Block Party with Quiltmaker Instructors

We've combed the country looking for an "A" team of experts, brought together exclusively at Block Party with Quiltmaker. Learn from this stellar line-up of Quiltmaker editors and designers, industry innovators, and creative leaders.

Take some time to get to know the source of the inspiration at Block Party with Quiltmaker, our "dream team" of amazingly talented instructors, each with a keen eye for cutting edge techniques, expressive projects, and the rare ability to inspire as they teach.

      Keynote Presentations by

     Jennifer Chiaverini                        Bonnie Hunter

Instructors

Carolyn Beam

Before joining the staff of Quiltmaker in 2005 as an Associate Editor, Carolyn designed patterns for her company, Colorado Quilt Designs. Her pattern line included 40 traditional quilt patterns and 4 row-of-the-month patterns, which are still being sold in quilt stores today.

In 2008, Carolyn became the Creative Editor for Quiltmaker, where she works with QM’s external designers putting the line-ups together for regular issues and special issues of Quiltmaker along with writing patterns and the Design Studio column for Quiltmaker, filming videos, lecturing and teaching classes.

Carolyn has been quilting for over 30 years. She has 3 sons, a daughter-in-law (who shares her love of quilting and scrapbooking1) and 2 adorable grandsons. She lives in Longmont, CO with her husband of 35 years, Mike. Besides quilting, Carolyn also enjoys scrapbooking, photography and other needle crafts as well as hanging out with family and friends.

Debbie Caffrey

Debbie Caffrey is a self-published author of thirteen books, dozens of patterns, and more than 200 mystery quilt patterns. Her fourteenth book, Surprise Yourself!, is co-authored with Charlotte Angotti. The new book will be released in May 2012.

Debbie began teaching energy-filled workshops in 1983 while living in Alaska. She has been teaching nationally and internationally since 1994. In 2000 she moved back to New Mexico.

Debbie brings efficient, precise, and contemporary techniques to making quilts. Her patterns reflect an updated look inspired by traditional pieced designs. While based upon tradition, her inspiration comes from many sources. Art, architecture, culture, nature, and cuisine are just a few of the things in New Mexico that inspire designs and fabric selections for her quilt. Another thing that inspires her quilts is her love for puzzles of all kinds: crossword, jigsaw, Sudoku, logic puzzles, “Whodunnit” mysteries, etc…

Monique Dillard

Monique Dillard of Rockford IL (USA), was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). Her love of quilting was nurtured by relatives in Canada who taught her the art of handwork and sewing. She parlayed her degree in mathematics into a genuine understanding of the need for an accurate 1/4” seam, squared blocks and precise cutting. She was a regular teacher at her local quilt shop for 15 years until her budding quilt design business - Open Gate – steered her career toward a national audience. These days, you can find Monique teaching across the United States at quilt guilds and weekend retreats. Monique’s classes always fill up fast with fans from previous classes and students eager to learn from this talented designer.

Monique has 80 (and counting) Open Gate patterns and 4 rulers (Fit to be Square^©, Fit to be Geese^©,  Mini Fit to be Geese^©, and Fit to be Quarter^©.) She finds inspiration for her traditional designs everywhere and is inspired by fabrics, textiles and tapestries. Several trips to Europe have resulted in not only new beautiful quilt pattern designs, but also her fabric collections, Olde World Style and Memories of Provence, with Maywood Studio.

Diane Harris

QM’s Interactive Editor Diane Harris joined the staff in 2005 as Associate Editor. She wrote QM pattern instructions and product reviews for five years, and then turned to blogging and online writing for Quiltmaker. She also writes QM’s how-to articles called Skillbuilders and presents how-to video workshops for quilters.

Diane lectures for Quiltmaker and teaches a variety of classes locally. Her design style is funky and eclectic and she has a passion for scrap quilts using unlikely fabric combinations. Her classes are primarily about fun and letting go of the rules, and they always include bonus information so that every student leaves having learned something useful. 

Diane has been sewing for more than 40 years and quilting for 27. She lives on a working farm in rural Nebraska and is also passionate about gardening, collecting and grandbabies.

Lynda Howell

Lynda Howell discovered quilting in 1978. What started as a part time job at a quilt shop, quickly blossomed into a passion. Sharing her love of quilting and teaching others was a natural progression.

THE STITCH CONNECTION started in 1990 with a handful of basic designs followed by block of the month appliqué programs. In addition to starting her own company, Lynda has also self-published two books.

A desire to become more innovative led Lynda to explore the world of machine embroidery. Lynda's embroidery designs showcase her whimsical talent and provides quilters the opportunity to create a memorable keepsake.

The use of decorative stitches plus utilizing the different feet for the sewing machine has inspired Lynda to a new way of designing her quilts.

Bonnie Hunter

Bonnie K Hunter is passionate about quilt quilting, focusing mainly on scrap quilts with the simple feeling of “making do”.  She started her love affair with quilting in a home economics class her senior year of high school in 1980 and has never looked back.  Before quilting becaue her full time career, Bonnie was the owner and designer of Needle in a Haystack!! Creating more than 70 patterns for dolls and stuffed animals with a country primitive feel.

She has been machine quilting since 1989 and professionally long arm quilting for the public since 1995, retiring in 2009 when she long longer had the time due to her teaching, traveling and writing schedule. She has been featured in magazines both for her quilt patterns and articles she has written on scrap management and using that stash to its full potential.

Dedicated to continuing the traditions of quilting, Bonnie enjoys meeting with quilters, teaching workshops and lecturing to quilt guilds all over the world, challenging quilters to break the rules, think outside the box, and find what brings them joy.

When not traveling and teaching, she spends her time piecing scrap quilts, enjoying the peaceful reward of English paper piecing and  hand quilting as much as machine work, and loving life in her wooded surroundings in beautiful rural Wallburg, North Carolina, A suburb of Winston-Salem.  She and her husband, Dave are the proud parents of two grown sons, Jason, and Jeffrey.  They round out their household with Sadie the dog and two cats –Emmy Lou, who loves life inside only, an Chloe who only loves life on the outside—keeping Bonnie company while she designs, quilts and plays happily with her fabric.

Bonnie also writes a regular column for Quiltmaker Magazine entitled "Addicted to Scraps" with the main intention to help you to put various aspects of your own Scrap Users System to good use!

Nancy Mahoney

Author, teacher, fabric designer and awardwinning quiltmaker, Nancy Mahoney has enjoyed making quilts for over twenty years, during which time an impressive range of  her beautiful quilts have been featured in over 110 national and international quilt magazines. Nancy has also created over 80 quilt patterns for a variety of fabric manufacturers.

Nancy has authored twelve books since 2002, all have been published by Martingale & Company. Her bestselling books include Appliqué Quilt Revival (2008), Ribbon Star Quilts (2008), Quilt Revival (2006), Treasures for the 30s (2010) and Fast, Fusible Flower Quilts (2011). Nancy newest book Kaleidoscope Paper‐Piecing will be released January 2012.

Nancy has designed 14 fabric collections, including five 30s reproduction collections for P&B Textiles. Her latest fabric collection, Adeline, is sure to delight quilters who love 30s reproduction fabrics and floral enthusiasts alike. Nancy enjoys combining traditional blocks and updated techniques to create dazzling quilts. Not considering herself a specialist in one particular area, Nancy's favorite techniques include precision machine piecing, quilt design, and machine appliqué.

When she's not designing and making quilts, Nancy enjoys traveling to guilds and events around the country, sharing her quilts, teaching her piecing and machine appliqué techniques, and visiting gardens.

Visit Nancy's website, www.nancymahoney.com, for more information about Nancy, her classes, and her quilts.

Carolyn McCormick

Carolyn was born and raised on a ranch in Eastern Montana near Glendive, and currently lives in Franktown, Colorado. She has been married to her husband Larry for 36 years. They have two fabulous children, Ryan their son works as a financial analyst in Denver, their daughter –in-law Megan works as a level 2 neo-natal nurse at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital. They have two amazing daughters McKenna and Kate.  Jennifer, their daughter is a critical care nurse in North Carolina, their son-in-law Anthony is in the army Special Forces. 

Quilting has been a big part of her life for over 26 years. She worked and taught a variety of quilting and craft classes at the Patchworks in Bozeman, Montana, from 1987 to 1993. In 1993, out of frustration, she invented the Add-A-Quarter ruler.

The original ideal for the Add-A-Quarter was to enable a person to automatically add a quarter inch to pieces cut with templates. Since the inception of paper-piecing, the ruler has taken on a whole new role in the quilting world and is a standard tool for making paper-pieced items. She has been distributing the Add-A-Quarter world-wide since 1995.  She also invented another tool called the Add-Enough, this tool helps to determine how large to cut fabric pieces for paper piecing.

She has had the privilege of writing 6 books on paper piecing…Carolyn’s Paper Pieced Garden; Hard Times, Splendid Quilts; No-Stress Paper Piecing; Quilts for Rosie; Wedding Ring Pickle Dish & More and Roaring Through the 20’s.

Quilting has taken her down roads that she would never have thought of traveling; giving her many opportunities.  She has met such wonderful and gifted people!