2024 NE Ohio Instructors
Betsy Bauman
Teaching: Lecture- Stories in Fabric, Ohio Rose Machine Applique
Betsy Bauman is a teacher and artist whose love of fabric, drama and history led her to the theatre and a career as a costume designer. She brings her knowledge of fashion history and sewing construction together with her sense of color, line, and shape to help the actors tell a story that will express something universal about what it means to be human. These are the same things that draw her to working as a quilt artist. “I am inspired by the history and tradition of quilting, and I collect antique quilts to study and to enjoy. This respect for the past is the springboard for the quilts I make. Although I use the same basic structure as quilters from the past, I am not trying to decorate a bed or provide warmth, but rather I seek to tell a story or express an idea. My quilts are playful and whimsical, and I think viewers will see my theatrical background in them, as well.” Betsy began making quilts in 2000, and since then her quilts have been juried into national exhibitions such as the American Quilter’s Society shows at Paducah, Lancaster, and Grand Rapids, Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA, as well as shows in Vermont and Indiana, and locally at Lake Farm Park, the Rocky River Reflections of Nature Shows, and Mutton Hill in Akron. She also lectures on Quilt History and other quilt-related topics. Bauman serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Hiram College, where she has been teaching since 1998. She holds an M.F.A. in Design from Kent State University, an M.A. in Theatre from The University of Akron, and a B.A. in Theatre from SUNY Brockport.
Kellie Beckwith
Teaching: Lecture: Crochet-Fusion
Kellie is the owner of Tulip Cottage Quilts from Lakawanna, NY. She designs quilts that combine traditional patterns with modern design and techniques
Sandi Blackwell
Teaching: Lecture: Quilting Quips and Queries, Easy Table Runner with Square-agonals
​
Sandi is a West Virginian and has been a home sewer for most of her life. She started quilting in 1992 and has since received numerous awards for her quilted works.
In 1996 she began her own custom-order quilt business named “Stitched Buy”. She is a West Virginia artisan, and her work is sold at Tamarack, Wheeling Artisan Center, and other West Virginia artisan locations. Her work has also been displayed or sold all over the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia.
Her first published work was a pattern in the “Miniature Quilts” magazine in July 2000 and was featured on the cover. Since then, she has had several patterns published in quilt magazines and has designed and published her own line of patterns. She has had quilt blocks selected and published for Volume 3, 8, 10, 11 and 12 of the “Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks” magazine.
She was selected, as a representative of Ohio County, to create the quilt block for the West Virginia 150th Birthday Quilt in June 2013. She has also been selected as one of the quilt designers for the “Quilted In Honor” program, which was launched nationwide in late 2013. She designs quilts for Rockland Industries and Island Batik.
Sandi is also a quilt author. Her first book, “Square-agonals®; A New Angle on Quilting” was released in September of 2010. It is based on the technique she developed “Square-agonals®”.
She tours both the United States and internationally teaching and lecturing on her technique. She is also an educator on quilt cruises and quilt tours.
Her proudest endeavor is filming classes for Craftsy.com! Her first class “Sensational Square-agonals®” was released in March 2014, and her second class was released in August 2016, “Ready to Quilt: Quick tips and tools”.
She is a member of AQS, IQA, Seams Sew Snugly Quilt Guild, The Quilters Hall of Fame, and West Virginia Quilters. She was recognized on the NQA web site as the October 2010 Spotlight Quilter as well as an “Electric Quilt” artist and “Aurifil” designer.
Sandi resides in Wheeling, West Virginia with her supportive husband of 49 years and happily enjoys her role as granny BB to nine grandchildren.
Sheila Drevna
Teaching: Holly and Poinsettia Collage, Lecture: Wheeling into Quilting
Pittsburgh native Sheila Drevna, owner of Longarm Love Quilting, began her quilting journey in 2004 after a severe illness left her with permanent severe motor and sensory nerve damage in 2000. With a grim prognosis for walking and using her hands, she began therapeutics to promote healing. With great determination and dedication to physical and occupational therapy she regained some use of her hands and began to walk with a cane. When she needed something to occupy her time, she enrolled in a beginner quilting class at a local quilt shop. Her first project was to complete two 12” blocks, and she had one month to do them. Within six months she was assembling her first quilt by using spring loaded scissors, rubber pencil adapters and many other tools so that she could trace templates and stitch. All the while, she was making new friends and gaining knowledge from her quilting friends. Soon a new member of a local quilt guild, Sheila entered her completed quilt into her first show. It was at a quilt show that Sheila was first introduced to longarm quilting and the machines that would someday become part of her daily life. She would test out the machines at the shows and became excited about owning one of her own someday. She bought her first machine used through a local seller and had it for a year before making the decision to purchase a brand new Handi Quilter Fusion with a ProStitcher computer system. Applying her passion to learn new things, Sheila became proficient on her machine and is now excited to share her skills with customers from all over the country.
Kathy Farra
Teaching: Love Your Featherweight Maintenance Class
Kathy Farra from Harmony, PA- aka Machine Lady, LLC is dedicated to preserving sewing history by helping people use their Singer 221 Featherweight sewing machines effectively. We are a full service repair shop and we attend several quilt shows each year. At quilt shows our focus is on selling Featherweights and accessories including: power cords, bobbins, walking feet, ¼” feet, books, oil, motor lubrication, and other parts. We also bring other vintage Singer machines for sale. Please stop by our booth and test drive our machines to find the machine that fits your needs. We also have some hand crafted items for your Featherweight machines, including custom made Featherweight tables and other unique accessories.
Lyn Gerard
Teaching: Lecture: Cork! Barking Up the Right Tree
Lyn Gerard is the owner of The Cork Emporium. This unique store is for eco-conscious fashion enthusiasts and creative artisans alike. The Cork Emporium specializes in offering a diverse range of thread, cloth and ornate accessories crafted from an environmentally friendly and versatile material: cork fabric.
Derived primarily from the bark of the cork oak tree, this high-quality fabric is sourced from Spain, Portugal and France, regions known for their abundant cork oak forests. One notable aspect of cork fabric is its sustainability.
Joanne Hubbard
Teaching: Plays Well With Others, Preserving Memories: T-Shirt Quilt Basics, Granny Gets An Update, Point The Way: Paper Piecing
Lecture: Math for Quilters
Joanne Hubbard lives in Milan, Ohio – the birthplace of one of her heroes, Thomas Edison. Without his lightbulb invention, she would not be able to spend countless hours sewing into the wee hours of the morning. Quilting is her passion, and she has the full support and encouragement of her family, especially her “quilt holder extraordinaire” husband, Jack. Joanne enjoys every aspect of quilting from designing, choosing fabrics, all the way to the binding - even “quilt math.” She teaches classes, offers trunk shows and workshops, creates patterns, and tests patterns for a variety of designers. Joanne blogs at http://joanne-everyonedeservesaquilt.blogspot.com/; and as her blog name indicates, she truly does believe that everyone deserves a quilt!
Kaye Koler
Teaching: Miniature Foundation Piecing, Lecture: Cleaning Vintage Textiles, Lecture: TShirt Quilt Basics
Kaye began sewing at age eight with the encouragement of her sister, making doll clothes and purses on her grandmother’s old Singer sewing machine. From there it was on to garments, enrolling every sewing class she could in junior high and high school to improve her grade average. (the A’s in sewing made the C’s and D’s look a little better to her mom!) She always loved everything fabric-y and crafty especially if was small! That lead her to teddy bears in miniature and then naturally to quilts in miniature when there was little room left for big quilts! She discovered foundation/paper-piecing was the way to go for precision and machine quilting for speed. She enjoys sharing her knowledge, is dedicated to positive and patient instruction to help develop new skills in each student ! Kaye has won awards for her miniature quilt “Home At Last” in Ireland, Houston, Paducah, NQA in Columbus, OH and at Indiana Heritage Quilt festival.
Laura Nolletti
Teaching: A New Take on Dresden Plate
Laura Nolletti is an experienced quilter, teacher and presenter. She has won numerous "Best of Show" awards at the state and local level for her quilts. Laura likes trying new things and trying new ways of doing old things. Paper piecing, One Block Wonders, Bargello, and Optical Illusion are some of her favorites. When she isn't quilting, Laura enjoys spending time with her family, participating in church activities and golf.
Patricia Simons
Teaching: Lecture- Template (Rulers) and Machine Quilting- a Primer Course, Template Mania
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.
Gloria Stickney
Teaching: Lecture- Square in a Square Trunk Show, Introduction to Square in a Square
Gloria is the owner of Sew Fabulous, Inc. She started sewing at 6 years of age and has been professionally quilting since 2006. By day, she is the Grants and Contracts Manager for the Physics Department at Wake Forest University and Sew Fabulous is her play job! In 2006, she designed the Dreamin’ Deacon© quilt for Wake Forest University. This quilt literally launched Sew Fabulous and the business has been growing and expanding every year since then. She has licensed several handcrafted items for the Wake Forest University collegiate licensing.
Gloria has been teaching quilting classes for 12 years and provided many guild demonstrations using the Square in a Square system. Her students include beginning to advanced quilters. She discusses the use of creating intricate pieced blocks with speed and accuracy. Gloria specializes in teaching the Square in a Square technique, making custom theme-stitched t-shirt memory quilts, provides edge to edge longarm quilting services, and creating Wake Forest University licensed products.