After learning to quilt, all other needle arts fell by the wayside for Barbara Arnold. Attending a local quilt show in 1986 opened new quilting doors. Barbara and her sisters still make visiting this show an annual event. Barbara began teaching quilting in 1996 and hasn’t stopped since. Honing her teaching skills in a variety of local, regional and national venues, Barbara completed her journey to become a National Quilting Association Certified Teacher in 2003. Certification has been both personally and professionally rewarding. Barbara was named the 2010 NQA Certified Teacher of the year. She served NQA as the Certified Teacher Coordinator from 2006 to 2008. Barbara is a member of her local quilt guild, and has served in many leadership roles since joining in 1995. Barbara and her husband, Rob, have three grown sons with families of their own.

Quilting found Andrea when she came to work at The Electric Quilt Company in 2001. Being asked to play with quilt design software and do geometry on her computer was a dream come true for this Applied Mathematics major from Bowling Green State University. After a few months at EQ, her talents as a virtual quilt designer were evident. She can draft blocks, even complex Feathered Stars and Compasses, in a few minutes. Frustrated by the fact that complex quilt blocks are actually hard to sew, Andrea recently released her own block library of over 500 Kaleidoscopes that are easily foundation-pieceable for the beginning quilter. Her kaleidoscope flower quilt "Congregation of Poppies" is in the April/May 2009 issue of Quilters Newsletter. Andrea’s patience and persistence with technical support, and attention to detail earned her the opportunity to write many of the EQ’s software user manuals and edit instructional books written by other authors. She wrote the books that come in the EQ6 and EQ7 boxes, including the instructional lessons in both software programs. She also frequently posts free lessons, software tips, and designs on EQ’s website: www. electricquilt.com. In addition to being EQ’s Webmaster for the last 9 years, Andrea is now the company’s Software Educator. Andrea has appeared on over 35 episodes of America Quilts Creatively, 28 episodes of Quilting Arts, and has also appeared on NowSewing. net, QNNtv.com, and Quilting with Shar. When Andrea isn’t busy designing quilts, she’s designing websites, travelling, or singing. You can view some of her work at www.andrealeebishop.com.

Susan has been creating image with fabric since 1983. Her experimentation has brought her to a fabric collage method that she has been sharing with others since 1994. Those classes have been taught throughout the United States and internationally. Susan is the author of two books, Free-Style Quilts and Serendipity Quilts, and has appeared on "TheQuiltshow.com" with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims. Susan is also a 2012 winner at AQS Des Moines and IQA Houston.

Mary Anne graduated from Brigham Young University majoring in Business Education with a minor in Business Management. After graduating, she was a stay at home mom for a few years and then worked in the mortgage industry for over 10 years. She is now excited about the opportunity she has to share her life-long sewing and quilting talents and experiences with others who have the desire to learn from her. Mary Ann teaches quilting classes in her home studio and at workshops in the New York tri-state region. She also strives to keep the love of sewing (and quilting) alive and well by teaching children’s sewing classes on a weekly basis.

Doug Creasy is a Certified Gammill Service Technician, and a Certified BabyLock Service Technician. He teaches a monthly maintenance class at "A Touch of Thread," a Longarm and Quilting business he coowns. Gammill’s maintenance manager laughingly remarked that if Doug calls Gammill for advice, they’d better assemble the whole team for the answer.

Connie has had a love affair with fabric for as long as she can remember. When Connie started quilting about twenty years ago at the insistence of her sister, she never thought she would be where she is today. Connie loves teaching new quilters the joy they can feel by making something with their own hands. As an NQA Certified Teacher, she feels she has a responsibility to give each student her attention and experience to help them succeed as future quilters. Connie is a Past President of the National Quilting Association, Inc.

Textiles have always fascinated Mickey, from vintage to current; her taste has always been ALL! Sewing in general, mending to garment making, was never a chore. But when she pushed herself beyond traditional quilt making, she found the road less traveled was greatly inviting. Her work mixes traditional quilting techniques with bold, innovative machine appliqué and threadwork. Fabric choices include her own hand dyed cottons with commercial cottons for a special spark of color and depth. Pieces are heavily machine quilted. The images are meant to spark thought and a smile, as humor is a great gift to share. Mickey’s first book is Garden Whimsy Applique. With the release of her new book Pieced Hexies...she feels she has come full circle. So while you may know her initially as an Art Quilter... She is also a Traditional Quilter.

Sandra made her first quilt in 1971 and fell in love with the process. She is a former dress shop owner and enjoys making and designing garments as well as quilts. She has been teaching and lecturing on quilting topics since 1989. Sandra became a National Quilting Association Certified Teacher in 1990 and Certified Judge in 1994 In 2006, Sandra was a member of the first judging team for The $100,000 Quilt Challenge and has judged over 110 Quilt Shows. Sandra is an award winning quilter in both hand and machine work. Her garments and quilts have won awards in many national events, and have traveled to trade shows all over the world. Sandra has been invited to design for the Fairfield Fashion Show, DMC Thread Company, and RJR Fashion Fabrics. Her work has been seen in Traditional Quilter, Threads, County Living, Patchwork.Quilt Senka (Japan), Quilting International, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, and Quiltmaker.

Cindy Erickson is a National Quilting Association Certified Quilt Judge She specializes in teaching rotary and sewing machine skills in all aspects of quiltmaking to all skill levels and teaches several wearable art classes. Cindy has co-authored books and a line of Block of the Month patterns with Jo Morton. She has been published in "Quiltmaker," "Fons and Porters" magazines and Leisure Arts publications. Cindy’s quilts have been shown in AQS, Houston, PIQS and NQA.

Gyleen was born in Philadelphia, PA but grew up in Taiwan and Japan. Those formative years in the Far East developed her love for simplistic artistry. She began needlework at a very young age of four. In 1981, Gyleen began to pursue artistic expression in drawing and quilt making. Her quilts blend colour, pattern and texture to provide a contemporary essence to traditional quilting. She shares her enthusiasm for quilting through interactive lectures and high energy workshops. Her written works center around Haiku poetry, quilt patterns and magazine articles; and of course the crème de la crème, children’s books. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and opened Colourful Stitches in 1999. Its first subsidiary, FPI Publishing, was launched in 2005 with the publication of her first two books, The Dream and Poetry & Patchwork. For Gyleen, quilting is the passion which colours her world.

Kathy Fleeher has been a hand-weaver and dyer for over 30 years and is the Assistant Curator at the Canton Museum of Art in Canton, Ohio. Kathy is a member of the Canton Weavers & Spinners Guild and the Handweavers Guild of America.

Becky was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and discovered quilting when her sons needed comforters for their bunk beds. She has not put her needle down since! Becky met Linda Jenkins, her partner in Piece O’ Cake Designs, at a meeting of the Green Country Quilters’ Guild in Tulsa not long after she started quilting. They have been friends ever since. They started Piece O’ Cake in 1994. Jointly, they are authors of many books and patterns, which can be found in book and e-book formats. Becky says she couldn’t have asked for a better partner According to Becky, making quilts is interesting, fulfilling, and challenging. Being an author, teacher, and running a web-based business is exhilarating. This is not what she thought she would be doing with her life when she graduated from college. This is so much better! Becky and her husband live in Sherman, TX. They have two grown sons with families of their own.

Teaching is Klaudeen’s greatest interest, and teaching is where you will find her when she isn’t judging, training future NQA judges, designing quilts, editing the Quilt Art Calendar series, chairing the AQS competitions or doing many other related activities. No wonder she has earned a place in Who’s Who in American Quilting!

Since January 2007, Kathie Kerler has been a contributing editor to American Quilter magazine, published by the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, Kentucky. She works with quilters on articles featuring patterns, techniques, and quilting-related topics. As a fiber artist, Kathie has completed rigorous courses in design and embroidery at the London City and Guilds College in London, England and at the Lesage School of Needlework in Paris, France. Kathy is also an NQA Certified Judge.

Rami Kim is a DNA scientist-turned fabric artist/quilter/instructor known nationally and internationally. She is a 2012 winner at IQA Houston and a seventeen-time Best of Show winner, distinguished for her innovative art-towear. Her passion is in contemporary art-to-wear, quilts, cloth dolls and bags with special interest in 3-dimensional textures and she is known for her own distinctive colors and techniques. Her first book, Folded Fabric Elegance, features her 3-D texturing techniques and new projects. Her second book, Quilted Elegance, focuses on reversible wearable arts, bags and two-sided quilts. The third book is due out in autumn 2012. She graduated from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) majoring in endocrinology and worked at the Cancer Research Institute at UCSF before her passion and talent in fabric art drastically changed her career years ago. Rami prefers to spend even more time with beautiful fabrics, threads and beads than with DNA sequencing gels and radioactive isotopes.

Joan Knight started making quilts in 1977 after marrying into a quilting family. Moving to Alabama from Louisiana provided the business opportunity to purchase a Gammill Statler, become an Area Sales Rep for Gammill, a BET A Tester for Creative Studio, and a Certified Trainer for Creative Studio version 4.0. Although a quilt teacher for nearly twenty years on various quilting techniques, she enjoys teaching Creative Studio the most. For the past two years she has been producing and selling training videos for Creative Studio through her website. Being a multiple ribbon winner at MQS and other national, regional, and local shows both with her own and customer quilts, has helped Joan become a better quilter. She has been honored by the Alabama Legislators with a quilt exhibited in the Alabama Artists Gallery with the First Lady of Alabama, Mrs. Robert Bentley and had an interview published in the Japanese Quilting Magazine ‘Patchwork Quilt tsushin’. Her website is www.quiltsandthings.info.

Jan is an internationally recognized quilt instructor, author and designer. Winner of the Professional Quilter 1998 Teacher of the Year Award, Jan’s motivating presentations and workshops are packed with practical tips, techniques, and methods to ensure success. Jan is the author of five books, a DVD, and is the designer of the fast2cut Fussy Cutter diamond tools and Quilter’s Design Mirrors.

Toby comes from a long line of sewers and has been interested in crafts from a very early age. Her mother was a seamstress and home economics teacher, and her father was a tailor. As she got older, she taught herself knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, needlepoint, crewel, English smocking, and even tatting! Each hobby lasted a few years, but she would eventually get bored. In 1985, she and her mother signed up for their first quilting class together. Toby was hooked on quilting and for the subsequent twenty years has never gotten bored with it. In 1995, she began teaching and designing. Her work has traveled with the Hoffman Challenge, and has won awards at the AQS Show in Paducah. She has designed for P&B Textiles, and taught locally and nationally, including the IQA Houston Festival. Toby has done commissioned work for P&B, Timeless Treasures, RJR Fabrics, Marcus Bros. Fabrics, CK Media (McCalls Quilting, Quilters Newsletter, McCalls Quick Quilts ), Harris Publications (Quilt, Quick Quilts), House of White Birches (Quilter’s World), All American Craft (The Quilter), Meredith Corp. (American Patchwork & Quilting), Chitra Publications (Miniature Quilts), and is also a virtual quilt designer for Hoffman Fabrics. Toby creates patterns which can be found at quilt shops and through her website. She and her husband have two grown children.

Quiltmaker, quilt teacher, lecturer, designer and NQA Certified Judge, Linda Luggen has spent over thirty years sharing her knowledge of quilts and quiltmaking. She designs many of her own appliqué patterns. Her quilts have won awards nationally and have been published in Lady’s Circle Patchwork Quilts and Great American Quilts. Her home and quilts were featured in Roman-tic Homes. Her article on judging was published in the NQA Quilting Quarterly and in the Vic Quilter (a Victoria, Australia quilt magazine).

RaNae began quilting in 1989, with a half-finished, king-sized quilt her grandmother had been making for her when she died in 1976. When she found a batch of nine-patch squares in a trunk that had belonged to that grandmother, she started making baby quilts for her nieces and nephews, incorporating Grandma’s blocks into each one. When people began praising her designs and suggesting that she quilt professionally, she brushed off the idea as impractical. RaNae found her calling as a professional quilter after previous careers as a pianist, a photographer and a travel writer. She holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in Piano Performance from University of Southern California and UCLA respectively. Several years later, she began to experiment with making some of her travel photographs into fabric designs. When she went to ask advice, the head designer at Blank Quilting bought one of the lines, and suggested that she attend Quilt Market, where she was astonished to discover that being a professional quilter could, indeed, be a rewarding career! Today RaNae designs quilts and patterns, writes quilting books and teaches workshops in the USA and abroad -- in both English and Spanish. Her unique "spiral" quilts have appeared in national shows and magazines, and her two books Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts and Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts have already become quilting classics.

Suzi Parron is a quilter, backwoods traveler, avid kayaker and folk art collector. She holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Florida, with a concentration in the literature of the American South. She was honored to be chosen by quilt trail founder Donna Sue Groves to tell the story of the quilt trail in her book and now enjoys sharing the story with quilting organizations across the country.

Gina began quilting as a new hobby while expecting her second child. She has always been drawn to art, and quickly discovered that quilting was indeed an art form. Gina began entering shows, finding that they pushed her to stretch her creativity, improve her techniques, and that deadlines served as motivators. She has won numerous prestigious awards across the country including IQA’s "Future of Quilting" top award in 2008. She has appeared and demonstrated her techniques on both "Linda’s Long Arm Quilting" and Ricky Tims’ & Alex Anderson’s "The Quilt Show." In 2007, Gammill invited her to be their National spokesperson and feature her in their advertisements. Gina’s creative passions extend beyond quilting and include photography, pastry art, wearable art, doll-making, hand-bag design, oil painting, and paper crafting. She loves to combine different art forms and finds that they easily translate and inspire. Now that her children are of school age, Gina has found time in her schedule to travel across the country teaching her techniques. She is a very positive and upbeat teacher whose goal is to motivate and help others gain confidence in their quilting.

Charlotte Routt grew up sewing her doll clothes and her school clothes, but has been an avid quilter-turned-teacher since taking her first Mystery Class at Creations SewClever in Chillicothe in 2007. She was such a natural quilter that when one of the other Mystery sleuths asked how long she had been quilting, she glanced at the clock and replied, "About 20 minutes." Since then there has been no looking back! Charlotte now works nearly full-time for Creations SewClever and is one of the most popular teachers at the shop! When Charlotte isn’t busy teaching, long-arm quilting or working at the shop, you can find her in the Creations SewClever booth at any of the major international quilt shows! Sign up for her Mystery Class and find out how much fun she is!

Pam Seip has been a sewer since high school and a quilter since 1990. She has taught classes and workshops for adult sewing and quilting; and in 2008, Pam became a Certified Teacher with the NQA. She purchased a longarm quilting machine in 2003 and finishes all her own quilts as well as those of others. Pam has had quilts exhibited at national shows around the country and is currently working on her first quilt instruction book. You can follow her sewing and quilting journey on her blog, "PamQuilts & More." She lives in Batavia, Ohio, with her husband of 39 years, Nelson.

Anita Shackelford has been a quiltmaker since 1967 and a teacher since 1980. She is an internationally recognized teacher, lecturer and Longarm quilter. Anita has been featured on several television programs, and her quilts have been published in numerous magazines and books. Her quilts have been exhibited in shows across the United States, Australia and Japan. She has won twelve Best Of Show awards, and many for workmanship. Anita is the author of several books and quilting tools marketed under her business name, Thimble Works. She is an NQA Certified Judge, qualified to judge Masterpiece quilts, and judges at the local, regional and national levels.

Shannon Shirley is an artist, teacher, speaker, author, and an award winning quilter. She holds an Associate’s degree from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Art in just about any form has always inspired her. In most areas of her life she has eclectic taste, and likes change and variety, so it seems only natural that her quilting is eclectic as well. She uses a wide variety of techniques and materials, whatever seems to suit the project at hand.  She designs original quilts, working from the stash she has collected over the years. Letting the projects evolve as she works, one common thread in her art would be mixing a large variety of printed fabrics.

An entrepreneur since 1973 when Quilt-In: Lessons* Supplies* Designs* by Helen Squire was incorporated, Helen has been an active participant in the growth of the quilt industry as a designer, lecturer, teacher, and television consultant. For the past ten years, she has written Helen’s Hints: Creative Quilting Designs for American Quilter Magazine, and is best known for her Dear Helen quilting books - her eighth in the series was recently published - Quilting UFOs with Helen’s Hints. Now retired from her position as vice-president of sales and marketing for the American Quilter’s Society, Helen continues to design, teach and lecture while still maintaining a home and studio in Paducah, Kentucky, Quilt City, USA.

Heather is a mixed media fiber artist who is an avid teacher and writer. She has recently finished her second book, Color & Design, The basics and beyond. She is currently free lancing for Quilting Arts Magazine and recording DVD’s for The Creative Crafts Group. Though Heather is no longer designing patterns for the quilting market she has begun publishing instructional books on CD. Look for her new and upcoming titles "Quilt & Color," "Doodle & Dance; Free Style Machine Quilting," and "Flowers& Flourishes; More Free Style Machine Quilting." Heather is a co-author of Fabric Embellishments, The basics and beyond.

Heather Tighe began quilting in 1970 when she enrolled in an adult education class. In June of 1995 Heather opened a full-service quilt shop which became recognized as a quality shop servicing local, visiting and online customers. Heather is an award winning quilter and taught at quilting retreats, guilds and quilt shops. She continues teaching both beginner and experienced quilters and presently offers machine quilting with her professional longarm quilting company. She enjoys teaching and sharing her knowledge with others and is very excited to earn the teaching certification from the National Quilting Association.

Lorraine holds a BFA in Art and an MFA in Sculpture but started making quilts in 1971. She has been teaching quilting since 1972 and now teaches on the national circuit as well as in other countries. Her love of clothing mixes with quilting skills, and results in wearable art that has been exhibited in three Fairfield Fashion Shows, three Bernina Fashion Shows and seven AQS Fashion Shows, where she has won numerous awards. She has judged the AQS Fashion Show and other wearable art shows several times. She owns three lines of garment patterns, has written 3 books, has contributed to others, and in 2001 designed her first line of fabric for Clothworks.