Quilters Calendar & Guild Network

resources for quilt guild volunteers

Massachusetts

Marge Tucker

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Phoenix, AZ from Nov to early May

Norwell, MA from early May to end of October

Marge Tucker is an international award-winning quilt artist and quilting instructor.  The first quilt she made, over twenty-five years ago, was for friends expecting their first child.

“At that time, I didn’t know that quilting would become my passion and now my profession.  I feel so fortunate to be able to share and continue the tradition of quilting with my students.”

Burst

“I started with traditional pieced quilts but am now focused on abstract improvisational design in my work.”

Marge has received numerous awards for her quilts including, “Best of Show” at Mancuso Quilt Show Visuals #4 in 2021, “Best use of Color-Innovative Quilts” at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in 2022, “Best Machine Quilting” at QuiltCon 2019 as well as “Best Sewing Machine Workmanship Award – Modern” at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in 2019 as well as numerous other awards for her quilts.

Her quilts have been published in several of Gwen Marston’s book (Minimal Quiltmaking and Free Range Triangle Quilts).  Several quilts have also been featured in the periodical Curated Quilts  (Black and White Issue #10 and Collaborate Issue #18.  Another quilt, “Burst” was accepted into the Excellence in Fibers 11th Anniversary exhibit.               

Coming Into Light

A recent solo exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum, displayed a collection of Marge’s antique and vintage quilts along with her contemporary designed quilts. 

Marge teaches throughout the United States (and abroad) as well as from her studio in Rockland, MA. 

View Marge’s Website here: Marge Tucker Quilts

See Marge’s YouTube channel: Marge Tucker

Marge’s Intro video: Marge Tucker’s Intro Video

Marge’s Instagram: Marge Tucker Quilts

Contact Marge here- [margetuckerquilts] @ gmail.com (remove brackets and spaces)

Please let Marge know that you found them on The Quilters Calendar!

Beth Sullivan

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Beth Sullivan of Beth Sullivan Designs lives in Bellingham, MA with her husband and three teenagers.

After making her first T-shirt quilt for herself in 2000, she started making them for friends and family. When her children were born she turned it into a part time and eventually full time business. She has now made over a thousand T-shirt and memory quilts in her career.

Beth specializes in using unique materials in memory quilts. Her motto is that if it can be washed, sewn and made to lie flat, it can usually go in the quilt. After answering hundreds of questions about T-shirt quilts from quilter friends for many years, she now lectures and teaches classes in the planning and construction of these unique quilts. Lectures and classes are available in person or virtually via Zoom. 

LECTURE: Quilts to a Tee: Using T-Shirts and Unique Clothing in Quilts 
This one-hour lecture for guilds and groups is designed to provide inspiration and guidance for quilters who are thinking about tackling a T-shirt or memory quilt.  It is available in person or virtual via Zoom. Quilt samples and photos are used to show how quilters can expand the possibilities of the conventional T-shirt quilt to include anything that can be washed, sewn and made to lie flat. The design and construction of a variable layout quilt is discussed as well as the use of partial seams in construction of unique quilt designs. Using interesting items is a focal point of the lecture as well including the use of sweaters, jeans, ties, bibs, bathing suits, baby clothes, and many other cloth items. (Pricing: $275 ($225 if booked with a workshop)) [January 2021 pricing]

CLASS: T-Shirt Quilt Starter Workshop (3 hours, maximum of 12 students)
In this 3-hour class, students will learn how to design their own T-shirt quilt based on the unique clothing items they have. They will learn how to prep T-shirts and other clothing for use in quilting including rough cutting, fusing, and final cutting. They will design their own T-shirt quilt including their own layout plan, tackle unique items, and start on the T-shirt prep. They will not be able to sew at this class but will finish with an understanding of what they need to do when they start sewing, with the unique plan in place and a good start at block prep. This class is offered in person or virtual via Zoom. 

Find out more about Beth on her website http://www.bethsullivandesigns.com/ and contact her beth @ bethsullivandesigns.com

Be sure and tell Beth that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Beth Helfter

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Home: Pepperell, Massachusetts and live online streaming for guilds.

Author, pattern designer, and national quilting instructor Beth Helfter has one rule about quilting – it’s supposed to be fun. Along with her company motto of “Inspired Designs, Relaxed Attitude,” Beth brings visionary designs and techniques to her patterns and exuberance and encouragement to the classroom.

Beth prefers to dig into her stash to create designs and patterns that appeal to her senses of color and value, using as many different fabrics as possible. Keeping to just a few color families in each quilt palette is one of her best tricks to keeping scrappy quilts from getting out of hand but allowing them to sing with tone and movement. Her popular lecture “Consistency in the Chaos” showcases several ways of looking at categories of scraps as it seeks to inspire quilters to think about scrap quilts and pull fabrics to make them shine without overwhelming the eye. Beth has decided she will never solve the mystery of why even scrap quilters can never use up their fabrics, and no longer even tries.

Her penchant for scraps and her need to use as many fabrics as possible in her quilts led her in 2017 to develop the Accordion Sewn HSTs™ method of creating half square triangles that don’t have a match and yet waste no fabric. Delving into the method further, she discovered “ordering” the accordions could lead to the creation of whole blocks and quilts from a single accordion.

Her first book on the method “Oompah! Jazz Up Your Scrap Quilts With Accordion Sewn HSTs™” was published in 2018, and “Another Round of Oompah” was published in 2020. It’s been called “life-changing,” “magical,” “addictive,” and, her favorite, “witchcraft,” and is the basis for her “Oompah! Accordion Sewn HSTs™ lecture and many of her most popular workshops. She’s currently at work on new variations of the basic Accordion Sewn HSTs™ for patterns and workshops.

As a traveling quilt teacher, she’s taught for guilds coast to coast, and never tires of the ah-ha moments and banter of a classroom full of quilters.

Visit Beth’s website: EvaPaige Quilts

Visit Beth’s YouTube Channel: EvaPaige Quilt Designs

Email Beth: evapaigequilts @ charter.net (remove spaces)


Here’s Beth’s portion of an interview among national quilt teachers done in May 2020:


Please let Beth know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Amy Friend

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Home: West Newbury, Massachusetts

Amy Friend is a former museum curator turned designer.  She designs modern quilts and specializes in foundation paper pieced designs.  She authored the books Intentional Piecing, Improv Paper Piecing: A Modern Approach to Quilt Design, and Petal + Stem. 

Amy runs community block swaps several times a year as well as block of the month and quilt along programs.  She is an award winning quilter and her quilts have been exhibited at a number of quilt shows as well as museums.  Amy is a national quilt teacher and lecturer, both on Zoom and in person.

Amy enjoys speaking to guilds about the modern quilting aesthetic and design principles like alternate gridwork and negative space.

She also teaches her own foundation paper piecing technique that considers directional fabric, the grain of the fabric, and minimizes waste. 

Her most popular workshops include Improv Paper Piecing where she teaches her unique approach to modern quilt design where participants each design their own improvisational block and repeat it through paper piecing. 

Another is Large Scale Intentional Piecing where fabrics are kept directional in order to harness the power of stripes or other motifs while foundation paper piecing on larger foundations.

While most of Amy’s classes are more appropriate for the intermediate to advanced quilter, she also teaches beginner paper piecing and welcomes beginners into any of her classes, spending extra time with them so they can succeed.

Visit Amy’s website: During Quiet Time

Amy’s YouTube Channel: During Quiet Time

Please contact Amy at [amybfriend] @ gmail.com (remove brackets and spaces)

Please let Amy know that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Julie Neu

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Julie NeuHome: Arlington, Massachusetts, USA

Julie Neu is a quilt artist whose current work includes a series of pieced quilts inspired by Islamic tile designs and a series of art quilts with statements called her “Protest” series. She is also the founder of Creative Play Date, a program that promotes daily art play as a way to invigorate and expand one’s creativity.

Julie offers a trunk show that chronicles her quilting journey of finding her voice as an artist and a lecture on Quilts in U.S. History and how quilts reflect what was happening in the larger society. She offers workshops in precision piecing, creating pictorial quilts, and on using Creative Play™ to find your voice as an artist.

Visit Julie’s Website for more information about her and Creative Play.

Please let Julie know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

Sue Pelland

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Home: Upton, Massachusetts

Sue Pelland is the designer of the Leaves Galore Rulers. She travels to quilt shows regularly to teach, show her quilts and vend. Sue is working on a book about the many ways to use her rulers to enhance your quilts.

Visit Sue’s website

Please let Sue know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!