Quilters Calendar & Guild Network

resources for quilt guild volunteers

contemporary

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!

Carole Lyles Shaw

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CLShaw

Home: Bradenton, Florida, USA and online. Carole is offering classes online via her website with live streaming to connect with students. She offers live streaming for guilds for trunk shows and lectures.

Carole is an enthusiastic modern quilter, teacher and mixed media artist. She brings a painless and fun approach to improvisational modern quilting to her lectures and workshops. She began quilting many years ago when she decided to make quilts for her family. From those beginnings, Carole decided very quickly to break from traditional patterns and start creating her own designs using inspirations from modern art and other sources. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the U.S., Canada and other countries. She has been published in American Quiltmaking, 1970-2000, Quilts Today: A Living Tradition, Spirits of the Cloth and many other books. Her work has been juried into both quilt and art exhibits and has won awards.

Today, her focus is on exploring the modern quilt movement. She lectures and teaches workshops on modern quilting techniques for beginning and experienced quilters, helping each quilter find her own unique approach to expanding beyond the traditional.

Carole is the co-founder of the Sarasota Modern Quilt Guild in Sarasota FL. If you’re ever in their area, please visit a guild meeting.

Carole loves being a member of the quilt and textile art community and sharing her knowledge with others. Carole is a highly experienced workshop facilitator and she creates a warm and fun atmosphere. Beginner or experienced—all levels of quilter are welcome in her classes and everyone receives support and attention. She offers classes and lectures for groups all over the country. Take a look at her workshops and contact her from her website for information.

Lectures & Trunk Shows:

WHAT IS A MODERN QUILT? THE MYTHS AND THE MAGIC!

This 40-60 minute interactive presentation introduces quilters of all backgrounds to the modern quilt movement. Intimidated by modern quilts? I dispel some of the myths  so every quilter can appreciate the freedom in this new style of creative expression! I use many modern quilts to illustrate the key design trends in modern quilting. 

MY JOURNEY TO MODERN QUILTING

This lecture and trunk show is the story of my love of modern quilting—starting with modern quilts that I made in the early 2000’s.  There will be lots of time for questions and answers. In addition to the lecture (slides), I also show some of my quilts ‘in person’ on my design wall and table.  Please note that I do not cover modern quilt design principles in depth—familiarity with modern quilting is a prerequisite.   Topics include:

  • Artistic and quilter influences on my modern quilts
  • Early explorations of high contrast and minimalist palettes
  • Maximalism
  • AfroModerne quilts – cultural heritage and modernism
  • The Future of Modern Quilting—From Where I Stand

Modern Quilt Workshops – Live or via Zoom

I love traveling across the country meeting quilters who are interested in modern quilting. In the past year or so, I’ve had the honor of teaching my modern quilt workshops in California, Texas, Georgia, the east and west coasts of Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and I’ll be adding other states to this list!

Carole now offers a variety of classes, workshops,  online over the internet for students and for guilds. She’s combining every resource, including Zoom, to connect with her students to provide a world-class learning experience. ~Marguerita

My modern quilt workshops are suitable for all levels of quilters.  And, traditional quilters who take my modern quilt workshops tell me that they learn a lot about ‘what makes a quilt modern’ and have loads of fun–even though these workshops take them a little bit out of their box. I hear them say that quilting modern is freeing!

Visit Carole’s Website for more about her, her online quilt workshops and classes and to view her gorgeous quilts. Please let Carole know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar! Watch a May 2020 interview with Carole below:

Diane L Murtha

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Home: Iowa

Diane is a Zoom-ready Quilter, Fiber Artist, Teacher and Lecturer with enthusiasm to spare!

Quilting for over 30 years, she gravitated to art quilts 10 years ago. Her quilts and articles are in several books and magazines. Her quilts also travel nationally/internationally in multiple special exhibits, including Houston’s International Quilt Festival and Paducah’s National Quilt Museum.

Diane completely reinvigorated her love of quilting since she started doing Challenge quilt projects. The Challenge rules encourage her to try new things, learn new techniques, make mistakes, AND keep trying! Diane shares this enthusiasm and excitement in ALL of her Lectures & Workshops! It doesn’t matter if you are a traditional quilter, modern, or art quilter – we all can learn from challenging ourselves. Diane will inspire and encourage you to do just that through any of her lectures and workshops!

She has 3 Virtual Lectures and several workshops available.  Here are two:

Challenge I – Accept the Challenge Lecture – An informative and humorous perspective on my quilt challenge experiences, including a trunk and slide show. I’ll discuss what I’ve learned from the various challenges, other ways to challenge yourself and sources of inspiration. And most importantly how challenges can expand your quilting skills and inspire all your quilting!  It’s Super popular – with wide audience appeal. You will laugh and hopefully be inspired.

Modified Quilt As You Go Workshop –  A great technique for anyone intimidating by quilting a large quilt or for quilting in small spaces like retreats, condos, or for me, my RV.  This class yields perfectly quilted blocks embellished with a variety of applique options. Quilting thru each block and batting individually makes quilting easy for both new and experienced quilters alike – no bulk or awkward struggling with a large sandwiched quilt.  This technique can be used to create any size quilt that can be appliqued in endless options. So much fun! 

Please visit my website for more details: https://www.dianeLmurtha.com

Instagram: dianeLmurtha

Contact Diane via email at dlmurtha2018 @ gmail.com [remove spaces]

I’d be honored to speak or teach to your guild or small group of friends. I hope to hear from you.  Until then – Stay Safe and Happy Quilting Thanks 

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

It is my pleasure to recognize the outstanding job Diane Murtha did in presenting two of her Zoom workshops for our Guild.

Diane’s workshop  “Quilt as You Go“ was our first venture into virtual interactive Zoom meetings. Due to Diane’s leadership and technical knowledge, it was an unexpectedly delightful and stress free experience.

Diane is an engaging, personable and talented instructor. Her desire to ensure all participants are successful was evident in her pre-class instructions, preparation and planning. The individual attention she gave each student made us feel she was there right with us. She also provided the resources to be sure that we had everything we needed during the class. Aside from learning new skills she made the intimidating world of virtual classes fun and by the end of the class we felt we were physically all in the same space.

Our guild has taken additional classes from Diane and look forward to more offerings from her.
Diane Murtha’s  was very easy to work with: responding quickly to emails and following up on questions/concerns. Diane has set a high bar for all the instructors who follow.

She opened up an important world for us.  As a small Guild in the middle of the Pacific Ocean we can now access high-quality instructors without having the expense of their traveling to Hawaii. As you can tell, we highly recommend Diane Murtha.
        Mahalo.                 Maui Quilt Guild       Dian Gruber past VP/Program Chair

Diane Murtha’s Zoom lecture on Challenge Quilts was a real delight. I will admit to laughing out loud at several points as she shared a number of her “failures.” Such an important and humbling lesson for all of us. I laughed and ooh’ed so much that my husband asked me the next morning, “Who were you talking to?” While it would have been nice to be in person to hear a loud and appreciative audience, the Zoom format worked extremely well. Diane knows what’s she’s doing with technology, with quilting, and with engaging an audience. I recommend her highly. ~Elizabeth Bell, Vice-President for Programming, Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Brandon

Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill

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Home: Connecticut, USA

Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill is a designer, quilt pattern publisher, award-winning quilter, educator and creative entrepreneur. As a trained and practicing graphic designer, her quilts start with a concept and research shapes the design. Her work is inspired by her everyday life and experiences. Sheri strives to enhance people’s everyday lives through beautiful meaningful design. Through sharing her work and teaching, she loves to empower and inspire others to enjoy the process of making.

Sheri’s quilts have gained international recognition, including awards from Quilt Week/Paducah, QuiltCon, International Quilt Festival, the Quilt Alliance and the Modern Quilt Guild. Additionally, her work has been featured at art centers and galleries around the country. Her work has been included in books and publications such as Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century, Modern Patchwork and International Quilt Festival Scene. She self-publishes and distributes her quilt patterns, which can be found at quilt shops throughout the country and online. She also gives presentations/trunk shows and teaches nationally.

In 2017, she created and filmed two segments for Fresh Quilting, a new public television show co-produced by the Modern Quilt Guild and KS Productions. In 2016, she was awarded the first annual Craftsy Quilt Designer Fellowship.

In 2015, Sheri founded Whole Circle Studio, LLC. Whole Circle Studio specializes in the design of custom modern quilts, patterns and other licensed products. Learn more about Sheri, her work and program offerings at Whole Circle Studio and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wholecirclestudio/

Sheri is offering online and virtual presentations for guilds!

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

Mel Beach

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Home: San Jose, California

Mel Beach is a San Jose, CA based quilt artist, teacher and lecturer, who breaks away from tradition by adding her own modern, beautifully textured and colorful twists. She loves stretching her creativity through her completion of 60+ quilt challenges at the local and international level. Her quilt challenge entries draw upon her inquisitive nature of asking “What If?”, working in a series, comedy improv studies along with her love of nature, photography and sketching.

Many of her challenge quilts have been exhibited locally, juried into national quilt shows and traveling exhibits, published in books/magazines, earned awards/ribbons and selected as Finalists.

She is an Aurifil Artisan and a Featured Artist on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims (episode 2112).

Mel is an industry leader in online teaching for guilds. She works closely with many guilds, including the Studio Art Quilt Association and the Northern California Quilt Council, to bring the best possible learning experience to her students. ~Marguerita

Multi-Media Lectures/Trunk Shows: Quilt challenges, fabric dyeing and free-motion quilting.

Quilting Workshops: Pebble & Play!, Mod Molas & Bright Blooms, Magnificent Mandalas, Walking Foot WOW.

Modern Design Workshops: Slice of Improv, Free Styling & Spiraling, Mod Mandalas, Intriguing Interleaves, Improv, Improv Piecing, Improvisational.

See more about Mel on her website Mel Beach Quilts.  Please let Mel know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!

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

Cindy Grisdela

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Home: Reston, Virginia, USA. Online classes for guilds, as well as presentations, are available!

Cindy is the author of Artful Improv: Explore Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free Motion Quilting.

Cindy specializes in improvisational piecing and free motion quilting. She offers a variety of classes, both technique based and project based, using improv techniques to help quilters explore their own creativity. She also offers trunk shows on using color effectively and combining stitch patterns to create compelling quilts.

Cindy’s work was featured in Quilting Arts TV’s season 2100 on curved piecing and improv log cabin blocks. Find out more about Cindy by visiting her website.

Cindy is experienced in offering online classes, presentations, workshops specifically for guilds. Be sure to check her website for more details. ~Marguerita

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

Katie Pedersen

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Home: Seattle, Washington

The art of making something by hand sets each of us on a journey to discovering who we are as artists. This personal process can start with simply sewing two pieces of fabric together. Constant practice and study have become my best teachers. I love that quilts provide a physical utilitarian object that showcase the evolution of one’s creative confidence and developing aesthetic.

I enjoy merging improvisational techniques with modern and/or traditional quilt design. Exploring new ideas keeps my style in constant evolution and the process fresh. I wish I could sew as fast as the ideas come to me. The good news is I’ll never run out.

I love sharing stories about my quilts and the skills and techniques I’ve learned from making them. My workshops and truck show/lectures make modern improvisational quilting fun, laid back and accessible. I also host weekly Open Studios and workshops in my West Seattle studio. You can find out more about me, and see my quilts, at my website Sew Katie Did

Please let Katie 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!