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About the Faculty - *Minnesota Faculty

Carolyn Abbott – www.flyingcolorsfabric.com

Carolyn is an Applied Art Education graduate of Iowa State University. She has been teaching sewing and quilting classes for at least 20 years. She is the owner of Flying Colors Fabric and Design, a traveling quilt shop. She hand-dyes fabric and designs and sews quilts and wearable art.

Kathie Alyce – www.waterfallquilts.com

A contemporary quilt maker, Kathie has been working with fabric for as long as she can remember. She has learned all the traditional crafts and sewing arts along with painting and drawing in charcoals and pastels and has discovered herself in fabric. She has won awards for workmanship and many quilt commissions.

Charlotte Angotti - www.charlotteangotti.com

More of a storyteller than a quilter, this Alabama native owned QuiltWorks in Virginia Beach, VA from 1981 – 1999. Charlotte can make you laugh while spinning a tale. A traveling teacher since 1991, her quilts are simple designs full of color and adventure -- just like her stories.

Bobbie Aug – www.bobbieaug.com

Living in Colorado, Bobbie is a nationally known teacher and lecturer. Her many articles, and books combined with TV and quilt show appearances make her well known to the quilting community. Bobbie is also a certified Quilt Appraiser.

Joel Bergquist – www.quilterstreasure.com

New Hampshire’s Joel entered the quilting world because his wife wanted to make a stained glass quilt, but could not find any fabric that suited her design. He found a way to apply paper marbling techniques to fabric. He started Quilters Treasure in 2002 and now, in addition to his one of a kind pieces, offers his own line of commercially printed fabric.

*Debbie Bowles – www.mapleislandquilts.com

Through her pattern company, Maple Island Quilts and her books, Cutting Curves From Straight Pieces, Dancing Quilts From Straight Pieces, and Quilts For The Dorm, Debbie offers achievable, slightly non-traditional projects with enormous design possibilities for all skill levels. She calls her style “controlled inventive” and invites you to make her designs into your own project with your own look.

Bonnie Browning – bonniebrowning.tripod.com

Quilting is definitely a lifestyle for Bonnie. A quilter since the late ‘70s, Bonnie is the author of nine quilting books, teaches across the United States and around the world, is a certified quilt judge and is the Executive Show Director for the American Quilter’s Society. She says “What could be better than working with quilters?”

Eleanor Burns – www.quiltinaday.com

Eleanor Burns gave quiltmakers techniques that compacted months into merely a day, a Quilt in a Day, spreading her vibrant enthusiasm to everyone. She motivated thousands of want-to-be quilters with needed-confidence and assurance. Her efforts sowed the seeds that have grown into many techniques that are commonly used today.

*Susan Cleveland – www.piecesbewithyou.com

Susan’s enthusiasm is contagious. Her students appreciate the well-written instructions and individual attention typical of Susan’s workshops. Her quilts have received awards at many prestigious shows since 1999 including two Best of Show-Wall Quilt from MQ. Her style is unique as she incorporates precision piecing, thread work, prairie points, beads, and piping into her work.

Sally Collins – www.sallycollins.org

An award-winning quiltmaker, teacher and author. Sally has been quilting since 1978 and teaching since 1985. Her quilts range in size from small to wall size and, although she is most recognized for her quality workmanship, attention to detail, and teaching expertise, her continual love and interest is in the process of quiltmaking, the journey.

Carolyn Dahl – www.carolyndahlstudio.com

While Carolyn is a native Minnesotan and grew up in North Branch, she now lives in the Houston area. She loves to paint and dye fabric for art quilts. Carolyn has appeared on TV and written two books. Her work has been included in magazines, books, galleries and art centers around the world.

*Linda Hohag – www.brandywine-design.com

Quilting led artist/designer Linda Hohag to establish her own pattern company. Linda has published over 60 patterns and fifteen books of her original quilt designs and illustrations. She has illustrated children’s books, designed for American Greetings and exhibited paintings in galleries and shows.

*Sharon Hultgren

Sharon started as owner of a fabric shop that soon became a quilt shop. She has had fun designing tools, books and patterns since 1989. The Easy Angle has taken her around the world!

Rita Hutchens – www.ritahutchens.com

In Rita’s life and creativeness there is a desire to be distinctive. With that desire comes the willingness to take risks and with that willingness comes the ability to accept mistakes. Drawn to the graphic and visual possibilities of pieced fabric during the making of her first quilt in 1981, with little exposure to contemporary or traditional quilt making, Rita had no pre-conceived ideas regarding the right or wrong of how to make quilts.

*Shar Jorgensen – www.qheartland.com

A veteran quilter of 24 years, Shar is a familiar face to thousands of TV viewers. Her PBS series, Quilting with Shar, brings innovative techniques to quilt makers of all skill levels. In addition to PBS, Shar is the author of 12 books. She has developed over 40 template patterns and a full line of quilting stencils. She exhibits and teaches at over 20 quilting events annually.

Nancy Kazlauckas – www.threadcalligraphy.com

Watching her dad letter as a young girl and becoming a professional sewer while still in high school gave Nancy the inspiration to combine her two loves: calligraphy and sewing. Quilting and the creation of the Thread Calligraphy technique is a natural extension of her education, experiences and love of fibers and art.

JoAn Knight – www.quiltsandthings.info

South Louisiana native, JoAn is president-elect of the Gulf States Quilting Association and has been a circuit teacher for the guild for four years. Her nurturing spirit and guiding hand make her classes a joy.

*Gwen Lundgren

Gwen is a self-published author of numerous patterns that sell nationwide. She has been teaching quilting classes for 19 years. She especially enjoys designing new quilts by combining and simplifying traditional blocks. Many of them start as mystery quilts. In 1978, Gwen took a beginning quilting class so she could use up her sewing scraps. Of course, all new fabric was purchased for the class … the shopping has never stopped and the scraps multiply!

*Karen McTavish – www.designerquilts.com

Longarm machine quilting allows Karen to combine her two passions: Wholecloth and Trapunto. Karen specializes in crafting award-winning quilts using techniques which allow machine quilters to replicate traditional “hand-quilted” effects. She has been featured on PBS’s Quilt Central and HGTV’s Simply Quilts. She has been a full-time professional longarm quilter since 1997 and has authored 3 books on longarm machine quilting.

Judith Baker Montano – www.judithbakermontano.com

Fibre artist Judith grew up in the foothills of Alberta, Canada. She attributes the rich, embellished and ethnic influence in her work to living next door to an Indian Reservation and a Hutterite Colony where she observed beautiful handicrafts. Her wide-ranging interests have influenced her revival of antique embellishment techniques.

*Susan Nelson – www.prairieskyquilting.com

Susan has loved sewing for most of her life. She earned a degree in Textiles & Clothing from the University of Minnesota and became an enthusiastic quilter when parenthood made baby quilts a necessity. Susan’s pursuit of excellence in quilting has earned her national awards, with her quilts being displayed in Paducah and Houston. She has developed a clever quilt-as-you-go technique called “Fun&Done! Quilting” and publishes her patterns through Prairie Sky Quilting.

Velda Newman – www.veldanewman.com

Velda is a contemporary fiber artist from Nevada City, CA. Her large scale designs, portraying subjects from nature, have been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Her primary source of inspiration is the natural world and her exquisitely crafted quilts reflect the detail and design she finds there.

Annette Ornelas – www.southwindquilts.com

Annette has experimented with sculpture, painting and glass, but fiber and fabric are her favorite media. Landscapes and other pictorial images are a longtime favorite. Her current works incorporate a large variety of cotton fabrics, are heavily quilted and stuffed with cotton fiber to create raised surfaces. She also uses a wide variety of threads and yarns which are used for quilting, couching or embroidering the quilt top.

Linda M. Poole – www.lindampoole.com

Encouraged as a child to express herself artistically, Linda has always felt privileged to have been the first generation American in a family of artisans. She has traveled the world teaching and sharing her experiences. With three books, many magazine articles and founder of the Fairie Goddess Mother group, she is continuing her family traditions.

*Beth Probasco

Daughter of an excellent needle woman, Beth began hand sewing at the age of 6. When she was able to hand sew to Mother’s expectations, Beth graduated to the sewing machine. By age 13, she was sewing all of her own clothes. In 1968, her mother-in-law introduced her to quilting and she has been quilting ever since.

*Shelly Stokes – www.cedarcanyontextiles.com

Shelly began quilting in 1995 after leaving the corporate world. She is an artist, lecturer, teacher, author and quilter who simply loves to play with fabric! As a teacher, her goal is to “infect” her students with a passion for transforming and creating their own special fabrics. She does this by using both traditional and unexpected techniques and materials. Her first book, Paintstiks on Fabric: Simple Techniques, Fantastic Results, was released in May 2005.

*Cindy Thury Smith – www.quiltsbycts.com

Cindy began making quilts over 40 years ago and started teaching while in college in the pre-rotary cutter day. Because she loves novelty fabrics and just can’t throw out any little scrap, she was attracted to scrap quilts and crazy quilts. Lately, she has been making quilts using hand-dyed, embellished fulled wool.

Barb Vlack – www.electricquilt.com

Internationally known for her Electric Quilt expertise, Barb has been working with the software for nearly twelve years. She has written three books to share tips and tricks for using the programs. All of the quilts she makes are designed in EQ.

*Cathy Wierzbicki – www.timetoquilt.com

Cathy’s interest in quilt making grew with time. “I didn’t set out to be known as a quilter, and I certainly never expected to be writing books about quilting.” Nevertheless, Cathy has 3 books to her credit and is currently working on several new projects. She has operated a quilt pattern company for the past 6 years and developed the All-In-One ruler.