QBL teachers are nationally & internationally recognized quilt artists and teachers.  Below you will find biographical information on all of the QBL 2012 workshop teachers.        

For workshop descriptions click here.

Judi Blaydon judges, teaches and lectures internationally and her work has appeared in Quilt National, Quilts = Art = Quilts at the Schweinfurth Art Center, and is included in public and private collections in the US, Australia and Japan. She is also featured in Robert Shaw’s The Art Quilt and 88 Leaders in the Quilt World Today (Nihon Vogue) and her quilt, The Mountain and the Magic: Night Lights is in the permanent collection of the national quilt museum. Judi's book, Collage + Cloth = Quilt, [C&T Publishing 2010] documents the work of several QBL participants who took her workshop, as well as her own quilts. Autographed copies are available. If you are interested please email judi@judiwarrenblaydon.com for more information.

Read more about Judi on her website: www.judiwarrenblaydon.com

Judi is teaching Class #1 & #2: Studio with Teacher (2 & 3-day Session I) & Class #16: After-Image + Photo Finish (5-day Session II)

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Elizabeth Busch has made painted quilts since 1983, and has made a living as a self employed artist since 1987. Large scale commissioned wall quilts and suspended Kinetic Sculpture are challenging projects and are her main source of her income. Personal quilts feed her soul and are exhibited and published. She has won numerous awards, including the Quilts Japan Award and Best in Show from Quilt National. In 2009 she was given a retrospective exhibition at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery in San Diego.

Visit elizabethbusch.com for publications in which her work appears, workshops, and collections which have her work.

Read more about Elizabeth on her website:  www.elizabethbusch.com

Elizabeth is teaching Classes #3: Let's Begin Again! (5-day Session I)

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Nancy Eha uses beading as a primary design element on art quilts.  Through endless hours of exploration with needle and beads, I have developed fabric-beading techniques which go far beyond the five or so traditional bead embroidery stitches. For many of my pieces I decide what self-invented beading techniques I will use on my piece and then plan the fabric background.  This is in reverse of the typical art quilt construction plan where the embellishments are decided after the quilt is constructed. Many of my art quilts have been described as “obsessively beaded”, and I would agree with that.

Read more about Nancy on her website: www.beadcreative.com

Nancy is teaching Class #18:  Crazy Beading (2-day Session II) & Class #19: Skimming the Surface (3-day Session II)

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Valerie S. Goodwin is a mixed media fiber artist and architect. Most of her work is inspired by her love of aerial views of landscapes and cities and are based on maps. She received degrees in architecture from Washington University and Yale University. Her award winning work has been widely published and exhibited. She has also lectured and given workshops nationally and internationally.

Read more about Valerie on her website:  www.quiltsbyvalerie.com

Valerie is teaching Class #20 The Complex Composition (5-day Session II)

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Judy Langille is a nationally acclaimed fiber artist and experienced art educator, who has received grants from the Geraldine Dodge Foundation. She has received numerous surface design awards for her quilt art and hand dyed fabrics and has had many pieces accepted at the most prestigious shows, such as Quilt National, Visions, and Art Quilts Philadelphia/Elements. She has had her work published in numerous publications, most recently in the Surface Design Journal where she co-authored an article called, “One Cloth, One Fabric: Whole Cloth Composition”. She continues to work in her studio, show her art and teach in artist in residence programs around the country.

Read more about Judy on her website:  www.judylangille.com

Judy is teaching Class #5 Cut, Slash and Tear Your Way to Innovative Fabric Design (5-day Session I)

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Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer lives and makes quilts in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches in the Studio School at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in the US and overseas. She is the co-editor of Speaking in Cloth: 6 Quilters, 6 Voices and has written for fiber art magazines in the US, UK, and New Zealand. She was awarded a residency at the Christchurch Arts Centre in 2007 and has lectured and taught workshops in New Zealand, Canada, and across the US.

Read more about Jeannette on her website:  www.jdmeyer.com

Jeannette is teaching Class #6:  Working In a Series (5-day Session I),

Class #21: Layers of Lightness (5-day Session II)

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Philippa Naylor has a degree in clothing design and technology and she worked as a lingerie designer before moving to Saudi Arabia and setting up a business making evening and wedding dresses. Discovering quilting in 1996, she was immediately hooked. Her exploration of quilting covers many fields including machine appliqué curved piecing and whole-cloth quilts. She loves working with vivid colors and uses her own hand dyed fabrics to create work which has great drama from a distance and lots of fine detail close up. She has won many awards in the USA and UK including Best of Show at AQS in 2003 and more recently the Pfaff Award for Machine Artistry at IQF in Houston 2008 and 2009. She teaches widely in Europe and the US, and is the Author of ‘Quilting in the Limelight’ published by Dragon Threads.

Read more about Philippa on her website:  www.philippanaylor.com

Philippa is teaching Class #7: Finishing School: Exciting Edging (2-day Session I), Class #8: Drama & Detail: Studies in Contemporary Machine Appliqué (3-day Session I), Class #22: Studio with Teacher (2-day Session II), Class#23: Studio with Teacher (3-day Session II)

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Sue Nickels has been quilting for 30 years, starting by hand and gradually focusing on machine work and teaching machine techniques for the past 19.  She has taught and lectured nationally for shops, guilds and major conferences, and internationally in England, Norway, Spain, Australia & New Zealand. Her major awards include 1998 AQS Best of Show for “The Beatles Quilt,” made with her sister, Pat Holly.  Their quilt, “The Space Quilt” won the 2003 IQA Master of Machine Artistry Award & the 2004 AQS Machine Workmanship Award. Sue’s books include Machine Appliqué: A Sampler of Techniques, Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques & Stitched Raw Edge Appliqué, co-authored with Pat. Her workshop priority is to provide a relaxed environment to learn machine techniques that are timesaving and to emphasize the best quality workmanship, never compromising quality for speed!

Read more about Sue on her website:  www.sue-nickels.com

Sue is teaching Class #9: Whole Cloth Feathers (2-day Session I) & Class #10:  Folk Garden Borders (3-day Session I)

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Elin Noble was born in Munich, Germany, grew up in the United States, the Far East and Europe. She received her BFA from the University of Washington in 1982, studied art history in Florence, Italy and has traveled and studied extensively abroad. Travel is an important influence and she travels regularly to experience culture, landscape and teach dye classes.  She is the author of Dyes & Paints: A Hands-on Guide to Coloring Fabric and was nominated for teacher of the year award for 2005 by Professional Quilter magazine.

Read more about Elin on her website: www.elinnoble.com

Elin is teaching Class #11:  Translating Ideas (5-day Session I) &

Class #24:  True Blue (5-day Session II)

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Betty Pillsbury is an award-winning textile artist and accomplished instructor.  Betty has appeared on HGTV’s “Simply Quilts” and PBS’s “Quilting Nebraska”. Her awards include over 160 ribbons for needlework including Best Needlework at the Vermont Quilt Festival, Best Traditional Quilt at Threads Across America in Pigeon Forge, TN, first place at the American Quilter’s Society Great Embroidered Quilt competition and the Embroiderers’ Guild of America Educators’ Award of Excellence.  Her work has been exhibited at many venues including the White House, The Fenimore Art Museum and the National Museum for Women in the Arts.   Currently, she is working closely with The Fabulous Beekman Boys on fiber art and herbs.  Learning and laughter are delivered in equal measures at Betty’s classes.  

Read more about Betty on her website: www.bettypillsbury.com

Betty is teaching Class #12:  Hand Embroidery For Crazy Quilters and Sane (2-day Session I), Class #13: Crazy Quilts - Victorian Meets New Age (3-day Session I)

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With a degree in fine art, Anita Grossman Solomon moved to lower Manhattan in 1975 to paint. Within 3 years she put down her brushes to work with contemporary art collections. In 1990 she took up quiltmaking becoming a full-time quilt teacher and author.  She makes artful bed quilts from classic blocks using her signature non-traditional methods. Her “Why didn’t I think of that?” innovations make quiltmaking faster and easier. She has appeared on HGTV’s “Simply Quilts” twice, “The Quilt Show” and  authored three books for C&T Publishing: Make It Simpler Paper Piecing, Perfect Blocks in Minutes, and Rotary Cutting Revolution. Her original techniques, efficient construction shortcuts and no-waste methods have been featured in magazine and books including Quiltmaker, Experts’ Guide to Foundation Piecing, 100 Tips from Award Winning Quilters and Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Quiltmaking. Anita’s Simple Foundations vellum and her Make It Simpler® Interfacing product are distributed internationally. Her blog is an indicator of what you might expect in her workshops.  

Read more about Anita on her website: :  http://makeitsimpler.blogspot.com

Anita is teaching Class #25:  Cut It, Sew It, Love It: Squares-on-Point (2-day Session II) & Class #26: The No Patience Quilt (3-day Session II)

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Melanie Testa is an accomplished textile and quilt artist. She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in Textile/Surface Design and exhibits her fiber art at various galleries and quilt shows around the country. She is the author of Inspired to Quilt, Creative Experiments in Art Quilt Imagery by Interweave Press. She often begins her work by sketching in journals using paint and pens. Interpreting these ideas into cloth is a form of discovery within itself. These whole cloth fiber interpretations are collaged and densely quilted, creating richly layered art for the wall.

Read more about Melanie on her website: www.melanietesta.com

Melanie is teaching Class #27: Layer, Build and Play with Thickened Dyes (5-day Session II)

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