OUR CURRENT EDUCATORS
Unsurpassed artistry.
Jean Biddick
Jean Biddick is an award-winning quiltmaker, author and teacher whose specialty is creating stunning machine-pieced masterpieces. She is well known for her quilts inspired by mosaic tile work. Her quilts have won awards from both the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah and the International Quilt Festival in Houston. One of her miniature quilts is in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.
She has been teaching quiltmaking for more than 35 years and loves to help students become more confident in their piecing skills. She started designing Mystery Quilts for The Quilter’s Market in 2006 and enjoys sharing those designs with her students.
Sherida Giddings
Sherida remembers having a serious case of ‘quilt envy’ at a very early age, when her cousin was given a traditional crazy quilt. While her own mother and grandmother passed on the skills for creating wonderful things by knitting, crochet and tatting, Sherida always dreamed of making her very own crazy quilt. While that still has not happened, it sparked her lifetime love of quilts and quilting. Sherida joined her first quilt guild over 20 years ago, and along with finding lifetime friends, it provides a constant source of quilting inspiration.
She now belongs to several guilds and loves attending meetings, and seeing all the amazing things that others have accomplished. While Sherida was working as a Canadian Acquisitions Specialist at Library and Archives Canada, she took a break from quilting to teach highly successful rubber stamping and scrapbooking classes.
Her passion for quilting kept surfacing, and when she was offered the opportunity to for early retirement, it seemed like a sign to return to quilting full time. It also encouraged her to look at become more involved by teaching and sharing her love of quilting with others. She started teaching at locally, as well as taking classes from other instructors, including Judy Niemeyer Certified Instructors. These courses sparked her interest to become a Certified Instructor herself, and she signed up to begin the creative journey and fulfill this dream.
As a Certified Instructor for Judy Niemeyer/Quiltworx, Sherida has found a way to combine her love of teaching, with the sharing of the precision of Judy’s paper piecing techniques. It is a wonderful feeling to encourage others to develop more confidence in their own skills while creating something special, and having fun at the same time. Sherida will happily travel anywhere in Canada and further abroad. She looks forward to sharing her growing collection of quilts as a Trunk Show, as well the having the opportunity to teach at shops, guilds and retreats.
Erin Grogan
Heather Valentine
Say hello to Heather Valentine from The Sewing Loft. A scrap fabric junkie, lover of colorful things, Frenchie “collector” and a serial quilt block maker! It all started with her Grandmother’s featherweight and that magical cookie tin.
After years of working as a technical designer in the garment industry, she switched gears and fell in love with the art of all things Quilty. Her design style blends traditional techniques with modern designs to create playful block patterns that are easy to make. She considers each block an opportunity to experiment with color and show off your favorite fabrics. When grouped together, the combinations are endless.
In addition to designing quilt patterns, her debut fabric collection with Windham, Color Club, is coming to a store near you in the summer of 2023. The rainbow collection is bound to become a staple in your stash.
Heather is an Annie’s Creative Studio expert, and has served on the board of directors of the International Quilt Association. Her love of design and quilting shines through in every class she teaches. Her main goal is to set you up for success at the machine, no matter your skill level.
mssewme.com/
Nancy McNally
Nancy McNally is a quilt author, artist, designer, online personality, and instructor of both piecing and longarm quilting.
Nancy has been quilting for over 25 years. She was introduced into this wonderful world of fiber arts as a young mom. She is self-taught in both piecing and longarm machine quilting. Several years ago, Nancy decided to try her hand at getting published. Her first quilt was Friendship Rings published in Fons and Porter’s Scrappy Quilts, Fall 2011, that quilt made the cover of the magazine. And off she went!
In the past few years, Nancy ‘s quilt patterns have been published in a variety of magazines and books. Love of Quilting, Scrap Quilts, Quilty, Quiltmaker, Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Quilts From 100 Blocks and Quilter’s World magazines. She has contributed to a variety of books and special publications through Annie’s Publishing.
Along with magazines and books, Nancy has
· 13 online instructional video classes through Annie’s Publishing, Anniescatalog.com · 154 online video tutorials, tips, and Quilt-a-longs with Annie’s Creative Studio. · Blazing Star Block of the Month 2017 with Craftsy.
· Guest on Pat Sloan’s Podcast summer of 2016
· WRHI Radio station with radio personality Patty Mercer.
Nancy has appeared on PBS TV shows Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting and Quilting Arts.
Nancy also offers
· lectures/trunk shows to guilds
· workshops/classes to both guilds and quilt shops
· Teaches at National quilt shows such AQS (American Quilter’s Society) Fall Paducah, Grand Rapids, Des Moines, and Branson (new show)
You can contact Nancy McNally email: nancymcnallyquilts@gmail.com
You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. Blog and pattern shop: www.nancymcnallyquilts.com
Shereece Nicole
Hello there! I’m Shereece Nicole of Sew Hooked on Treasures. My quilting journey began in 2010 out of boredom. I was living in a new, small town and I was looking to meet new people. Thanks to a local program, I started to learn to crochet. Then I was reintroduced to quilting (the “correct” way). My travels and everyday life began to inspire patterns I wanted to create. And now, I’m sharing those designs with you and teaching skills I’ve learned along the way.
Heather Black
Heather’s passion for quilt design is founded in her past as a landscape oil painter and her desire to be creative. She first tried quilting in 1995 but didn’t catch the quilting bug until 2011 when she designed, pieced and hand quilted her first queen size quilt. Shortly after that she discovered modern quilting and from that point on Heather has been designing and making quilts whenever possible. Her quilts and patterns have been featured in various quilting magazines and online publications. Heather has had quilts displayed at international, national and regional quilt shows. Her quilts have hung at International Quilt Festival, AQS QuiltWeek, QuiltCon, MQX, Road to California and many more. Her Urban Trek Quilt won First place Use of Negative Space at Quiltcon in Pasadena, CA.
Along with quilting, Heather also has an ever-expanding line of quilt patterns and has branched out into textile designs with three fabric collections with Paintbrush Studio Fabrics, Sketchbook, Road Trip and Mod Textures. She has written two books, Quilt Modern Curves & Bold Stripes and Design Make Quilt Modern, both published by Stash Books.
Heather lives in the Pacific Northwest and attended college in Pennsylvania. Many of her designs are inspired by the landscape in her home and surrounding states and of memories of exploring the United States with her family.
To see more of Heather’s work, visit her website: quiltachusetts.com.
This site has my shop, a blog, and is how I send out my newsletters.
Johanne Moore
Johanne is an accomplished quilter and long armer, who has been involved in all aspects of sewing since she was a teen. She has worked at local quilt shops and taught a multitude of different quilting classes, including Quiltworx paper piecing, and is involved with teaching new quilters in 4H. She has taken classes from local and international quilt teachers, including Judy Niemeyer and various Quiltworx Certified Instructors. Her piecing and long arm work has been featured in several quilting magazines and a book.
She got her sea legs in 2018 while assisting Sherida on a Quilt Retreat at Sea Cruise to Hawaii and is looking forward to sharing her passion on her next cruise to Alaska in 2023.
Jacquelyn Morris Smith
I have been sewing since a very young girl and found my true passion in the world of quilting in 2007. I took many lessons, learned the hard way: made lots of mistakes, had uneven seams, wonky and uneven blocks, forced the blocks together, and still I have progressed. I love to teach others, after all, since I have made all the mistakes no one else has to. My teaching goals are simple: to let students learn a technique and find their way out of an “ooops” moment. There is nothing that can’t be fixed, and I like to see my students having a stress free, fun-filled time and all the while finishing with a positive experience.
I began teaching quilting in 2009 while working at a quilt shop in Green Valley, AZ. I enjoyed that experience as it forced me to learn even more techniques than I wanted to learn. I have been privileged to speak and teach at several guilds in Arizona, California and Utah – as well as on cruise ships.
MJ Kinman
MJ Kinman’s passion is creating quilts inspired by beautiful gems. The key is freezer paper and MJ is delighted to share her technique with students via in-person and virtual classes.
MJ’s work has been exhibited at the National Quilt Museum, the International Quilt Museum, the New England Quilt Museum, Quilt Festival (Houston, TX), Quilt Week (Paducah, KY), and Festival of Quilts (Birmingham, UK). Her work is included in collections as varied as Maker’s Mark Distillery, the National Quilt Museum (Paducah, KY) and the International Quilt Museum (Lincoln, NE), plus many private collections around the United States.
MJ’s popular Birthstone Series patterns feature traditional birthstone gems, and her Diamond Divas Series offer large, artistic quilts easily customizable by makers. Her first book, Gemstone Quilts, was released by C&T Publishing in 2020.
Belle Brunner
Belle began quilting in in her mid-40’s and quickly fell in love with the craft. After taking an intensive pattern writing course, she began designing and publishing quilt patterns. She focuses on confident beginner patterns and techniques that even advanced quilters love to make and believes that all people, of any age, can learn to quilt. Her patterns are sold by major distributors and The Fat Quarter Shop. Belle is a brand ambassador for Havels Sewing, The Daylight Company, and Oliso. She is a former 2022 Maywood Studio Maker and is a 2023 Instructor for the American Quilters Society. She and her father own an AIRBNB in a national forest where she hosts small quilting retreats.
Having spent years helping non-profits and boards of directors, Belle expanded her Seams Sew Me business to also specialize in providing leadership, governance, consulting and education for quilt guilds’ boards of directors. She believes that strong inclusive guilds contribute to strong communities. She leads and teaches with her two leading values: of compassion and understanding.
Learn more about Belle at https://www.seamssewme.com/