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A graduate of Progressive Fashion School formerly located in Cleveland Ohio, Joanne Banko is an author, freelance sewing educator, and self-proclaimed sewing cheerleader!
As a Brother Ambassador Joanne contributes regularly to the official Brother blog, Stitching Sewcial. Guest instructor on the popular PBS It’s Sew Easy TV show, and author of the book Wrapped in Embroidery, Joanne enjoys designing projects to help sewing and embroidery enthusiasts make the most of their machines.
Kim Christopherson is the creator, owner, and CEO of Kimberbell® Designs. Kimberbell customers love her innovative machine embroidery projects as well as the amazing block of the week and pillow bench series for sewing. Besides being a business owner, Kim has been featured in many quilting and embroidery publications.
Out of curiosity, Chris Tock got into sewing by chance when he participated in a Cosplay event. He then moved on to sew custom cosplay costumes for friends. Combining both his passion for sewing and education, he founded Tock Custom, a Dallas-based design studio that specializes in men’s clothing, customer messenger bags and cosplay costumes.
He also runs a successful YouTube channel sharing sewing tutorials to inspire others who may have been just like him - looking to get into sewing their own clothing or costumes.
Providing inspiration and solutions for machine embroidery enthusiasts Eileen Roche shares her wealth of machine embroidery and sewing experience to create products for embroiderers of any skill level. Her talent, creativity and enthusiasm distinguish her from others in the industry and are the driving force behind the success of Designs in Machine Embroidery Inspiration events and the products available online and in dealers across the United States and beyond.
Eileen has been a frequent guest on Sewing With Nancy and also hosted the Embroider it Yourself educational video series. She is also the author of several books and hold patents on many clever machine embroidery products.
Kelly is a National Account Trainer at Juki America Inc. An accomplished and performance-driven territory manager with a strong background in operational management, staffing, inventory control, training and customer service. Kelly is the go-to person when it comes to all things Juki machine related.
Jennifer learned how to sew by making Barbie clothes and for 35+ years she kept the lover for sewing all the way into a career. Her favorite place to sew is at a quilt retreat with her best sewing friends on the Oregon coast. Her favorite machine to use is a Luminaire XP3.
Richard’s passion for sewing began at a very young age, learning early on how to cut out quilt pieces for his family of quilters. It seemed only natural that he would end up becoming a quilter as well with a keen eye for design in quilts that fall into the art quilt category.
Anne’s passion for sewing started with the required Home Economics class. Sewing, creating unique clothes, and crafting were her things – even using her grandmother’s trundle machine. Today you'll find Anne on the Artistic Digitizer facebook page, sharing her extensive knowledge of embroidery digitizing and editing; and helping everyone with troubleshooting their projects.
Kathi Quinn, National Education Coordinator for RNK Distributing for ten years, exclusive distributors of Floriani Products has become known for her love for embroidery, sewing, and quilting. Kathi started her passion for all aspects of embroidering with the early home embroidery machines. Kathi began teaching others her tricks and solutions to everyday challenges in home embroidery many years ago.
Anna fell in love with quilting several years ago and has never looked back! Anna’s favorite machines include the Solaris, Altair and Meridian and you can find her teaching using these machines and her favorite techniques in shops around the country and online on the Baby Lock Facebook pages and machine specific groups.
Valarie has been in the quilting and sewing industry for over 25 years. She is a hard worker who likes to create and inspire new ideas in the quilting and sewing industry. She works with many educators throughout the community to learn and understand many different techniques and styles so she can bring you new and exciting products. She works with her two daughters, Stephanie and Jessica.
Karlie Belle is a full-time working mom and wife with a serious craft addiction. When she’s not being a dance mom, she loves to be in her craft room and sharing with you how to make beautiful things with an embroidery machine. Catch her on her live Friday night show, “Sip & Stitch.”
After making her first quilt in 1995, Melinda found her passion and joy in the creative process of quilting. It was after purchasing her first Baby Lock machine that she fell in love with machine embroidery. Through instructing other sewing and embroidery enthusiasts, she realized that true joy comes from sharing her knowledge and helping others create beautiful projects they never thought were possible.
Harley Thomas has been in eCommerce for as long as it has been around and has worked with all types of firms from the smallest all the way up to the Fortune 50 firms. Most people will tell you that problem solving in this industry can be a real drag, but Harley is energized by it. In fact, once he solved an online search problem that led to an increase in revenue of 40% in the first twelve weeks!
As a young child, Miriam had a love for textiles and anything she could create with them. She attended Maryland College of Art and studied textile arts. Miriam has been published in several articles and appeared on the show Fresh Quilting. Her work has been featured in the Modern Quilt Guild’s “Modern Quilts, Best of the New Century” book. She has also won many awards for her quilts.
Growing up in a family of crafters, Mike said he didn't become serious about sewing until he studied Costume Design and Technology at Florida State University a little over 20 years ago. He said he enjoys the unique creative process sewing provides. Mike added that teaching has also shown him the special relationship sewers have with one another.
Patty’s passion for embroidery, sewing and quilting aided her in joining the Baby Lock Training Team in January 2012. Her experience as a sewing and embroidery small business owner has helped bring a new perspective to the Training Team. Like most, she brings a life-long history of sewing and comes from a crafty lineage of women in her family. Patty’s experience of making custom purses, monogramming and embroidery helps her to spread the love for embroidery and the world of the multi-needle.
Kathy started sewing for others as a teen because I would rather sew than babysit to make spending money. She has 45+ years of sewing experience and loves to sew in her sewing room. Her favorite machines are the Luminaire XP3 and PR1055X.
Lisa started sewing at age six, or, as she puts it, "a long, long time." Over the course of those years, she fell in love with the endless creative possibilities sewing provides. When it comes to teaching, Lisa said she loves interacting with her students and seeing their reactions. She also adds that teaching is a two-way street, where she learns from her students in turn. It's a lesson she's retained throughout her career, and it's helped her keep a fresh approach to teaching.
Judy Fredenburgh is a professional educator for sewing, embroidery, quilting and crafting. Judy’s teaching style takes new technologies and inspires students of all levels to find their unique creativity to exhilarate their sewing and crafting passions. Judy has more than 30 years of experience working in the Sewing Industry. As a former Corporate Educator, Event Coordinator, and Retail Store Manager, and a small business owner herself, Judy has a well-rounded understanding of the Sewing Industry.
Deborah Jones is a second-generation embroiderer who learned much about embroidery from her father, a western wear tailor who created elaborate embroidered stage costumes for country music performers and rodeo stars.
Deborah has managed large-scale embroidery shops and operated her own successful retail embroidery business. Regarded as an expert in machine embroidery, she authored the reference book, Machine Embroidery on Difficult Materials and is a popular instructor on Craftsy.com. Jones’ loves to talk about any aspect of embroidery and oversees thread, stabilizers and other products for DIME.
Michelle was bitten by the crafting bug at a very early age. From that point forward, Michelle enjoyed designing doll clothes, altering garment patterns into costumes, and creating clothing for her friends. Today, Michelle devotes one hundred percent of her time to her work as a freelance sewing and embroidery educator and consultant. She deeply enjoys teaching techniques, and skills while encouraging everyone to find their inner crafting bug.
Jamie is the Vice President at the Reliable corporation. He works closely with the product development team to develop the best products tailored to their customer needs as well as trying to be a step above their competitors. Jamie also contributes to leading the sales operations of Reliable, ensuring the best quality customer service.
Cindy resides in Georgia with her husband. Cindy is an internationally recognized Brother Software expert. She began working with the PE-DESIGN® software when it was first introduced and began teaching all Brother Software thereafter. She is also nationally recognized as an expert on the Brother Scan-N-Cut and machine embroidery.
She teaches classes on the Craftsy Platform and has been a guest instructor on the Hit TV Show “It’s Sew Easy”.
Providing inspiration and solutions for machine embroidery enthusiasts Eileen Roche shares her wealth of machine embroidery and sewing experience to create products for embroiderers of any skill level. Her talent, creativity and enthusiasm distinguish her from others in the industry and are the driving force behind the success of Designs in Machine Embroidery Inspiration events and the products available online and in dealers across the United States and beyond.
Eileen has been a frequent guest on Sewing With Nancy and also hosted the Embroider it Yourself educational video series. She is also the author of several books and hold patents on many clever machine embroidery products.
Zandra Shaw is the creator and CEO of Embroidershoppe.com, an established and recognized embroidery house in the home embroidery industry, since 2009. Together with her sister Mila, she created a meaningful platform in the embroidery environment. She soon established that exclusive niche marketing is of the utmost importance. The lack of enough practical customer training is a major short coming in the embroidery industry. This leads to stagnation in the market and creates big opportunities for small business to fulfill the need.
My love of sewing, crafting & designing began at an early age. After seeing an embroidery machine for the first time almost 18 years ago, I knew I had to have one. Shortly after purchasing a machine, I began to create my own designs. ‘In the hoop’ designs are what I focused on and are what I love to digitize. I offer my fun, unique designs & projects on my website, Embroidery Garden. I’ve been selling my designs online for the past 15 years and have recently begun teaching classes across the country. I enjoy meeting fellow embroiderers and constantly learning new things about this wonderful industry.
Kennedy is our social media content creator, host of Takeover Tuesday and works behind the scenes on all our live shows. She is an avid Taylor Swift fan as well of other types of music, tv show binger and dog mom of one. You can catch her cheery persona anywhere around the office or at the car wash.
Ashley Jones, an Educator & Inspiration Consultant for DIME, combines a professional career in Information Technology with personal interest in embroidery, sewing and quilting to deliver a broad range of knowledge in a straightforward and simple manner. She gained extensive knowledge of nearly every brand of sewing/embroidery machine and embroidery software while working and teaching for one of the largest sewing machine dealers in the industry. She is a Martha Pullen Licensed Teacher and runs her own embroidery business. Now Ashley travels all over the country sharing her tips and tricks for stabilizing, hooping, placement and using embroidery software to overcome everyday challenges with embroidery. She loves to share the abundance of techniques she has fine-tuned over many years.
Trevor is a second-generation embroidery designer with over 25 years of experience. Designing since 1984 and teaching since 2000. Trevor has become an educational leader in the industry with his online workshops, and now he joins with Floriani to bring out the best in embroidery software.
Starting in first grade sewing doll clothes by hand, Aine grew up as a garment sewer — learning from her mom and using the sewing machine as soon as she was big enough to reach the pedals. She learned home decor sewing and made curtains, drapes, cushions and bedding for every home she lived in.
She discovered the world of machine embroidery and applique 20 years ago and enjoys the world of creating, editing and digitizing designs. Retiring from veterinary medicine, she teaches sewing classes and works part-time for her favorite sewing center.
Garrett is currently the Sales Manager at SWF. Garrett has been with the company for 10 years and has been around embroidery throughout his full career. Garrett worked his way through the ranks starting as an embroidery tech with the company in 2011. Outside of helping his sales staff and communicating with customers, he enjoys playing golf and loves spending time with his wife and 2-year-old son.
