2025 Lancaster-Lebanon Instructors
Julie Belin
Teaching: Foundation Paper Pieced, Quiltworx Leaf Flurries, Quiltworx Haystack Cookies, Legit Kits: Bit O Flamingo
​Julie Belin’s quilting career began more than 30 years ago after receiving a quilt as a
wedding gift. When her husband challenged “you could make that” the journey began.
Although originally a self-taught quilter, her careers of engineer and high school math
teacher fueled her passion for precision piecing. She’s always on the lookout for
efficient methods and tools to do just that.
Wanting to share quilting tips and techniques with others, she became a certified quilt
instructor for Studio 180 Design and Sew Kind of Wonderful and is pursuing the same
for Quiltworx. These certifications have opened the door for her to share her
enthusiasm for quilting tools and techniques across the country with workshops and
lectures at guilds, retreats and quilt shows. She loves seeing the excitement of her
students as they master the tools.
When Julie isn’t teaching or lecturing, you can find her busy with her many guilds
planning events, quilting for charity, long-arming for her business or maybe even
playing in her garden.
Heather Blokzyl
Teaching: Paint Your Own Barn Quilt
Heather Blokzyl is the owner of Flying Fox Barn Quilts from Towanda, PA. She creates one of a kind hand painted barn quilts for interior and exterior decorating.
Tina Craig
Teaching: EPP Design Party, Lecture: EPP vs FPP Showdown, Little Lucy EPP, Improv EPP
Tina started quilting in 1990 as an unemployed newlywed looking for something to do. She took a beginner sampler quilt class at Colchester Mill Fabric Store and haven't stopped stitching yet!
After moving to a seaside town in southern Rhode Island in 1997, Seaside Stitches was born. Back then,- making and selling hundreds of paper-pieced quilt block lapel pins. Now, she prefers to teach you how to make your own!
Tina specializes in precision piecing (foundation paper piecing and English paper piecing) and domestic machine quilting. She enjoys learning new techniques and stepping out of her comfort zone to try art quilting. Thankfully, virtual workshops have opened up a whole new world to quilt teachers and students.
She is a member of Ninigret Quilters, Narragansett Bay Quilters Association, and The Modern Quilt Guild.
Tina has been honored to have won awards in local and regional shows including Best of Show at Ninigret Quilters 2013, 2017, 2023 and Narragansett Bay Quilters Assoc 2016. Her work has also been exhibited at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, World Quilt New England, and QuiltCon Together 2021. Celtic Valentine was awarded a handwork ribbon at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in 2024. Poppies, Poppies is a finalist in the 2024 Cherrywood Challenge.
Tina has a very supportive and talented husband, two awesome adult kids with lovely spouses, and two beautiful grandsons. She enjoys hiking, beach combing and bird watching whenever they get together.
Jack Edson
Teaching: Intro to Portrait Quilts, Intermediate Fabric Portraiture
Jack Edson, a quilter from Hamburg, NY, earned his BA from Canisius College and his Master of Library Science from the University of Rhode Island. Inspired at a 1976 Bicentennial exhibit in Elmira, Edson started quilting and has been honing his skills for the past four decades.
Edson’s work has featured some of his favorite images from art history. From these images, Edson creates a working quilt pattern that evolves as he creates the piece. He describes his process as “more like being a juggler, with twenty balls in the air...I am constantly adding more balls to the juggling act.” He combines many of these historical elements to create portraits of the artists he finds most influential. He describes these portraits as a way to pay homage “in thousands of pieces of fabric to the artists whose work inspires me and whose lives touch my heart.”
In 2017 Edson retired from his role as director of the Hamburg Public Library, a position he held since 2005, after a 46-year career as a librarian. Over the course of his career he developed a love for collecting art and other assorted objects. Surrounding himself with the work of other artists has influenced his own work, inspiring him to take chances, like experimenting with colors and patterns.
Edson’s quilts have been featured in the Art in Craft Media exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 2015 and 2017. His self-portrait quilt in the 2017 show earned him the Margaret E. Mead Memorial award.
Edson has also exhibited his quilts nationally; most recently he has been featured in exhibitions at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in Washington (2018), the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Colorado (2018, 2016) and the CASS Project in Buffalo (2018).
Gyleen Fitzgerald
Teaching: Spiral Nebula, Trash to Treasure Pineapples, Small Town, BIG CITY
Gyleen Fitzgerald makes quilts that blend color, pattern, and texture to provide a contemporary essence in traditional quilting. Her strength as a quilter is demonstrated by the infusion of engineering tools and innovative techniques to simplify visually complex quilts. She shares her enthusiasm for quilting through interactive lectures and workshops. As a writer, Gyleen centers on haiku poetry, quilt project books, magazine articles and children's books.
An avid quilter, Gyleen has earned Best of Show honors and as a publisher, she is a Gold Medal winner for Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings. She is best known for inspiring Trash to Treasure Pineapple Quilts and the creation of the Pineapple Tool by Gyleen.
Gyleen has appeared on The Quilt Show and Lifetime TV promoting a contemporary spirit in traditional quiltmaking.
For Gyleen, dreams hold no limits. Ray, her husband, is her shining light and quilting is her passion; together they color her world in a very special way.
Gyleen is a Philadelphia, PA native, who spent her formative years in Taiwan and Japan.
Dawn Heefner
Quilt Appraiser
Dawn Heefner has been an AQS-Certified appraiser since 2003, practicing in the Pennsylvania-South Jersey-Delaware-Maryland area. Her work covers newly made quilts as well as antiques. She is a member of PAAQT, the Professional Association of Appraisers of Quilted Textiles, and adheres to Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Dawn has participated in quilt documentations in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and has co-authored several of the resulting books. She has been active in the American Quilt Study Group, and has studied textiles and quilts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Andrea Hoke
Teaching: Trixie Zip Pouch, Intro to Handquilting: Traditional vs Big Stitch, Wonky Log Cabin, Soak Up The Sun, Whirlwind Selvedge,
Rope Bowl
Andrea has been sewing ever since she was a little girl. Fortunate to have a mother who was a Home Economics teacher, she learned to sew and do needlework at a very young age. She grew up sewing her own clothes, participating in 4-H club, and entering her creations in the local county fair.
A Sampler Quilt class in 1991 awakened Andrea’s love of quilting, and she has been stitching quilts ever since. She enjoys all forms of quilting, including hand and machine piecing, appliqué, and hand and machine quilting. She has entered her quilts in the Elizabethtown Fair almost every year for the past 25 years.
“Modern Traditionalist” best describes Andrea’s style. She loves all things vintage, which is reflected in her work. The exploding online quilting community has only fueled her passion for quilting, and as a result, she has “more quilts in her brain than she will be ever be able to stitch in this lifetime!” Andrea enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience and delights in introducing sewing and quilting to others.
Andrea lives in Elizabethtown, PA and also enjoys cooking, gardening and blogging
Ann Holte
Teaching: Quilt-As-You-Go BAT Technique, Lecture: Lancaster Diamond Sampler, Designing on the EQ-8
Ann has been quilting since 1975, when she thought everything had to be pieced and quilted by hand to be a “real quilt.” Since then, she has learned that real quilts are sewn in as many ways as there are quilters. She is particularly interested in working with vintage quilts to translate and interpret those designs by using modern fabrics, methods, and techniques.
She started teaching in the 1980s and, along with her husband Dale, opened a quilt shop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1997. Now living in the Hershey area, she is involved with several quilt guilds and meets regularly with an antique quilt study group in Lancaster.
At her studio in Hummelstown (Hershey area), Pennsylvania, she works on books and patterns. She teaches quilting and design classes in what she considers to be the perfect classroom. The space is available for others to teach sewing, quilting, and other arts and crafts workshops. Monthly sewing sessions are held to make Quilts of Valor.
Ann has written two books: Making the Lancaster Diamond Sampler (Schiffer, 2013) and, along with authors Sue Reich and Renelda Peldunas-Harter, Quilts of Valor: A 50-State Salute (Schiffer, 2018).
Juliana Kapusta
Teaching: Traditional Wool Hooked Rug
Juliana is a juried McGown certified as well as a Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Master Artist rug hooking teacher, whose main objective is to teach students to create art with fiber. Whether you enjoy folk art or fine art you can create a hooked tapestry by pulling up one loop at a time. Her love for home, family and the colonial period is what drew her to rug hooking artistry but as a young mother of seven children there was little time for creativity. Now that her children are grown and she can spend more time with her art, it has evolved into a more modern style. Juliana's early formal training was in advertising and design. Her rugs have been published in Celebration of Hand Hooked Rugs 20, Celebration of Hand Hooked Rugs 24, Hooking Animals and Design Basics for Rug Hookers.
She is currently teach rug hooking from home, at The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, in Lancaster and at Tyler Park Center for the Arts. It is my joy to help others find a relaxing way to fabricate art.
Cris Roach
Teaching: Beginner Freemotion Quilting, Intermediate Freemotion Quilting, Freemotion Feathers, Mastering Stripology Rulers, Stripology Table Topper, Rulerwork for Beginners, Stripology-Nova
Cris Roach has over 40 years of quilting experience and has been freemotion quilting for over 20 years. She has taught for over 3 years numerous quilting classes including: beginner to advanced freemotion, ruler work, prostitcher, and piecing classes. She is the owner of Highview Quilts a custom and edge to edge longarm quilting business for 15 years. She lives on a family farm in Berkeley Springs, WV.
Susan Sato
Teaching: Sashiko Basics, Boro Basics
Second-generation Japanese American, Susan has been sewing since age 14. While going through an old trunk at her mother's home about thirteen years ago, Susan found her grandfather's kimono and obi with his kamon, the family crest, on it. She knew then that sewing in the traditional Japanese style was the path she wanted to follow for her quilting inspiration. Susan started quilting with Japanese fabrics, incorporating the sashiko form of hand sewing. When her own work inspired her to teach, she began with basic quilting classes in sashiko, shibori dyeing, and then branched out to Japanese free-form design classes.
In celebration of its newly refurbished entrance, the Brooklyn Museum of Art commissioned Susan to create photo pillows for their gift shop. Her personally designed and sewn line of Japanese handbags and pillows have been sold in Brooklyn shops.
Susan's quilts have appeared in QUILTS AROUND THE WORLD by Spike Gillespie and PIECED SYMBOLS, Quilt Blocks from the Global Village by Myrah Brown Green. Sato was choosen as a Featured Teacher on The City Quilter's website in New York City and Quilter of the Month in the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn's Newsletter.
A member of the Empire Quilters and past co-president of The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn, her work has been featured in exhibits throughout the Northeast. She teaches quilting at shops in New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey, and at quilting guilds around the area.
Patricia Simons
Teaching: Lecture: Template Primer, Teardrops & Trees, Template Design, Lecture: Dancing with Rulers
Patricia represents Quilter’s Rule. When Quilter's Rule created the Design Tools line, Patricia developed a knack for designing different quilting patterns. Her signature class “Unlock Your Creativity (The Key is Templates)” has opened a whole new world to people who are not naturally artists. Her techniques are applicable to all quilters regardless of whether you hand quilt, use a home machine, a short-arm, a mid-arm, or a long-arm machine. These techniques can even be used in a variety of different crafts. In addition to using templates to create designs, she also helps create new products. She looks forward to sharing her techniques to help you develop your own style and look.
Jennifer Strauser
Teaching: Seaglass Machine Applique, Improv Curves, Kawandii, Wool Applique, Accuquilt Potholders
Jennifer Strauser is a quilting educator and designer who works with some of the top brands in the industry. She is part of the team at Gotham Quilts, making world class quilting classes available online. Her work has appeared in many industry publications, including Curated Quilts and McCall’s Quilting. Jen got started quilting when her first child was a toddler – she needed something in her life that she could control. Her gallery show at the Metuchen Library was a career highlight. Currently Jen is working on a series of hand-made projects emphasizing mindfulness. When Jen isn’t teaching, you can find her at home, dreaming up the next big project for Threadsome Patterns or writing about quilting for her blog, Dizzy Quilter, which will be 9 years old this year!
Sarah Thomas
Teaching: Building A Unique Edge-2-Edge Design & Filler, Freemotion Framework, SARIDITTY Ruler Sampler, Magical MICROquilting,
Feathers 101, Moving Forward with Rulers, Sketchbook Quilting, Thread Education
Sarah Thomas, creator of SARIDITTY, combines her love for quilting, math, and design as a quilter and artist. A former commercial pilot, she developed her unique freemotion Sketchbook Quilting style, inspired by years of doodling and handcrafts. Now a Moda Fabrics designer, she continues to quilt, teach, and share her creativity with the crafty world. Find out more from Sarah: SARIDITTY.com Instagram & Facebook @sariditty
Tammy Wycherley
Teaching: Laura Heine Collage
Tammy is a certified instructor of the Laura Heine method of collage quilting. Based out of West Virginia, she has been sewing and quilting most of her life. One of her favorite projects is the Collage Technique. She loves the process of cutting fabric and putting it together to make unique designs that are fun to display. This scissor project offers two techniques and will look great in your sewing area.