Quilters Calendar & Guild Network

resources for quilt guild volunteers

Julia Graves

Julia Graves

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Home: Leesburg, Virginia

Julia Graves is a Zoom-experienced lecturer and teacher on a variety of quilting subjects, with a focus on color and design that are applicable to all your future quilts. 

Her Amazing Abstracts class teaches how to use color and value to create amazing movement and drama.  Her traditional piecing classes that focus on color and value include Tricks with Transparencies, Luscious Luster, Rainbow Drops and Shimmering Triangles.   Other fun classes include creating your own gemstone in Gemstone Bling and Color Exploration where we play with color to see the effects we can achieve.  She has lectures on Color, Design, Landscape Quilts, Personalizing and Memory Quilts, Community and Faith in Fiber and her very popular My Quilting Journey.

Let There Be Light

Julia’s two most popular bookings are:

  • Color Exploration Lecture – This lecture will discuss how to select beautiful color combinations for your quilts and provide tips on how to fix color combinations that just don’t seem to be working.  Includes a slide show and trunk show illustrating classic color combinations and fascinating color illusions.
  • Amazing Abstracts Class – Create an abstract quilt that has amazing movement and drama. Go from inspiration to a simple sketch, then have fun “coloring” your sketch with bits of fabric to create a mock-up of your design – see before you sew!  The design is gridded and blocks are foundation pieced using an easy sew and flip method with room for creativity and improvisation.  Lots of discussion of design principles and how to use color and value to create the drama and desired effects.  

Julia started her quilting business, Special Occasion Quilts LLC, in 2007 and teaches, lectures, designs patterns, makes commission quilts, longarms for others and sells & services APQS longarm machines.  She won Best Longarm Machine Workmanship Wall Quilt Category at the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, is a Gem Affiliate teaching the gorgeous gem patterns by MJ Kinman – Textile Artist, has had quilts published in books by Gloria Loughman, Katie Pasquini-Masopust and MJ Kinman, was an Artist in Residence at Empty Spools in 2019, and will be teaching at Empty Spools in 2021 and 2022 and Hudson River Valley Art Institute in 2022.  

Julia has been sewing since she was ten and always loved fabric, needle arts and the entire creative process.  She did her apprenticeship as a quilter by making a quilt for each of her nieces and nephews (and thinks she should have counted them before making this promise – there were 32!).  She has since made more quilts than she can count, many for charity, and is partial to scrap quilts and working with color to achieve amazing results. 

Visit her gallery on her website at http://www.soquilts.com.  Contact Julia viat email –juliagraves82 @ gmail.com. Julia has videos of her on this page: http://soquilts.com/classes-and-lectures/

Be sure to tell Julia that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Rachel Derstine

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Home: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Rachel Derstine is an award winning fiber artist. Her works are featured in invitational and juried gallery shows and fine art/craft shows throughout the country. Her work has been purchased and installed in institutions such as Epic Corporation in Madison, WI, and the Milton Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA.

Rachel specializes in improvisational piecing, vibrant landscapes, couching (stitching yarn to quilt surface) and teaching of basic design elements. She has experience giving online presentations and classes.

Having grown up in Japan, this influence is evident in her style and use of kimonos, silks, ikats, hand dyed and batik fabrics. She includes traditional techniques of quilting as well as her own innovative materials and methods to achieve her desired designs.

Lecture Topic and Description

From Inspiration to Art Process

PowerPoint lecture presentation on the topic of where I find inspiration for my art: Other artists, photographs, influences from life experiences. I include process photos and discuss how to make effective quilts using art concepts such as limiting color palette, simplifying the background, using repetition of line, shapes, value and color throughout the work.

Workshop – Strata Quilt

We will do curved piecing of coordinated hand dyed and commercial fabrics for the background. Easy free motion and walking foot quilting designs will be introduced. Organza circles will be stitched to the surface with single or double needle applique. Yarns will be couched to the surface for movement and definition. Kit optional – $30.

Workshop – Artful Couching

Learn the art of couching with yarns to create texture, flow and extra pizzazz. This is a full day class. We will first create our quilt sandwich and learn some quilting designs created using the walking foot. We will then focus on mastering couching techniques. Students will bring a striped batik or gradient fabric and coordinating yarn to make this 18″ x 45″ table runner size quilt. This class will show you the many ways to use couching for definition and sparkle, by incorporating a variety of cording, yarn and metallic threads in your work.

Please visit Rachel on her website at https://rachelderstinedesigns.com or for individual online classes visit: https://artfulquiltingandsewing.com

Contact Rachel at rachelderstine @ gmail com and watch her on video on her YouTube Channel – Rachel Derstine
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXbECzO6YvG9Nlhku9Q7i8Q

Please tell Rachel that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Sue Hurley

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Home: Princeton, NJ

1 ¼ hour class: Free Motion Quilting with Rulers $200

Your quilt top is finally pieced and your pattern ends with those three scary words ‘Quilt As Desired‘. Now what? Take a deep breath, drop those feed dogs and try free-motion quilting with rulers!
Up until a few years ago, quilting with rulers on your domestic machine was unheard of. Rulers were the tools of longarmers. That’s not true anymore! Now quilters are using rulers to create beautiful and precise designs, from straight lines to curves to feathers and so much more.

When ruler quilting started gaining popularity around 2017, Sue was teaching a free-motion quilting class at her local quilt shop. At that time, there wasn’t much information available about quilting with rulers on the domestic sewing machine. Thinking rulers would be a good class for the shop, she watched videos, bought a ruler foot and some rulers and started playing. That’s exactly how she describes quilting with rulers – it’s like playing because it’s so much fun!

Whether you’re a true beginner to ruler work or you’ve had some experience with rulers, you’ll learn something from this presentation. Many quilters believe that you must be an experienced free-motion quilter to use rulers. That’s not the case. Beginners seem to find working with rulers easier than doing straight free-motion work. It just takes a little practice.
Sue loves to share her quilting knowledge with others.

During the first half of her presentation, she’ll discuss the ruler foot, rulers and what to look for when purchasing rulers, and supplies needed for ruler quilting. She’ll share a lot of information and helpful tips that she’s picked up along the way.

In the second half of the presentation, Sue will demo a few rulers. She’ll show you how easy it is to stitch straight lines with the straight-edge ruler and how to stitch a perfectly round circle with a circle ruler. Time permitting, she’ll also demo a clamshell ruler.

Sue is an avid quilter who has been quilting for 36 years. She started out as a hand quilter, then moved on to machine quilting with a walking foot. Free-motion quilting quickly followed. After retiring from her computer programming job in 2008, she started teaching at her local quilt shop. Free-motion quilting and Ruler Quilting are two of her most popular classes. Sue is Zoom ready. You can reach her at shurley36 @ hotmail.com.

Be sure to tell Sue that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Gloria Stickney

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Home: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Owner: Sew Fabulous, Inc.

Sew Fabulous is the “Zoom” for you!!

A treat for your guild…We have door prizes and online discounts for those who participate in our zoom presentations! Just ask.

I offer 2 Zoom guild presentations which you can choose from:

1) I specialize in teaching the Square in a Square system designed by Jodi Barrows. The unique system to make precise triangle points with speed and accuracy with only squares and strips. Our presentations are interactive and fun. We have a trunk show of 20+ quilts as well as live demonstration of the Square in a Square technique and how we add our own twist of colors and designs.

2) Finishing quilts. Since COVID, everyone has been working on quilts and now we’re looking at how to finish them. We illustrate 4 types of machine binding including a “no seam” fussy cut binding technique. We call the presentation “Finishing Quilts: Door #1, Door #2, Door #3 and Door #4”

We have 20+ quilts for a trunk show as well as live demonstration. We would love to host your guild meeting and take a twirl around our Sew Fabulous quilting space! Find the next inspiration for your quilting project at Sew Fabulous, Inc.

Gloria started sewing at 6 years of age and has been professionally quilting since 2006. By day, she is the Grants and Contracts Manager for the Physics Department at Wake Forest University and Sew Fabulous is her play job! In 2006, she designed the Dreamin’ Deacon© quilt for Wake Forest University. This quilt literally launched Sew Fabulous and the business has been growing and expanding every year since then. She has licensed several handcrafted items for the Wake Forest University collegiate licensing.

Gloria has been teaching quilting classes for 12 years and provided many guild demonstrations using the Square in a Square system. Her students include beginning to advanced quilters. She discusses the use of creating intricate pieced blocks with speed and accuracy. Gloria specializes in teaching the Square in a Square technique, making custom theme-stitched t-shirt memory quilts, provides edge to edge longarm quilting services, and creating Wake Forest University licensed products.

One of her popular Zoom guild presentations is Finishing Quilts. Gloria will discuss 4 ways to bind quilts by machine. One of the techniques includes a fussy cut binding with no seams. Watch those mitered corners!

You may contact Gloria Stickney at gloria @ sewfabulousquilts.com and find out more about her on her website www.sewfabulousquilts.com

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

Darlene Price

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Home: Chesapeake, Virginia

Darlene Price has been around a needle, thread and sewing machine all her life. After retiring from life as a Commercial Real Estate Paralegal her goal was to figure out quilting. Art Quilts is where she landed. Come take a look at her work, her lectures and classes. 

Visit Darlene’s website at Quiltscapesbydarlene.com. 

Be sure to tell Darlene that you found her on The Quilters Calendar!

Bunnie Cleland

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Home: Chesapeake, Virginia, or traveling in our Motorhome; We will be traveling nation-wide

Bunnie Cleland is a long-time crafter and sewist (sewing artist). She fell in love with quilting in 2006, after her mother dragged her to a quilt show and 9 store shop hop. She was hired at a local quilt shop before she even finished her first quilting class…though she did go on to finish 12 quilts that first year! 

Her Triangle Frenzy business started by accident in 2013 when she arranged some triangles into a quilting project and was prompted to translate her efforts into patterns. High demand for the patterns, by quilters, retailers, and fabric companies, resulted in the global distribution of Triangle Frenzy, designs that produce several visually stunning quilting projects including table runners, table toppers, lap quilts, and bed quilts.

As a former Navy Electronics Technician and Naval Nuclear Power Plant operator, she understands the importance of precision and accuracy. She discovered she has the talent for translating complex written directions into easy-to-follow instructions. This aided her in the creation of Triangle Frenzy’s detailed, step-by-step illustrations for experienced beginners and intermediate level quilters.

She’s also able to use her technical background in teaching sewing techniques to students, guiding them through the creative process that will help them succeed at quilting.

Bunnie’s most popular presentations include:

 “Quilter’s Consultant”

Bring your questions, puzzles, conundrums, and unfinished projects and find options and solutions. Includes a sought-after handout tip sheet.

“Creativity, Organization, Scraps and Quilts”

The title says it all. Includes tips, and the sought-after handout tip sheet.

On the rare occasions when she’s not quilting, she enjoys photography, digital scrapbooking, trading pins, her new Motor Home, and organizing just about anything. She and her retired husband live in Chesapeake, Virginia, and have two grown children.

Bunnie is known for her Triangle Frenzy, find out more on her website Triangle Frenzy

Email: bunnie @ trianglefrenzy.com (remove spaces)

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

Tina Curran

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Home: Studio City, California

Tina Curran has been a quilter for over 20 years. She is known for her use of color and fun imagery in her quilts. Her work has earned multiple blue ribbons and the rank of Master Quilter at her local quilt guild.

Her quilts have hung in major shows including Road to California (Ontario, CA), the AQS show in Paducah, KY and the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX.

Tina’s work has been featured more than 20 times in magazines (Quilters Newsletter and Quiltmaker) and in three books (including Ricky Tims’ “Kool Kaleidoscopes”).

She has been designing patterns since 2002, began giving quilt lectures in 2012 and started teaching her designs in quilt guild workshops in 2013. In 2015, she started a free monthly email newsletter to chronicle her adventures in quilting, which is read by thousands of quilters around the world. Her patterns are sold in her shop on Etsy.com (tinacurran.etsy.com) and to date have been bought by quilters in all 50 states and 23 foreign countries.

Whimsical Garden by Tina Curran

She offers two trunk shows. The first is a reimagined in-person show, now using photos. The second one features quilts no longer in her possession, so perfect for sharing using photos. Her popular design lecture demystifies the process with the hope to inspire others to design their own quilts. She also has a talk tracing her career path — from the advertising industry to the quilting industry, highlighting the joys and the challenges along the way.

All her workshops are project-based, helping students to make their own versions of her quilt designs. Her most popular is “Whimsical Garden,” where students make a floral fabric collage. With four versions of American flags quilts, her flag workshops are also popular, as is her “California Poppies” class. The details of the nine workshops that feature regular piecing and the seventeen that feature paper piecing can be found on the “Lectures and Workshops” page on her website.

Tina is an experienced presenter/teacher on Zoom. More information can be found on her website at www.tinacurran.com.

Please let Tina know that you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar.

Zoom Overview for Boards

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One hour presentation for Quilt Guild Board members and Program chairs on How Guilds are Using Zoom. Included are PDFs specific to using Zoom:

  • Training Guide for Guilds and their Members
  • Program Ideas
  • Membership Tips
  • Professional Teacher Checklist (are they really Zoom Ready?)
  • How to Raise Funds via a Facebook Private Group

$150 Contact MMQuilts @ gmail.com

In-Depth Training is also available on

  • Choosing the Right Settings for Your Meetings
  • Creating Templates & Recurring Meetings
  • Controls – How to Use Them for the Best Presentation Possible
  • Rehearsing Your Presentation