Hiatt, Michelle Renee

Michelle Renee is an award-winning quilter, designer, and national instructor who has been sewing since before she can remember. She fell in love with quilting over 20 years ago.

As a certified Professional Process Expert (LSSMBB), Michelle seamlessly blends her love of quilting with process improvement techniques, teaching others how to simplify their piecing while improving the quality of their quiltmaking.

Michelle Renee is the designer for her own pattern line, Sew On The Go, and her designs have appeared in several international quilting magazines. Additionally, she is a Certified Instructor for Studio 180 Design and many of her patterns have been published in their Modern 180 pattern line. Michelle Renee organizes fabulous online mystery series which she runs twice a year. She is known for her humor, enthusiasm, and encouragement! Find out more at Sewonthego.net.

Horne, Jaymi

Jaymi Horne has been sewing professionally for over 20 years. She began quilting as a creative outlet and fell in love with Foundation Paper Piecing. Dubbed the “FPP Queen” by her Instagram followers, she offers simplified techniques to help beginning and advanced quilters alike. Jaymi is a Legit Kits ambassador, has been published in Make Modern Magazine, and featured in local art shows. Her quilts and patterns can be found at crankykangaroo.com.

Hughes, Joyce

Joyce, an award-winning and self-taught quilter, fiber artist, and author, began her quilting journey with a t-shirt quilt. Although she enjoyed the process of making it, Joyce felt limited in her ability to express her artistic capabilities. Undeterred, she delved into designing pictorial landscape quilts within months, using raw-edge appliqué, thread painting, and a variety of embellishments.

Unaware of the conventional “rules,” Joyce fearlessly broke them, with exciting results! Her first art quilt entry, MOTHER’S DAY, at a national show earned her a blue ribbon, the first of many awards, recognitions, and opportunities in the quilting world.

Joyce was named “McCall’s Quilt Designer 2012 – Professional Category” for McCall’s Quilting magazine and is an endorser and sample maker for Northcott and Timeless Treasures fabrics, as well as an Ambassador for Mettler Threads and Brother Sewing.

Currently, Joyce’s second book, Thread Paint A Garden Quilt (released October 2020), focuses on raw-edge appliqué and thread painting to add shading, highlighting, and definition. Her first book, Creating Art Quilts with Panels, focuses on working with fabric panels to create dimension and texture with threads and embellishments, creating a style of her own!

Joyce loves to teach and share her tips. One of her greatest accomplishments is when a student creates their own artwork following her technique of Dimensional Thread Painting! See more at joycehughesoriginals.com.

Kirk, Judi

Judi Kirk lives in Canterbury, England — a World Heritage site roughly 70 miles from London — along with her almost-perfect husband. She began patchwork quilting over 25 years ago and it became a lifelong passion. She particularly enjoys the bold designs of modern quilts and she is a member of both the Modern section of the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles and the US-based Modern Quilt Guild. Judi is also a Certified Quilt Judge, taking part in judging Best of Show at the Festival of Quilts for the past four years. Learn more at her website, judikirk.com.

Lohbeck, Cindy

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. See more at dyehardsstudio.com.

Manke, Sally

Fiber art was Sally Manke’s passion long before it was called fiber art. Retired from teaching home economics and art at the high school level for 25 years, she designs original art quilts and patterns with a wide variety of techniques using artistic expression and precise technical quilting skills.

As a national-award-winning quilter, Sally teaches at quilt shops, guilds, and art centers in addition to maintaining a website and blog. Although she enjoys crafting traditional quilts, Sally’s perfect day is one spent in her home studio with fabric spread far and wide, creating fiber art. These quilts have led to a line of art quilt patterns available in her online store. From her home in Arcadia, Michigan, Sally visits coastlines, trails, and farmlands during all four seasons for inspiration to create her fiber art quilts. Learn more at sallymanke.com and see her patterns at etsy.com/shop/sallymanke.

Maxwell, Sarah

Sarah is a designer for Andover Fabrics and Aurifil Thread with an impressive portfolio of over 150 original designs spanning two decades. Her quilts have been juried into QuiltCon and various AQS shows.

As an author and pattern designer, Sarah’s focus is on helping quilters develop confidence in using color and fabrics in quilts. Her workshops focus on successful and accurate piecing, including more challenging shapes like Y-seams or acute angles.

Sarah’s patterns often showcase both rotary cutting and hand piecing methods. Sarah also loves to share her love of hand work with students, including hand quilting and back baste appliqué. Recently, her interests have focused on adding yarns and crocheted accents to quilted pieces. See more at designsbysarahj.com.

Miller, Lori

Lori is a quilter, pattern designer, educator, and EQ8 superfan from Oxford, MI. She enjoys designing quilts with her favorite tool, the Electric Quilt 8 quilt-design software. Lori loves to teach EQ8 and is the author of EQ8 Lessons with Lori on the doyoueq.com blog. As an AccuQuilt GO! Getter, she shares tutorials and patterns on the AccuQuilt blog. Lori is the creator of the add-on EQ8 Block Libraries that work with AccuQuilt dies. Lori’s original designs have been featured in American Quilter, American Patchwork and Quilting, Fons and Porter Love of Quilting, and many other quilt publications. For more information visit lorimillerdesigns.com.

Seitz-Krug, Cindy

Cindy has been quilting for more than 25 years. She is best known for her international award-winning heirloom machine quilting accomplished on a domestic sewing machine. She is an iquilt instructor and has several online domestic machine quilting classes. She has also authored a book and several magazine articles on machine quilting. Cindy has taught domestic machine quilting classes all over the country as well as in China! She feels great pride when her students tell her that after taking her classes, they have the confidence and ability to now quilt their own quilts!

Silvers, Tammy

Tammy has been teaching quilting since 2000 and designs under the label Tamarinis. With an affection for almost every fabric, her favorites – those that make her heart skip and beat and her budget quiver - are batiks, bold prints, and almost any fabric with words on it. Tammy also designs fabrics for Island Batik, a perfect fit - since she LOVES batiks!

While the allure of design is undeniable, it's the magic of teaching and sharing her quilting passion that truly fuels Tammy's creative spirit. She truly enjoys visiting different guilds, meeting quilters, and seeing the creativity that makes the community of quilters so special. See more at tamarinis.com.

Thomas, Sarah

Sarah discovered the world of quilting by chance after becoming a military wife. Always on the move, she left her career as a corporate pilot and dove head first into creating keepsake quilts for her fellow military families. Always a fan of algebra and geometry and with a keen eye for color & design, she expanded her talents to include pattern writing and surface pattern design with Moda Fabrics. Sarah is also a designer for Aurifil and has her own line of quilting rulers, tailor's clappers, and sewing notions. Catch up with Sarah online at sariditty.com.

Tucker, Marge

Marge is an international award-winning quilt artist and quilting instructor who began with traditional pieced quilts and now focuses on abstract improvisational design in her work. She loves teaching and features improvisational piecing techniques in her workshops. Marge fosters a relaxed and creative environment in her classes allowing students to explore and experiment. For more information visit www.margetuckerquilts.com.

Vierra, Kris

Kris has been sewing and quilting for over 20 years. She loves sharing her passion for quilting and all things related to fabric, believing that quilting should be fun and not stressful. Kris teaches at national shows and guilds across the country, and has won numerous national awards for her machine quilting skills over the years. Most recently, Kris was awarded “Best Movable” at AQS QuiltWeek in Paducah 2018, as well as at AQS Phoenix and Des Moines in 2016. She also won the PFAFF Master Award for Machine Artistry at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2015. Two of her quilts, TIGER, TIGER and STAR OF INDIA, are part of the permanent collection at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. She loves traveling and leads quilt tours all over the world. Kris believes that no matter what language you speak, fabric is universal. Check out her Stress Free Quilting™ Series for tons of quilting tips and tricks. Quilterontherun.com.