Teacher Biography
 

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Teachers are listed alphabetically

A star * indicates a new teacher for 2010
A plus + indicates a returning teacher
 

Grace Anderson
Gia Originals
girene1@msn.com
Grace Anderson, a veteran quilt artist with 13 years of longarm experience, has taught a variety of longarm machine quilting classes at Innovations and at her home studio for the past 4 years.  She has a bachelor's degree in education and over 30 years experience teaching privately, out-of-town, and through Plaza Sewing Center in Grants Pass, Oregon, where she has worked as a clerk, notions manager, and teacher for over 28 years.  Her wide variety of classes, including quilt piecing, designing, machine quilting, wearable arts, hand embroidery, and sewing are created primarily from her own personal designs.  An artist and designer by nature, Grace has developed and published countless patterns, books, and quilting machine designs, and now has pantographs available through www.patternman.com.   Grace is a patient and generous teacher, specializing in her own original designs in a methodical, thorough, and easy-to-learn format. Her designs are admired and each of her classes offers brilliant new creative ideas.
 

Carol Best
Simply The Best Quilting
www.simplythebestquilting.com
I live in Rochester, Minnesota with my husband, Rich, of 14 years (who also joined the ranks of us quilters in 2004!)  I am lucky to have a daughter that lives in town that has given us three beautiful granddaughters that keep us on our toes!  I've been quilting for 16 years and a quilt teacher for 14 years.  My husband and I just added a Gammill-Statler Stitcher (Longarm quilt system) to our business in 2008.  I am a national teacher and have won several ribbons in multiple categories throughout my quilting history.  I have designed original quilt patterns for myself and my students for over 10 years and finally published my first pattern in 2008.  Although my patterns are considered traditional, my approach to quilting is not necessarily traditional.  I tend to get bored with doing the same thing over and over again.  This has challenged me to find ways to make quilting faster and easier.  You will find my classes fun and upbeat because I truly love what I do and I love to watch my students as they unlock their own creativity.
 

Jo Ann Blade
JoAnn's Machine Quilting LLC
www.joannsquilting.com
JoAnn Blade - JoAnn is an award-winning longarm quilter and Sales Rep. for Gammill/Statler & Certified CS Trainer.  She has developed an innovative style of appliqué' for the Statler that will elevate your work to a new level!
 

Irena Bluhm
Irena Bluhm Designs
www.irenabluhmscreations.com
Irena Bluhm is a longarm quilter since November 2004.  She is teaching at many major venues in the United States, including American Quilter's Society shows and International Quilt Festival in Houston along with private workshops nationwide and abroad.  Irena is internationally acclaimed award winning longarm quilter, instructor, author and pattern designer.  With 18 years of garment making/design and 12 years of doing fine art for a hobby she applies her experience on to making quilts for exhibits exclusively.  She is an author of eight books and three workbooks, a winner of 60 awards in national and international quilt contests thus far.  Some awards were won at the most prestigious quilt contests nationwide: AQS show in Paducah and Nashville, IQF in Houston, Road to California, PIQF, MAQF, DNQF IHQS QO, QTW, MQS, HMQS, NQA, RMQF and Innovations, to name just a few.  Irena started teaching just after a little over one year into longarm quilting.  Her passion and enthusiasm for quilting is contagious.  She loves and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others.
 

Pam Clarke
Designs With Lines
www.homestitches.com
Pam Clarke has been quilting since the late 1960's and sewing for 46 years.  She lives in Spokane, WA and grew up in Sacramento, CA.  Pam has been machine quilting and teaching machine quilting, piecing and appliqué' classes since 1988.  Her work can be seen in several published magazines and books.  she quilts for Debbie Mumm, K-P Kids, Fiber Mosaics, Mary Lou and Co., Fabric Sales, Kaufman, and has made several hundred.  Pam has appeared on Quilt Central and with Linda Taylor for PBS.  She has also been featured in Fons and Porter as a Celebrity Quilter.  Pam teaches all over the USA including IMQS, Innovations, Machines in Motion, The Home Machine Quilt, IMQX in NH and several local shows in the Northwest.  Her favorite type of quilting is appliqué' mixed with simple piecing with a scrappy look that has won her numerous ribbons across the USA.  Designs with Lines in another business that was started by Pam Clarke in 1998.  This technique was designed to help speed up the quilting process by using simple lines as a guide to create individual designs.  Pam has been creating her own stencils for several years and this technique is used for the home machine quilter or the longarm machine quilter.  She has available 8 videos From Beginning to the Advanced Machine quilter, along with the Sketchbooks full of ideas to go along with her stencils.  Pam has also expanded her business this year to include Log Cabin Dry Goods, the largest retail and machine-quilting store in Spokane.  With A-1 machine rentals, drop off and meeting rooms, Pam is excited to see Log Cabin Dry Goods grow.  In February 2007 she published "quilting Inside the Lines" with Golden Threads and AQS.  In March 2007 she added to her Log Cabin Dry Goods quilt shop the Viking line of sewing machines and is proud to be a Certified Husqvarna Viking Dealer.  Pam's goal, when she opened her shop was to be the complete affordable quilt store in the Northwest.
 

Wenda Coburn
Just For Ewe
www.Wendacoburn.com
Wenda Coburn is a mother, a teacher, a volunteer project organizer, and a quilter!  She has been sewing since childhood and quilting became an expression of her own individual creativity.  As a quilt teacher and a volunteer coordinator she has helped plan many service oriented projects, including quilting at the jail!  Since that beginning, her passion for sewing, design, quilting and instruction has grown.  In 1990 she started Just For Ewe Sewing providing a variety of services from traditional tailoring to dressmaking and custom drapery design.  Enthusiastic about helping others to experience the joys of sewing, she began teaching sewing and quilting techniques in 1998.  After a search for perfect piecing techniques, Wenda found that the Square in a Square tools were successful time after time.  In 2004, she became a certified Square-in-a-Square instructor and product distributor.  In 2007 she was awarded Square in a Square Diamond Certification.  In June 2007, look for Wenda's quilt pattern Jodi Barrows new Square in a Square book "Moving on with Diamonds."  Wanting to finish quilts herself, one more search led to easy machine quilting techniques that gave a beautiful finish.  "Quilting with training wheels" became a signature saying used in many of her popular Machine Quilting 101 classes.  This class led to a development of Quilt-As-U-Go! techniques, quilts, & workshops...that combine the piecing and quilting, and are wonderful for a quilter who wants to increase their skills.  In 2006 Wenda began quilting at home with a Shortarm quilting frame.  She soon learned that there was no education or resources for the home shortarm quilter and began teaching local groups.  In 2009 Wenda quilted a New York State Fair blue ribbon quilt on her shortarm system.  Along with the popularity of these classes, Just For Ewe began selling tools for the shortarm quilter.  All tools are tested on a 9" harp machine.  Now the quilter does not have to waste money or search all over for the correct size tool.  Wenda regularly teaches near home at Calico Gals Quilt Shop in Fayetteville, NY and travels teaching workshops throughout the United States and Canada.  She lives near Syracuse, NY with her husband, daughter, son, and doggy daughter and 2 cats.  Encourage......to try!  Educate...techniques to give success!  Inspire....to go beyond!
 

Lisa Coker
Lisa's Custom Quilting
gammillgirl@yahoo.com
Lisa Coker has been professionally machine quilting since 2001.  Within 6 months of buying her machine, she said "good-bye" to her day job.  Over the past 8 years she has quilted over 1,500 quilts for customers across the United States and the UK.  Lisa and her customers have won over 75 ribbons in local and national competition.  Lisa aspires to mastery in quilting, both on her own and her customer's quilts, and greatly enjoys passing on what she has learned and discovered to others.  Lisa lives in Commerce, Texas with her husband and family.  With practice, anything can be achieved.
 

Glen Cook
Sew Many Treasures Machine Quilting
www.sewmanytreasures.net
I have been married to Jean for 54 years.  We have 4 children, nay grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.  I served in the military 20 years and retired.  After retiring from the military I finished my degree in math education and taught high school math for eight years.  I purchased my first quilting machine in 1997 and upgraded the Gammill Classic to a Statler Stitcher in 2006.  I have attended AutoSketch classes with Kim Diamond.  In 2007 I attended Kim Diamond's Creative Studio Certification class.