Quilters Calendar & Guild Network

resources for quilt guild volunteers

Allyson Allen

Allyson Allen

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Home: California

Allyson is a state recognized award winning Master African American quilt Artist and Culture Bearer. Her work often combines traditional textiles and fibers with paper, recycled materials, and sometimes found objects to create unique, dimensional mixed media pieces, quilts, dolls and handmade books. Allyson offers a variety of fun and informative lectures and trunk shows including Improvisational Design and Piecing, Slave Era Quilts, and the Quilts of Gee’s Bend.

A Special Exhibitor & faculty for Mancuso Quilt Shows, Allyson specializes in needle turn applique’, dimensional embellishing, improvisational piecing techniques, and creative hand and domestic machine quilting. She is the National Craft Industry Alliance’s 2024 Golden Scissors Award recipient, and her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and embassies around the world.

A member of Southern California Council of Quilt Guilds, Studio Art Quilt Associates, The Modern Quilt Guild, & Arts Council Menifee, visit Allyson’s website

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

Jen Eskridge

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Bleach effect Home: Helotes, Texas

Jen started sewing in 1993 on an old burnt yellow, Harvest Gold, Singer sewing machine.  Her mother taught the basics.  Jen made her first quilt in 1993.  She didn’t use any books or templates, and that poor quilt eventually fell apart.  It was recycled, though, into a curtain, duct taped over a dorm room window.

Fast forward a bit:  Jen earned a Bachelor of Science in Apparel Design in 1998 from Louisiana State University.  By 2003, she found herself quilting and sewing for her own company, ReannaLily Designs.  During that time, Jen also taught quilting at a national crafting store.  The website and company was launched in 2007.

Jen has traveled the world gathering inspiration and ideas for designs and patterns.  From Korea, and China, Japan, to North America, England and France, she has found many cultural and historical elements to guide her interest and creativity. It was in South Korea, while shopping at fabric manufacturer’s mill markets that Jen decided to apply her Apparel Design Degree to her very own quilting and sewing pattern company, ReannaLily Designs.

Once she returned to the United States in summer 2008, Jen launched the company with the trademarked Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide and commissioned sewing jobs. The company has evolved into a pattern and design company in addition to its humble sewing beginnings.

Jen Eskridge is the author of three books: Deploy That Fabric by C&T Publishing; Learn to Sew Easy by Leisure Arts; Hexagons Made Easy by Martingale Press/That Patchwork Place. Jen’s designs have been featured in multi-author books, as well as, over 20 magazines. Jen has been featured in numerous magazines, Sew It All TV and Pat Sloan’s Radio show for her design work.

To see her lectures and workshops, please visit Jen’s Website

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

Michelle Hiatt

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MichelleHiatt-smHome: Huntington, Connecticut.

Michelle Renee Hiatt is passionate about quilting. She started her love affair 20+ years ago in the 1990s. Michelle Renee is the designer for her own pattern line Sew On The Go as well as Modern 180, a modern pattern division of Deb Tucker’s Studio 180 Design. Additionally, Michelle is a certified Studio 180 Design Instructor, as well as a certified Professional Process Expert (LSSMBB); she uses her process improvement techniques and applies them to her quilting and teaching others how to simplify their piecing while improving the quality of their quilt making.

Michelle Renee’s designs have appeared in Modern Quilting Unlimited and Fon’s & Porter’s Love of Quilting. She is known for her humor, enthusiasm and encouragement! Michelle can be reached on her website.

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

Lori Triplett

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Lori-Triplett-smHome: Overland Park, Kansas.

Lori Lee Triplett, Business Manager for Quilt & Textile Collections has successfully combined a variety of passions which include research, writing, and performing into the quilt world. As an award winning writer Lori has written more than 15 books as well as numerous magazine or journal articles with more on the way. Her most recent book co-written with her sister Kay Triplett, is Hidden Treasures from the Poos Collection. Previous books include the award winning and bestselling, Pioneer Quilts: Prairie Settlers’ Life in Fabric, Over 30 Quilts from the Poos Collection, Indigo Quilts: 30 Quilts from the Poos Collection and Chintz Quilts from the Poos Collection.

Lori’s classes can be found on her website http://www.quiltandtextilecollections.com/presentations.html

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

Sandy Chambers

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Sandy ChambersHome: North Carolina

Sandy Chambers lives in western North Carolina. She has a Bachelor’s of Fine Art from the International Academy of Design, Chicago, Illinois. Quilting is a way of life for her and you can find her everyday in her studio creating new designs for her pattern company, Designs for Divas! Her first love is color, and she teaches a color class to quilters, quilt guilds and quilt shops called “Color Your World”.

Currently she is teaching in North and South Carolina, Illinois and Virginia.

She has had quilts in the AQS show in Charlotte, the North Carolina State Fair, Mountain Fair in Asheville where she won several blue ribbons.

You can reach Sandy at chambers1205 @ gmail.com

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

Vanessa Vargas Wilson

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Vanessa-Vargas-WilsonKnown internationally as “The Crafty Gemini” Vanessa is the young face of modern quilting and homesteading. She’s an internet sensation with over 15 million views to her YouTube channel.

Vanessa’s easy style and honest approach to all she does is the secret to her success. She appeals to young and old, new sewists and experienced quilters. If there’s a new way of looking at anything, Vanessa is going to invent that new way and then share it with everyone because that’s her style.

Vanessa teaches basic quiltmaking with a modern twist, ignoring any rules that don’t suit her. She’s also accomplished at crochet and DIY home projects. If your group is looking for an energetic, happy, enthusiastic teacher Vanessa is the one to bring in.

Her artist’s statement is “DIY video tutorials on things like sewing, quilting, crafting, cooking, baking, organic gardening, canning, nutrition and weight loss! I enjoy sharing my life and knowledge with others and I hope you enjoy my creations”.

Here’s her YouTube Channel clip, for a personal introduction. Be sure to also visit her website and check her out on Facebook.



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

Jenny Lyon

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Home: Sacramento area of California

Jenny is the author of Free Motion Quilting, From Ordinary to Extraordinary.

Jenny travels to teach and lecture on the joy of free motion quilting on a domestic machine. She teaches at major international shows as well as quilt guilds and shops across the country. She is currently entering into training to judge quilt shows as well.

Her work has been shown at the Houston, Paducah, PIQF and other shows, as well as in juried SAQA exhibits and has received numerous ribbons.

“Encouraging, supportive and fun”. Jenny’s mission is to guide her students to find their own free motion quilting joy, and chocolate may be involved.

Jenny offers a variety of free motion quilting workshops that are both technique and project based, designed to release the angst of free motion quilting and find the joy! She has created a “Sloppy Woppy Free Motion Quilting” curriculum that makes quilting approachable and fun!

Her trunk shows feature her unique style in quilts, garments, and whole cloth creations. Jenny was a featured guest on The Quilt Show (#2404) and two seasons of Quilting Arts TV season 2000/2100 and 3011 and has authored articles for various quilting magazines.

Learn more about Jenny, her art and teaching opportunities at her website. Please note, Jenny is also now offering virtual presentations as well.

Visit Jenny’s Website The Quilt Skipper for more about Jenny!

Visit Jenny on YouTube- Jenny Lyon

And here is Jenny’s YouTube Intro-

Contact Jenny here- [jenny] @ quiltskipper.com (remove brackets and spaces) to get a class scheduled right away.

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