and books, always designing new and interesting ways to push the limits of creating with fabric and thread. You will enjoy learning from this exciting and empowering sewing personality.

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
Colorado Springs, CO

Jill McCloy Designs

classicsewingmagazine.com
thesewingcollection.com

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.

Kathy McMakin
Birmingham, AL
Martha Pullen Company

Classic Sewing

Email: Mitchell.betty@yahoo.com

Kathy McMakin is one of America’s foremost authorities in the field of heirloom sewing by machine and by serger. She teaches beginning and advanced sewers from every corner of the world and inspires a new level of confidence in her students. Kathy is the Director of Education for Martha Pullen Company and produces sewing and serging events held all across the United States. As the team leader and instructor for the Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing Program for both face-to-face and online curriculums, she can be found designing, serging, sewing and writing instructions on almost every day of the week.

She has been a guest instructor at events for every major sewing machine manufacturer in the world. She has authored several smocking, sewing and serging books and has produced and appeared in numerous sewing and serging videos. Her guest appearances on sewing television shows are many. Kathy is going on 30+ years with Martha Pullen Company and lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband. They have two grown children and three absolutely precious grandchildren.

RaNae Merrill

New York, NY

RaNae Merrill Quilt Design

LiveOnlineQuiltClass.com

ranaemerrillquilts.com

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RaNae Merrill is an award-winning quilter, author and teacher. She is known for the unique spiral quilt technique in her books Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts and Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts. Her newest book, Free-Motion Mastery in a Month applies her skills as a concert pianist to the process of learning free-motion quilting. RaNae found her calling as a professional quilter after previous careers as a pianist, a photographer and a travel writer. When she's not quilting and writing, you can find her outdoors hiking, kayaking and skiing, or at home in New York City playing the piano and cooking.

Betty Mitchell
Union, KY

Betty Mitchell began her love affair with the sewing machine at the age of eight and it has grown ever since. She spent 30 years in Rhode Island teaching Family and Consumer Sciences and ‘retired’ to work for sewing machine dealers in southwest Florida for eight years. During that time she not only sold machines and taught classes, she also spent three years as a store manager for one of the largest dealers in the country. At the same time she began teaching at national dealer conventions, various sewing and quilting shows as well as local and regional sewing guilds. Seven years ago she re-retired to her Grandchildren in Kentucky. She still teaches at a couple of local stores and has launched a line of patterns. Originally a garment sewer, she now concentrates more on Home Décor, embroidery, accessories and sergers. Her classes are meant to be informative and relaxing. Betty says, “In the end it’s just a bunch of thread and fiber to have fun with! If there’s a sewing tool or fabric that I haven’t met it’s not because I haven’t tried. I firmly believe that I’ll never have enough fabric and I certainly deserve the best tools.”

Marty Moon

Culpeper, VA
Early Times Workshop

earlytimesworkshop.com
Owner of Early Times Workshop, Marty enjoys quilting and doing other types of needlework. Trained by hand in very traditional quiltmaking, Marty prides herself on the technical aspects of her quilts and is passionate about passing those skills on to others. Always seeking a challenge or competition to whet her appetite, Marty grounds her ‘art’ quilts in her traditional background. You can find one of Marty’s quilts in Quilting with Manhole Covers by Shirley MacGregor.

Barbara Moore
Senatobia, MS
SVP Sewing Ambassador
Barbara Moore has over 20 years experience teaching and selling Husqvarna Viking products, including time spent as a Husqvarna Viking dealer. She teaches classes and workshops in Sew What's New, Home Dec, Heirloom Sewing and Machine and Serger training. Barbara lives in North Mississippi and teaches locally as well as nationally.

Laura Murray

Minneapolis MN
Laura Murray Designs

lauramurraydesigns.com

Artist, entrepreneur, teacher, and author, Laura began her experimentation with textile color and texture in 1989. Her work appears in books, magazines, quilt calendars and galleries, and includes award-winning quilts at the International Quilt Festival, and American Society of Quilters shows. Laura's passionate response to surface design resulted in designing her favorite images in a stencil collection, soon followed by a series of stamps, She has taught thousands of students how to use paintstiks on fabric, and authored books describing her special techniques using stamps, paintstiks, and fusible web to easily create seemingly complex designs without sewing. Laura Murray Designs specializes in techniques and products for quilt and garment artistry, including handcrafted silks and buttons. She and her husband Jim, travel across the U.S. to vend at large quilt and sewing shows.

Connie Palmer
Graniteville, SC

YouTube
What began as a simple interest in sewing 25 years ago has blossomed into an exciting adventure that Connie loves to share with her students. Her gifts for elegant design, fabulous color sense and exquisite craftsmanship has made her a highly sought-after teacher in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. Connie is on the faculty of the Martha Pullen Licensing Program where she not only teaches but creates a great number of projects included each of those courses.

She has traveled and taught for Martha Pullen events and returns year after year as one of the favorite teachers at the School of Art Fashion. Her showcase of skills can often be seen on PBS television in Martha’s Sewing Room, America Sews with Sue Hausmann and Quilting with Shar. She has the privilege of having garment designs on the covers of five Martha Pullen books: Lovely Lingerie; Elegant Sewing for Baby; Contemporary Heirlooms for the Older Girl; Six Easy Patterns and Fabulous Fashions. Connie has authored numerous sewing videos on notions, garment construction, heirloom sewing, quilting and more.

Lyn Powers

Maitland, FL

The Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore

sewing.net

Lyn Powers is a machine specialist at The Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore.

Kathy Ruddy
Mukilteo, WA
kathyruddy.com

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Kathy is an international sewing celebrity, educator, pattern designer, Serger and fitting expert. Active in the sewing industry since 1962, she is the star of 10 Serger and sewing videos and author of 12 Serger and sewing booklets and her new enhanced books on CD called Three ways to Learn CD'S. You can look at pictures of her projects from start to finish, read the words next to the pictures as you listen to Kathy impart her wisdom and experiences as she develops her projects. If you like a hard copy you can print off as many pages from the CD as you like. Her specialty is to show how to sew and serge fast and easy without sacrificing quality, fit or fashion details. Her fresh, fun classes are brimming with surprises and ideas.

Nancy Sapin

Franklin, NC
Sulky of America

nancysapin.com

Nancy Sapin is a Freelance National Educator representing Sulky of America. Nancy has been working with Sulky for the past 15 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 three latest Sulky books and see some of her other works on her website.

Pat Sauer

Maitland, FL
The Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore

sewing.net

Pat Sauer is the owner of The Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore. She was hired at this wonderful store in 1984 and purchased the business in 2000. She loves all things embroidery and it is her passion to share her knowledge with her students.

Cheryl Sleboda

Plainfield, IL

Muppin Inc

Sew Much Cosplay

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Texture. Textiles. Technology. Teacher. These things sum up award winning fiber artist Cheryl Sleboda, whose work encompasses both heirloom sewing techniques and eTextile technologies. Cheryl spent 20 years in the comic book industry but now pursues cosplay, fiber art, and teaching full time. She’s the author of the Heirloom Sewing Techniques for Today’s Quilter DVD and has appeared numerous times on Quilting Arts TV and It’s Sew Easy TV.

Connie Spurlock
Coeur d’Alene, ID
Sew Wonderful Dreams

sewwonderfuldreams.com

Connie Spurlock used ber background in education to develop Sew Wonderful Dreams, a pattern design company in 1989. The company originally focused on craft patterns, while today the emphasis is on quilting and education. About her company, she says:" We believe the best marketing tool we have is to educate. Everyone can learn but the way we learn is variable. Our classes are designed to help you learn in away that will be most beneficial to you."

Jim Suzio
Pittsburgh, PA

jimsuzio.com

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
TSC Designs

teacherstamp.com
During her career in pharmacy, Joyce dreamed of being an artist. Since retirement, she has created an outlet through which she can share her enthusiasm and passion. Her company designs its own line of fun and sophisticated stencils and carries a wide range of innovative products that quilters and sewers can use to customize their fabrics. Joyce also distributes Tsukineko inks and has developed many easy-to-master techniques that have helped thousands of creative minds "color" their world! Not only does she love teaching students in her hands-on workshops , Joyce's pharmaceutical knowledge gives her an edge in her development of new products for the creative fiber artist. She is also busy creating instructional workbooks and developing her DVD series.

Joe Vecchiarelli
Glendale, CA
French European Dress Forms

frencheuropeaninc.com