OUR TEACHING STAFF
 

MELINDA BULA
     Melinda has been in love with fabric all of her life and knew when she was 16 years old that she was going to be an artist.  She worked as a flight attendant for 8 years, in the interior design field for 15 years and with her husband started a wallpaper and fabric design business.  But quilting and wearable arts have always been her first love.  Her sense of color and design has won her numerous awards.  She has developed a line of patterns and authored "Cutting Garden Quilts".  She uses fabric and thread to create beautifully artistic quilts.  She lives in El Dorado Hills, CA with her husband, Joe.  Son, Matt is in college at Chico State.
 

GRACE ERREA
   Fiber Artist, Grace Errea, focuses on the depiction of inspiring scenes in a “value based” contemporary-realistic manner.  Grace is a self-taught artist and her work illustrates and has been recognized for exceptional primary use of values and secondary use of color.  Her focus on value makes it easy for her and her students to create inspiring botanicals, landscape scenes and portraits.  Grace has taught internationally, and her quilts have been juried and won major awards in many national and international venues.  Grace currently resides and quilts in Southern California. She and her husband have two daughters, Julie and Lauren, and two cats, Thelma and Louise.  You can find more about Grace and her work on her website:   http://www.amazingquiltsbygrace.com

 
 

WENDY GILBERT
    Wendy is a talented and prolific quiltmaker who loves to create quilts using quick rotary cutting, strip piecing and the latest quilting techniques available.  Wendy brings thirty-one years of enthusiasm to her quilt teaching.  Wendy has written five books which have all been published worldwide by Quilt in a Day in San Diego, CA where she was the educational director for seven years.  After moving to Wisconsin, Wendy continued teaching and lecturing and also started her own pattern business, Morning Star Designs.  Presently, she lives in Goodyear, AZ.
 

HARRIET HARGRAVE
Harriet is the "fairy godmother" of machine quilting. When she first introduced free motion quilting in 1984 at HoustonQuilt Market, it set the quilting world on it's ear, and has been changing the look of quilting ever since. Her first book, Heirloom Machine Quilting, is in its fourth edition with over 280,000 copies sold. In her books and in her classes, Harriet teaches her unique methods of machine quilting and appliqué that let quilters make extraordinary heirlooms with the easiest possible techniques.
 

CAROLL JONES    
     Caroll has had a love of fabric since her Mother made clothes for her during the Great Depression. Art was her major in college and she spent her career years as a cartographer, engineering technician and graphic designer. After retirement she began a new career in stained glass. Her pieces have been sold all over the world. Finally she had the time to devote to creating wearable art and quilts. She has displayed quilts and wearable art in both Alaska and Arizona and has sold many of her wearable creations. She began teaching Sashiko in 1995 and has had classes in Alaska as well as Arizona. Although she and her husband had lived in Alaska for many years they finally decided to trade the cold winters for a more gentle climate in Arizona. They reside with their dog in southeast Arizona in the Chihuahuan desert.
 

LIBBY LEHMAN   
Libby Lehman began making quilts 35 years ago when her mother, Catherine Anthony, signed them up for a basic class. Over the years she has evolved from a traditional handworker to one of the leaders in innovative machine stitching. Her studio art quilts have won many awards and appear in private, corporate, and museum collections, including The Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, VISA International, Fairfield Processing Corporation and Cogen Technologies. She is the author of Threadplay with Libby Lehman and her quilts have appeared in many books and international publications. Her quilt Joy Ride was chosen as one of the Best 100 American Quilts of the 20 th Century. In 2004 Bernina awarded Libby their prestigious Quilt Leadership Award. In addition to making quilts, most of her time is spent teaching, judging & lecturing in the US as well as internationally ( Canada , Japan , Australia , the UK , Germany , Spain , New Zealand , and Switzerland ). Libby lives in Houston , Texas , her native city, with her husband, Lester.

 

LINDA MATTEOTTI
     Linda Matteotti is a teacher at heart and has been a quilting and needle arts instructor for many years. She currently teaches quilting at the Community College level and also works with the Handi Quilter Company as an educator.  She has also been teaching Microsoft Office and desktop publishing classes at the community college since 1989.  In the past few years, her love of quilting and expertise in computer software have come together to make her a knowledgeable EQ (Electric Quilt) user and instructor. Her unique approach to using and teaching EQ gives students confidence in using the software.  Users also appreciate her patience, practicality and humor which infuse progress. Her association with the Handi Quilter Company has expanded her quilting and teaching to include long arm instructions in basics, free motion quilting, specialty quilting and computerized quilting.
 

SUZANNE MARSHALL
     Suzanne won first prize in the first competition she entered in 1988 and has been winning prizes every since for her applique quilts.  Her Toujours Nouveau was selected one of the 20th Century's 100 Best American Quilts and is in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.  She was selected to be included in the “Thirty Distinguished Quiltmakers of the World” exhibit in Tokyo, Japan in the winter of 2003.  She travels around the country teaching and lecturing.  She has been a guest on Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson's Quilt Show to demonstrate her original applique, bias-making techniques and hand quilting without a frame or hoop.  Her work is photographed in glorious color in AQS books "Take Away Applique" and "Adventure & Applique" with step-by-step directions.  Suzanne travels the world from Australia to Madagascar and finds inspiration for more quilts everywhere she goes.  As a self-taught quilter she has developed her own techniques for everything involved in the making of a quilt and can teach you how to become a prize winner too!
 

SHARON SCHAMBER
     Sharon has a long history in textiles. She was designer and the master pattern maker for Deja Vu/Time & Eternity Fashions in Scottsdale, Arizona for over 20 years. After retiring from that business in 1994, she has devoted her energies to designing and making beautiful award winning quilts. Sharon was named the winner of Best of Show award at the 2005 Houston International Quilt Festival with her magnificent quilt "Scarlet Serenade".  Her "Sedona Rose" quilt won Best of Show at the 2006 AQS Show in Paducah and her "Flower of Life" won Best of Show in 2007. Sharon is the first to win the top award two years in a row!  Her "Spirit of Mother Earth" was chosen to receive Gammill's longarm machine quilting award and Viewer's Choice at the AQS 2008 Show and Best of Show award at the 2008 Houston International Quilt Festival.  Sharon has recently been awarded the title of Master Quilter from the National Quilting Association. 

 

CINDY TAYLOR OATES
For the past 25 years, Cindy has delighted novice and experienced sewers alike with her patterns for retro styled aprons, pajamas, jackets, bags, and more through her publishing business Taylor Made Designs. Her fashion knowledge comes from years of experience as a clothing designer in the garment industry.  She is also a frequent contributor to the magazines American Patchwork and Quilting and Quilts & More.
 
 

JEAN WELLS
      Jean Wells is an author/educator/designer, proprietress of The Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon, and founder of the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. She also is an avid gardener. Jean has written more than 28 books about quilting, from Patchworthy Apparel in 1978, to her latest, Intuitive Color and Design for Quilters. As owner of The Stitchin’ Post, which she opened in 1975, Jean has received the Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year award in Sisters, and was the first independent retailer to be inducted into Primedia Independent Retailer Hall of Fame. The Stitchin’ Post was one of the first quilt shops to be included in the American Patchwork and Quilting top ten quilt shop issue. She is the founder of the legendary Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in 1975. Jean also has designed fabric lines for P&B Textiles, appeared on several televised quilting shows, and taught business and quilting workshops throughout the United States and abroad. She has received the Michael Kile Award of Excellence for her contribution to the quilting industry, and she received the Imagination Award in the Millennium Quilt Contest in 2000. In July of 2010 she will be inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame in Indiana.

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