March 10 - March 14, 2025
SPECIAL PRESENTERS
Anna Avery Vaughn
Anna fell in love with quilting several years ago and has never looked back! She is especially drawn to designing modern quilts with a vintage twist and shares that love with everyone she meets as she travels to shops around the country and in her local area in Tallahassee, Florida. Not only does she like to embellish her quilts with machine embroidery, one of her favorite features to tap into in the IQ™ Designer functionality of some of her favorite Baby Lock machines. Anna believes that there is no such thing as a perfect quilt, just the perfect love that goes into making one. 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.
Aubrey Hartman
Aubrey Hartman is an Area Sales Manager with Butler Robotics. Aubrey has a long history with thread, fabric, and a sewing needle. She has been sewing since she was 5 years old when she took a kid’s quilting class and has never looked back. She has a degree in Theatrical Costume Design and enjoys making her own clothes and especially her yearly Halloween costume. Aubrey learned about quilt making when she took a job at a local quilt shop and quickly found herself a new hobby. Now, she is learning all about long arm quilting and long arm automation with her new position with Bulter Robotics and is loving every minute of it.
Becky Thompson
Meet Becky Thompson, the innovative owner of the popular YouTube channel and blog, Power Tools With Thread. Becky is a seasoned quilter and machine embroiderer who loves exploring new techniques in the stitching industry. Her channel and blog are dedicated to inspiring fellow quilters and embroiderers to embrace new software and machine technology in their projects.
Belle Brunner
Belle began quilting in in her mid-40’s and quickly fell in love with the craft. After taking an intensive pattern writing course, she began designing and publishing quilt patterns. She focuses on confident beginner patterns and techniques that even advanced quilters love to make and believes that all people, of any age, can learn to quilt. Her patterns are sold by major distributors and The Fat Quarter Shop. Belle is a brand ambassador for Benartex Fabrics, Arrow Sewing, Havels Sewing, The Daylight Company, and Oliso. She is a former 2022 Maywood Studio Maker and was a 2023 Instructor for the American Quilters Society Quilt Week, Stitch Fest, The Original Sewing & Quilting Expo and International Quilt Festival. She and her father own an AIRBNB in a national forest where she will be hosting small quilting retreats later in 2024. Belle also has a new online workshop to educate and support quilt pattern testers. Having spent years helping non-profits and boards of directors in her other business, Belle expanded her Seams Sew Me business to also specialize in providing leadership, governance, consulting and education for quilt guilds’ boards of directors. She believes that strong inclusive guilds contribute to strong communities. She leads and teaches with her two leading values: of compassion and understanding.
Cassie Cartmell
Cassie started sewing four years ago, knowing nothing about it at all. In that time, she has come to love how sewing skills all connect with one another. "Sewing open doors for my creativity, nothing is impossible to make without a little imagination and thought," she said. "I also love how technology is making its mark and having an impact in regards to making it more fun and making techniques easier for the beginner or the advanced sewer."The best part of teaching, she said, is adding value to a person's life by helping them resolve a particular pain point in sewing. "It really does mean the whole world to me to have played a part in that," Cassie said. Through her time as an educator, she said her students have shown her there is a connection through community that helps to create a movement and encourages the next generation of sewers."It's fantastic having access to different types of personalities, and encouraging them to learn and grow within themselves and their abilities," she said. And while she loves her Baby Lock Soprano, she has a special place for her quarter inch foot. "I just couldn't live without it."
Cindy Hogan
Cindy resides in Georgia with her husband. She has a BS and MS from the University of TN in Special Education and was a full time Special Education teacher until 2003 when she decided to change career paths and use her knowledge of PE-DESIGN® and Education to be a freelance National Product Training Specialist for the for all Brother Software Programs. 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 national 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”.
Danielle Amato
Danielle has been sewing on Janome machines since childhood, where she developed a deep passion for fashion design and textiles arts. She earned degrees in Fashion Design, Textile Development, and Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. With years of experience as a Sample Maker and Technical Designer for ready to wear brands in New York City, Danielle has worked on a variety of projects, including sample making and alterations for Brooke Shields for her line with QVC. She has her own alterations business, including custom bridal accessories and embroidery, as well as managing a successful e-commerce shop featuring personalized embroidered creations. Before becoming a Janome Educator, she first joined Janome as a Maker and then spent years in the Marketing department at Janome America, combining her industry expertise with her love of sewing. While her background has always been in fashion design, she has embraced the quilting world, enjoying the opportunity to expand her skills and share her creativity through tutorials and education with the Janome community. You’ll see Danielle in many of our educational videos on our social channels. Her most-loved machines are the Skyline S9 and the Continental M17.
Dawn Chace
Dawn is an accomplished sewist with over 40 years of experience under her belt. In 2007, she started an embroidery business selling embroidery and applique items in her local area, followed shortly after by opening an online store creating personalized applique and shirts. She merged her love of embroidery and quilting 10 years ago by starting Creative Appliques. She has since created over 6,000 designs including applique designs, embroidery fonts and designs and in-the-hoop projects.
Deb Bone Harris
Embroidery is more than just surface design in Debbie’s collections; it is an integral and decorative element in her creations. She’s taught at venues across the country for national sewing organizations, specializing in couture sewing techniques, free motion embroidery and vintage ribbon work. Embellishment and surface encrustation are just a few of her signature areas of expertise. Deb has been a Clothing and Textile Advisor (CTA) for Washington State University (WSU) since 1996 and has been in the sewing industry long before that. She is a graduate of the City and Guilds of London Institute, a former Stretch and Sew instructor (some of you may remember this from back in the day), a certified Jenny Haskins Victorian School instructor and a Martha Pullen licensed instructor. But probably her biggest honor was being accepted to compete in the Houston International Fashion Show for two years in a row. The sewing machine is Deb’s tool of choice – especially her Baby Lock Solaris Vision - while fabrics, ribbons, glorious threads and fibers create the palette she works with.
Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson started CutterPillar with his brother Kelly in 2012 and has attended hundreds of quilting shows over the years where he enjoys presenting to and listening to customers. He learned to sew when he was a teenager, and now loves combining that knowledge with what he learns from listening to CutterPillar customers to create the innovative sewing, quilting, and paper crafting tools that empower our customers to do the crafting they love so much better & easier.
Janna Mathews
Janna Mathews is the Sales Manager with Grace Company. She joined the company as an Account Executive and since being promoted, she has had the opportunity to work with both customers and dealers across the country. She has a great client and retail background and is committed to taking care of each person she is working with. Janna is dedicated to helping Grace Company grow. Although not a dedicated quilter herself, she comes from a long line of quilters and has several UFOs she would love to get finished. When she is not at work, Janna is an avid baker and loves bringing in tasty treats to share. Janna can’t wait to talk to you more about all the great ways Grace Company can help your quilting experience.
Jarek Erznoznik
Jarek Erznoznik is an Account Executive for Grace Company. They work closely with customers and dealers regarding the fantastic Grace products. Jarek has been with the company for over three years and originally worked in the quality check and repair department for the Q’nique sewing machine line. There Jarek learned invaluable experience about the inner and outer workings of the machines, and now uses that knowledge to help customers find the best Q’nique machine to suit their needs. Outside of work, Jarek enjoys spending time painting, being creative, and loves spending time with their Labrador Retriever, Eva. Jarek hopes to make your experience and interactions with Grace Company a fantastic experience.
Jennifer Gigas
Primarily a self-taught sewing and embroidery enthusiast, there are few types of sewing that Jennifer doesn't enjoy. She considers it a privilege to be heavily involved in the development of the BERNINA long-arm and multi-needle embroidery products.
Jennifer Gleich
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.
Jory Snyder
Throughout my childhood in Texas, my mother was an avid sewer and crafter, so sewing and crafting are part of my DNA. One of my first memories was making custom stickers to “screenprint” and personalize my Barbie doll’s clothing. After graduating from Texas Tech University with a degree in apparel design and manufacturing, I worked for a publisher in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as an editor and designer for INKnitters and Crochet Fantasy magazines. I then fell in love with my husband, got married, and moved to Oklahoma, where I earned a teaching certificate and worked as a special education/science teacher. Foundation paper piecing, scribble applique, and pillow making are a few of my favorite things. I prefer smaller projects, but I do make one or two quilts per year. In my spare time, I can be found in front of my Solaris Vision, crafting with my digital cutter, or spending time with my husband and our rescue dogs.
Karen Charles
Karen is a national event specialist, renowned not only for her expansive knowledge of Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff machines but for her enthusiasm in sharing that knowledge with others. Her teaching methods make even the most complicated task achievable for all students. Whether a novice or experienced sewer, Karen's event participants always learn new and unique methods to achieve beautiful results. Her exciting quilting and embroidery projects have been published in Quilter's Newsletter, Craft Ideas and Designs in Machine Embroidery magazines. She travels from Vermont with a fabulous trunk show sure to inspire everyone! Specialties: Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff machine knowledge, Continuous quilting and embroidery techniques, mySewnet Software, thread painting/free motion, and creative serging techniques.! If you would like to see more of Karen's work and videos visit her Facebook page: Karen Loves to Quilt and Sew.
Karlee Porter
Karlee Porter is the author and inventor of the popular free-motion quilting technique, “Graffiti Quilting”. She has traveled internationally, stateside, as well as online to teach thousands of quilters how to harness their free-motion quilting skills. The first Graffiti Quilting book was published in 2014, a second in 2017, and a much larger and expanded curriculum in 2024 for the 10 year anniversary of its first publication. She now teaches Graffiti Quilting as a comprehensive free-motion quilting educational journey, offering numerous hours of instructional videos and bonus content, while guiding her students through live online class sessions. She is the owner and founder of the custom printing quilt top company, HonestFabric.com. She has also designed over 1,000 computerized quilting designs which she sells and supports from her website, Karleeporter.com
Karlie Belle
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.”
Kate Quinn
Kate’s fascination with quilting began in 1991 when she received a hand-quilted Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt as a wedding present, followed by a gifted scrappy quilt to further solidify her love of fabrics and colors. Soon after Kate made her first quilt celebrate the birth of her first child and has been a devoted quilter ever since. As an Army veteran, a military spouse, and a mother of 5 children, quilting became the thread that stitched her into the new community every time the family moved. As a stay-at-home mom, she taught and organized charity quilting for decades through community and church organizations. She loves all styles and types of quilts from art to modern, from traditional pieced to appliqué. In the mid-2000’s she began teaching at local quilt shops. Kate loves to interact with other creative people and help them to develop the skills they need to make both beautiful and comfortable quilted items. This training and experience helped her realize her own dream of becoming a longarm quilter. In 2016, she opened FabriKated Quilts Longarm Service in Rio Rancho, NM. After longarming for the public for several year, Kate’s love of quilting and longarming lead to a natural transition to teaching others how to get the best from their longarm machines. Kate joined Janome America as a longarm specialist in January 2022.Her longarm specialties include ruler work skills, working with Pro-Stitcher®, and combining digital and free-motion designs. Her students also learn to achieve their best possible results by playing with all different thread types and weights, squaring up and taming wavy quilts, and breaking large quilts down into manageable bites.
Katrina Walker
Katrina Walker has published over 60 articles for Threads, Creative Machine Embroidery, Sew News, Art of Quilting, and many other sewing magazines. Her videos and classes for Clover, SewDaily TV, Craftsy, Sulky, National Sewing Circle, Taunton Workshops, and BurdaStyle are enjoyed worldwide. She is also the author of Serger 101: A Field Guide, and the Essential Serger Reference Tool. Katrina is a national educator for PFAFF, Husqvarna Viking, and Singer sewing machines, Clover’s Tool School Instructor, and a Sulky Sewcialite. Katrina is the 2024 inductee of the American Sewing Guild’s Sewing Hall of Fame.
Kelly Latreille
Kelly is a National Account Trainer at Juki America Inc. An accomplished and performance-driven territory manager with a strong background in operational management, budgeting, staffing, inventory control, training and development, and customer service.
Linda Bratten
Linda has been a quilting/sewing teacher, in the Columbia, MO area since 2008. Linda has recently self-published a series of workbooks to enhance her Free-Motion Machine Quilting classes and has created several patterns and machine embroidery designs. She loves to mix different mediums and techniques to create unique one of a kind fiber art.
Melinda Romero
Melinda Romero is a Grace Company Account Executive with a focus on events. She has a fantastic and extensive background in account/project coordination, leadership, and process improvement, all while exceeding the goal of providing superb customer service. She has learned a lot in her time here and is looking forward to continuing to learn more and being part of Grace Company's growth. She loves attending shows where she gets to connect with customers providing education about our products, hearing about their wonderful projects, and helping make dreams come true with their purchase of a machine, frame, or combination of the two. In her time off, Melinda loves to go camping, spend days at the lake, take road trips, cook, or just relax and watch a good movie or series. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and is always willing to lend a hand to help anyone out. She volunteers with a local animal rescue and has a soft spot for helping the tiniest spicy little kittens find their forever homes.
Milinda Stephenson
Throughout her time as a Baby Lock Educator, Milinda made an important discovery. "I’ve learned that people who sew tend to be smart, creative and determined. These are people who make the world a better place—they are givers—the majority of their sewing tends to be for other people. That generous spirit is contagious, and brings me so much joy!" She said connecting with those people is her favorite part of teaching. "We are healthier when we are in community, and teaching engages me in this fabulous community of men and women who love to learn and love to sew." Milinda started sewing since she went off to college and — as she readily pointed out — since her mom stopped sewing for her. She said she's been obsessed with sewing and design since then.
Miriam Coffey
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. During this time she taught herself to sew and has never looked back! Miriam has been involved in the fabric world in many different avenues: fashion design, managing a modern quilt store, co-owning a long arm quilting business, serving as a textile sales representative and most excitingly as a Janome Educator. 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. Out of her local and international awards – which includes QuiltCon awards, and a Best in Show award from the Asheville Quilt Show - she is most proud of her 1st place blue ribbon from AQS Paducah. A favorite part of her job is empowering people to do things they thought were out of their sewing skillset. This includes improvisational piecing in quilting to help quilters break out of a straight-line view and look at things from a different perspective. Miriam also specializes in educating Janome owners on learning more modern embroidery techniques. When she began learning to embroider, she challenged herself to learn to use this new sewing “tool” to fit into her aesthetic and not the other way around. By using her MC15000 to texturize fabric to then cut for piecing, she adds another dimension of texture to her work which is now an integral part of her current quilting style.
Mitzi Redd
Mitzi Redd is a Territory Sales Manager or Laurastar USA. She has a long history of being in the industry as a teacher, quilt designer, sewing machine educator, and sales manager. She first learned to quilt while living in Alaska and has continued on throughout the years expanding her love of all things' fabric. Her passion is inspiring others to grow within the sewing and quilting industry so that they enjoy their art as much as she does.
Paige Bartlett
Hello! My name is Paige Bartlett. I am a Baby Lock educator, fabric painter, pattern writer, and lover of quilting, serging, and machine embroidery! My studio is located near Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Osage County. My mom sat me down at her Baby Lock sewing machine when I was 5 years old, and I have been sewing since! Sitting down at my favorite machine of the moment and creating something beautiful has always been so therapeutic for me and keeps me motivated to keep growing my skill set and pushing the boundaries of my creativity. When I'm not in my studio, I enjoy gardening, cooking with my husband, Sean, reading to my baby, Theodore, and being outdoors. I look forward to creating with you!
Patty Marty
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. She has quickly become a passionate quilter and lover of the Baby Lock long-arm machine. Switching gears from a consumer to a salesperson has helped her to bring her own approach to helping the Baby Lock retailers sell our amazing products. She is an inspired individual with an enthusiasm for fun fabrics, whimsical design and love of all things monogrammed.
Rosemary Castillo-Sartin
Rosemary’s mother sewed, her grandmothers sewed, her aunts sewed…. Therefore she sews! She has sewed for over 40 years and is now a Brother educator. Her favorite Brother Machines are the PR680W and XP3. You can often find her sewing in her studio listening to a good audio book.
Sam Fung
Sam, an Educational Coordinator, has been sewing for the past 47 years. Prior to joining Janome 17 years ago, he owned a custom sewing business where he made everything from couture wedding gowns to home decor and even taught students of all ages how to sew. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of sewing through teaching. Sam is Janome’s resident notions expert - he probably has enough notions to open his own shop! His love of embroidery began when he couldn’t find lace for his custom wedding gowns, so he learned how to create his own. Although garment making is Sam’s first sewing passion, he’s also adept at ruler work quilting. Sam is well-rounded in his sewing skills and has a vast knowledge of domestic sewing machines and sergers.
Sandy Rindlesbach
Sandy loves all things fabric, especially all forms of longarm quilting. She started her needle arts journey in her childhood; learning knitting, crochet, needlepoint, cross-stitched and garment sewing. Growing up in the very center of Utah, she participated in opportunities available to improve these skills, entering county and state fairs and receiving blue ribbons. She can’t remember a time when sewing and needle arts was not a part of her life. Purchasing a HQ Fusion® in 2010, Sandy began her longarm journey. She spent many years doing free-motion and ruler work before purchasing a HQ Forte® with Pro-Stitcher®. Sandy enjoys the freedom to be able to use free-motion, ruler and Pro-Stitcher on her quilts. Most of her quilts use all of these methods. Sandy especially loves feathers and enjoys teaching feather classes. In addition to quilting, she has made many Cosplay costumes for her family. Sandy has won quilt awards including First Place Wall Hanging at HMQS and Best of Show at Utah State Fair Challenge Contest. When not quilting, Sandy hand-dyes her own fabric. Frequently, the backings of her quilts have been hand-dyed to coordinate with the top. She loves playing with color and anything quilt related. Sandy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University. Prior to becoming a National Educator for HandiQuilter, Sandy was a Communications Consultant/Project Manager for an international Payroll and Benefits company. She lives in West Jordan, Utah and is blessed with 4 brilliant children and 2 outstanding grandchildren.
Sara Vetser
Sara Vetser is a Brother ambassador and educator. She also creates content for various social media outlets in order to create an online brand awareness and presence. Sara also specializes in incorporating sustainable sewing and quilting by using recycled material.
Scott Ehardt
Scott Ehardt is the Director of Sales for Arrow Sewing. Armed with a sales team of 4 crafting, quilting, and garment making ladies, Scott manages the day-to-day Sales operations helping to spread “Sewing In Comfort…To Sew Longer” to every sewist. Scott just celebrated his two year anniversary with Arrow. He has completed 4 queen-size quilts, with an undisclosed amount UFO’s, as well as winning “Best Quilted Christmas Stocking In the Office 2023.” When not perusing bolts of fabric for another UFO, Scott spends his time in the backyard with his wife, four children (#5 due in April) (20, 16, 4, and 2), dog Poncho, and backyard flock of chickens…working on the honey-do list that never seams to end. Scott sews on a Janome Memory Craft 6600 with an Arrow Sewing cabinets; Mod 2061, Kiwi, and Kookaburra.
Shauna Westergard
Shauna Westergard is a mother of four with her tech husband. She is a Colorado transplant that loves living in the mountains and Mountain Dew. She grew up in a family of quilters and remembers playing under the quilting frames while the aunts stitched on quilts for bridal showers. She considers herself to be an “accidental longarm quilter”, because she inherited her longarm before she had ever finished piecing a quilt top. Once she got the longarm set up she jumped in with both feet and quilted over 60 projects in the first year she had the longarm.
Timm Bond
Timm has been active in the sewing industry since the late 80's when his parents purchased a sewing and vacuum store. Currently Timm states he has a fun job because he gets to play with JUKI sewing machines, sergers, longarm quilting and embroidery machines. Sewing and these creative outlets are fun but Timm really likes the toys he gets to play with. He confesses that he is a jack of many trades from garment and heirloom sewing, drapes, pillows, upholstery, embroidery, digitizing, to quilt piecing and longarm quilting. Timm says there is always something new to learn and experience which makes him a superb instructor. Timm’s best advice is to have fun whether you're sewing, quilting, or embroidering.
Tina Bartelmay
Tina began her sewing-crafting-embroidery journey as a young child, watching and then helping her grandmother. She learned to make patterns from existing clothes, to make clothing for herself and her family, and then home decor and quilting projects for herself and others. Machine embroidery was added to her tool kit in the late 1990’s to enhance her creative options – and because it is just so much fun. Her collection has now grown to include an assortment of Brother single and multi-needle machines to complete her projects with ease. She has since added the Scan n Cut, PrintModa and the sublimation printer to her studio to expand her creative options, and discovered how fun multimedia projects can be! Now, pretty much everything that is not moving is fair game for some sort of embellishment or upcycling. After retiring from a career in healthcare, Tina is thrilled to have her dream job focused on being creative and making things. She loves travelling across the country to share her experience and lessons learned with the sewing-embroidering-crafting community.
Valerie Tribble
Account Manager – West Coast & eCommerce Sales. Valerie works directly with dealers and consumers at quilt shows across the Mid and West Coasts. Helping educate not only our dealers but consumers at shows, that Sewing in Comfort can let them Sew Longer. Being with Arrow for six years now, Valerie has had the privilege to learn more about the craft from avid sewers and quilters to hear what is important when looking for quality sewing furniture and to sew in comfort. Before her journey with Arrow, Valerie grew up on her family dairy farm where her hard work ethic was instilled which carries through her past roles in the non-profit worlds at the American Cancer Society and Muscular Dystrophy Association as well as her current role and as well as being a mom. As a mother to two girls (ages 10 &11), there is never a dull moment or any downtime in her house. While working at Arrow, her daughters have traveled to many quilt shows where they got their toes wet while learning how to sew themselves. Sewing will be added to the repertoire of all the other crafts that happen regularly. Valerie just finished her first two quilts and is about to complete her third quilt. These are memorial denim and flannel shirt quilts in memory of her father. Valerie used the AccuQuilt Go Big with the 7” circle die and 5” square die to assist in easy cutting and has sewed these two quilts on her Bernina 475 Kaffe that sits in her Bandicoot cabinet.
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