We take the time to search out the best in the industry, introducing you to exceptional designers, best-selling authors, creative thinkers and visionaries. Taking classes at Original Sewing & Quilt Expo adds to a memorable and satisfying experience!


Barb Callahan
Venice, FL
Barb Originals
Barb designed and constructed one-of-a-kind garments using her label Barb Originals and sold them at art shows for almost 25 years, alongside her antique linens, buttons and trimmings. After years of hearing customer requests for patterns and instructions for these very wearable items, she decided to accommodate them. Today Barb travels the U.S. sharing her expertise in using vintage linens, buttons, hankies, trimmings and more to create stylish, flattering and easy-to-make clothing and accessories. She holds a bachelors degree in education and a masters degree in administration and counseling, and has also attended classes at FIT in New York. Her articles have appeared in Threads, Sew Beautiful and her company’s newsletter. www.barboriginals.com


Tammie Campbell

Akron, OH

Tammie grew up in Canfield, Ohio and moved to Florida in 1973 with her family. In 1975, the family moved to Put-In-Bay, Ohio. While living on the island, Tammie did quite a bit of quilting and sewing and enjoyed doing many different crafts. Tammie's love of beading started around 2000 when she and her husband were living at the Dry Tortugas National Park. They were lucky to have a woman there that shared her talent and her beads with the staff, and Tammie has been in love with beads ever since. As she moved on to The Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee and then on to Lake Roosevelt in the state of Washington, Tammie took many classes and tried many forms of beading. In 2010 Tammie's husband retired from the National Park Service and they moved back home to Ohio. Tammie has two beautiful granddaughters that she enjoys as often as she can. 

June Colburn
Largo, FL
June Colburn Designs II, Inc.
June's odyssey began in 1973 with itchy feet and a Master's degree in library science. While working for international schools, June's motto, "Have sewing machine, will travel" led her into adventures hunting for fabrics in souks, bazaars and temple sales from Quito to Paris, Istanbul to Singapore. Talking with the people who wove, dyed, embroidered, sewed and sold native textiles influenced her life. The exquisite kimono fabrics of Japan defined her creative direction. June's work has been featured in many exhibitions, collections and design shows. She shares her knowledge and love of Asian textiles through lectures and classes.www.junecolburn.com


Eric Drexler
Port Charlotte, FL 
Sulky of America 

With over 25 years in the sewing industry, Eric Drexler has developed a wide spectrum of expertise. As a senior in High School in 1983, Eric started working in Joyce and Fred Drexler’s Sewing Center as their sewing machine mechanic. Over the next 15 years he went on to become a Teacher, Manager and Co-owner until the business was sold in 1998. For the last 10 years he has been a full-time employee of Sulky of America during which time he has become more heavily focused on his creative side, while continuing to indulge his passion for sewing machine repair. Free-motion artistry has been Eric’s other life-long passion ever since he was inspired by Joyce when, at age 10, she first taught him the technique. He has made numerous large and small works of machine art, some of which have been featured in Sulky Books and at Trade and Consumer Shows all over the country. Through his association with Sulky of America during all the years of its existence, he has had the pleasure and honor of being inspired by some of the world’s greatest creative sewers and quilters. For the 10 years of its existence, he managed the Sulky Challenge and was responsible for its appearance all over the country.

Eric loves life and he loves to teach and share his exuberance for creative sewing. He is passionate about inspiring students of all ages so they can discover and enjoy a lifetime of creative fun. His infectious smile and warm humor put everyone at ease and ready to learn. He is widely sought after to teach and share his contagious enthusiasm at Consumer shows, Sew Exciting Seminars, Guild Programs and, more recently, on PBS shows. www.sulky.com


Dusty Farrell
Cambridge Springs, PA
Country Stitchin
Dusty is a free-hand quilt artist. He is mostly recognized for his incredibly fast no holds bared quilting and "Quilting in the Dark". He has quilted for several top designers in the industry and has appeared in numerous magazines and “Quilt It” online program. Always being up for change Dusty changes quilt designs on the fly to fit his unique personality. Dusty's motto’s are "the imperfect perfect" and “If I can draw it I can quilt it“. www.cscountrystitchin.com


Stephanie Farrell
Cambridge Springs, PA
Country Stitchin

Stephanie owns and operates a quilt shop in NW PA with her husband, Dustin. She spends her days designing quilt patterns for PTQ and Frond design Studios, sewing shop samples and taking care of her kiddos. Stephanie is an award winning quilter and teacher. A self taught quilter who enjoys sharing her unique style of quilting and techniques with her students. Quilting is like therapy its good for the soul.
 
www.cscountrystitchin.com


Cathy Gandy
Alpharetta, GA
Baby Lock Education Consultant
Variety is the spice of life," says education consultant, Cathy Gandy. She takes pride in her sewing background which boasts of working in fiber art, teaching classes, retail selling, and fabric buying. When that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she occupied her time spinning and weaving. Her finished samples include tapestries, rugs, baskets, and garments. As a hobby, Cathy really enjoys machine appliqué for quilting and creating her own designs using the Baby Lock software products. Whether it’s garment sewing, home décor, quilting, or heirloom techniques, her creations express her love of the industry. Sharing her ideas, talents, and knowledge with sewing enthusiasts everywhere is what gives Cathy the most pleasure. www.babylock.com
 

Diane Gloystein
Lincoln, NE
Sulky of America
Diane Gloystein travels across the country as a freelance educator. She loves to share her passion and enthusiasm for embellishment as she entertains and educates. Her creations have been featured on Fons & Porter Love of Quilting, America Sews with Sue Hausmann, Sewing with Nancy and Quilting Arts television shows. Diane's creation, Caribbean Sunset appeared in the 2008 Rendezvous Bernina Fashion Show.
A love of designing interesting and original clothing led to a lifelong love affair with fabric and fiber arts. A sense of whimsical imagination is found in many of Diane's creations. She inspires her audiences with high energy presentations featuring a myriad of sewing techniques, surface design and embellishment techniques that will excite quilters and enthusiasts of fiber arts. www.sulky.com
 
 
Cynthia Guffey
Baton Rouge, LA
Cynthia has owned a fabric and design studio bearing her name in Baton Rouge, Louisiana since 1983, and her designs have been worn everywhere from the opening of the Met to governors’ inaugurations to Acapulco. Her fitting and sewing expertise is derived from a mathematical background, and her constant search for the simple and the obvious. And although her precise sewing techniques are not short-cuts, she saves you time by helping you get it right the first time. She shares her effective, practical and simple fitting and construction techniques with students throughout the United States, offering seminars and workshops filled with information that results in beautifully fitted, custom-look clothing. Cynthia’s design philosophy involves creating lines that multiply opportunities to fit and enhance a figure type. www.cynthiaguffey.com


Lorraine Henry
San Diego, CA
Conselle Institute

Lorraine is a specialist in sewing, fitting and pattern alteration for Conselle Institute of Image Management. She has a degree in Clothing and Textiles and has been a university instructor. Teaching pattern alteration and fit is her favorite thing to do. She is the creator of the Two Easy Measuring tape set which makes it easy to get accurate body measurements when you follow the instructions in her “Measuring Made Easy” booklet. She has also written for Sew News Magazine. With 30 plus years of experience as a custom dressmaker/tailor and teacher, she has a wealth of knowledge to share with you about sewing and fit. www.conselle.com


Joyce Keske
Minong, WI


Debby Kratovil
Fairfax, VA
Quilter By Design
Debby has been in the professional quilting world since 1994. She was Quilt Magazine’s Special Projects Editor for 14 years. She contributes to various quilt magazine titles along with sewing and designing for several fabric companies. Her hundreds of published articles about quilts, easy techniques, and how-tos have helped thousands of quilters discover an easier way to approach a wide range of projects. Her published works include “Bold, Black & Beautiful Quilts”, “Supersize ‘Em Quilts”, seven different Quilt Block a Day calendars, and is working on her next book on Mariner’s Compass quilts (March 2013). She is an enthusiastic teacher who especially loves the "aha!" moments with her students. She freely shares tips, tricks and techniques to make quilting a real pleasure.  www.quilterbydesign.com
 

Cindy Losekamp
Cedar Grove, IN
Sew Artfully Yours
Cindy is the creator of several Signature Series embroidery disks for Cactus Punch and CEO of Sew Artfully Yours, Inc. Cindy's skills take machine embroidery to new heights in creativity, and along with embroidery, she is also the creator of a myriad of other machine techniques. She is the designer and author of thirty-one books, and has been teaching and inspiring people to sew and create for twenty-one years. There are no boundaries in artistic pursuits when it comes to her books and classes. Everyone is encouraged to transcend to a higher level of creativity. www.sewingart.com


Barbara Mikolajczyk
Bridgewater, NJ
Brother Educator

It was obvious from early on that Barbara would sew and teach. She won her 1st sewing award at 12. During her career she found herself drawn to the set design. After leaving education Barbara started her own business in Interior Design. Her love of all things Brother came when she started sewing and embroidering for her grandchildren. Barbara says she is fortunate to combine her love of teaching and sewing as a Brother Educator.

 
Kim Montagnese
Amherst, OH
AhHa!
Kim began playing with fabric and sneaking the use of her mom's "forbidden" sewing machine in the early 70s. Long before great fabric or creative classes were available, Kim was forced to make it up as she went along. She came to love the look of hand appliqué, but lacked the patience. Fortunately, a series of mistakes led to the method she uses today. Students love the "no curved piecing"," inside out" and "quilts that keep on giving" concept of quilting. Kim loves the AHHA! moment students experience and has felt privileged to share the fun for the past 20 years.
 
Kim's quilts have won many awards throughout Ohio, been displayed at the Denver International Airport as well as private collections across the country and also featured in Art Quilt Calendar. She is a member of Lorain County Piecemakers, Studio Art Quilters Association and Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, Quilt Alliance. Current new projects include becoming a certified Zentangle Teacher… and sharing the tangling on fabric fun at EXPO classes.

http://insideoutquilts.com “Inside-Out-Broken Quilts”
http://colorzmyworld.blogspot.com
www.interweave.com (Piece in Cate Pratos book Mixed Media Self-Portraits)
www.martingale-pub.com (Two quilts in Leigh McDonald's book Adventures In Circles)
 
 
Marty Moon
Culpeper, VA
Early Times Workshop
Owner of Early Times Workshop for 20 years, Marty enjoys quilting and doing other types of needlework. Trained by hand in very traditional quiltmaking, Marty prides herself on the technical aspects of her quilts and is passionate about passing those skills on to others. Always seeking a challenge or competition to whet her appetite, Marty grounds her ‘art’ quilts in her traditional background. You can find one of Marty’s quilts in Quilting with Manhole Covers by Shirley MacGregor. www.earlytimesworkshop.com


Barbara Moore
Senatobia, MS
SVP Sewing Ambassador

Barbara Moore has over 20 years experience teaching and selling Husqvarna Viking products, including time spent as a Husqvarna Viking dealer. She teaches classes and workshops in Sew What’s New, Home Dec, Heirloom Sewing and Machine and Serger training. Barbara lives in North Mississippi and teaches locally as well as nationally.


Sue Patten
Ontario, Canada
Sue Patten is not your typical quilter. Her high energy, innovative designs and techniques let you know to expect the unexpected! Always with a story to tell or a tip to give, her classes are non-stop education…and fun. Sue is an award winning longarm quilter, who has traveled throughout Canada, The United States and Europe teaching her unique and innovative styles to longarm, domestic and hand quilters alike. She is the author of “Quilting Possibilities…Freehand Filler Patterns” and "Adaptable Quilting Designs" published by AQS Books. When not teaching and writing she is a designer of stencils, machine embroidery patterns, hand embroidery patterns, innovative whole cloth designs, longarm computerized patterns, hand and machine quilting designs ….. and most importantly, mother of three. Sue has appeared on various TV shows such as “The Quilt Show” with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tim's, “America Sews” with Sue Hausmann and “Linda Taylors Longarm Quilting Show”, and her work has been featured in many magazines and books from around the globe. www.pattenthatquilt.com


Londa Rohlfing
Savoy, IL
Londa's Creative Threads

With 13 years of owning a retail fabric and sewing machine shop behind her, Londa switched to an internet-based business to go world-wide with www.londas-sewing.com. Her personal mission is “To offer quality sewing products with passion, individual attention, and creative suggestions as a fellow avid seamstress, teacher and designer.” After 40+ years of what she calls “normal (now boring) garment sewing”, her mountain-top sewing experiences are ‘artsy, creative sewing’. She delights in creating garments that are unique and truly one-of-a-kind. Her current ‘obsession’ is with transforming sweatshirts into wonderful, unique ‘couture’ jackets. Her techniques are shared in her ‘books’ on CD and DVD and in her ‘pattern’ Design Booklets. She is published in several sewing periodicals including Sew Savvy and Creative Needle, and appeared in a webisode on www.nowsewing.net in October 2008. Traveling to teach and vend at guilds, shops, and consumer shows has become a new and exciting aspect of her business. www.londas-sewing.com

 
Kathy Ruddy
Mukilteo, WA
kathyruddy.com
Kathy Ruddy is an international sewing celebrity, educator, pattern designer, Serger and fitting expert. Active in the sewing industry since 1962, Kathy is the star of 10 Serger and sewing videos and author of 12 Serger and sewing booklets and her new enhanced books on CD called Three ways to Learn CD'S. You can look at pictures of her projects from start to finish, read the words next to the pictures as you listen to Kathy impart her wisdom and experiences as she develops her projects. If you like a hard copy you can print off as many pages from the CD as you like. Her specialty is to show how to sew and serge fast and easy without sacrificing quality, fit or fashion details. Her fresh, fun classes are brimming with surprises and ideas. www.kathyruddy.com

Emma Seabrooke
Islamorada, FL
Sew KeysE, Inc. 

Emma Seabrooke is a certified Palmer/Pletsch pant and fit instructor. She trained with French Couture for years and took many fashion design courses in college while obtaining her degree. Emma loves sewing with knits and has designed clothing patterns for them. She has perfected the best styles for all sizes, especially "well-endowed" ladies. Emma is an active member of the Home Sewing Association, and believes all her students can achieve clothing that looks and fits beautifully. She offers patterns, notions and fabrics that apply to her classes for sale. www.emmaseabrooke.com



Connie Spurlock
Coeur d’Alene, ID
Sew Wonderful Dreams
Although she didn’t even learn to sew until she was over 30 years old, Connie used her background in marketing and education to develop Sew Wonderful Dreams, a pattern design company. Fifteen years ago the company focused on craft patterns, while today the emphasis is on quilting and education. About her company she says: “We believe the best marketing tool we have is to educate. Everyone can learn but the way we learn is variable. Our classes are designed to help you learn in a way that will be most beneficial to you.” www.sewwonderfuldreams.com
 
 
Carol Steinbrecher
Boulder, CO
Conselle/Style Solutions LLC
Carol has been sewing since she was a little girl and hasn’t stopped since. She learned home décor and window coverings from her grandmother but has stayed with her love of fashion construction and wardrobing. Carol is founder and CEO of Style Solutions, LLC, an image and fashion management services firm. Carol specializes in tailoring, alterations of ready-to-wear, fitting techniques & fashion pattern alterations; wardrobe strategies, personal styling, closet clutter control and image services. Carol’s clients include Oscar award winner, Paula DuPre Pesman. Carol is an affiliate of the Conselle Institute of Image Management, member of AICI, ASDP, BPW and the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. Graduate of UW-Oshkosh-BSN. Carol totally believes chocolate is one of the basic food groups and that at least 25% of every day should be fun! www.stylesolutionsllc.com

 
Holice Turnbow
Sturbridge, MA
Holice Turnbow is a Quilt Judge and Teacher certified by the National Quilting Association. His quilting career began in the early 70's when he was asked to teach needlework and quilting for a county recreational program. National exposure followed in 1978 when he served as a consultant to the West Virginia Department of Culture and History to organize a quilt show in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service's issuance of a commemorative stamp recognizing quilting as a folk art. He also served on the planning committee for the First Continental Quilting Congress held in Arlington, Virginia in 1978. These two events resulted in invitations to lecture and teach at quilting events across the United States and in Canada.

Holice Turnbow lectures and conducts workshops in many quilting techniques with emphasis on those subjects related to the development and use of quilting designs. He has written for various quilting magazines and appeared on public television. with Kay Wood's "Strip Quilting with Kaye" and "Quilting for the 90's." He also appeared on 13 segments of "Heirlooms by Design" which was shown in the Alabama area through the CBS cable networks. He has also filmed six shows on QNN representing The Stencil Co.

He is the former co-curator of the "Hoffman Challenge" with Betty Boyink, and has served as a quilt consultant to a number of companies. Holice has also designed and made garments for two invitational exhibits and has designed and made quilted items for various other special exhibits and quilt challenges including the exhibit "Men of Biblical Proportions."


Nelly Vileikis
Aurora, OH
Nelly's colorful, playful personality encourages students of all levels to reach beyond their normal limits and her goal is for her students to take their newly learned skills into future successes. With an advanced degree in math, a voracious appetite for quilting and a passion for teaching, Nelly is well on her way to becoming a world class quilting artist and teacher. She willingly shares her talent with her students and encourages each to take their knowledge to the next level. 

Nelly is an accomplished quilter who has won numerous awards in local as well as national competitions. For over ten years she has taught in several quilt shops, at many Quilt Guilds throughout North Eastern Ohio, Quilting Get-A-Ways and private classes. She is also a designer. Confidence building instruction, mixed with great attention to detail, not to mention a whole lot of fun adds-up to great classroom experience for those who sign up for her classes. www.artelasquilts.com

 
Helene Weber
Navarre, OH
My passion has always been art in any form, but I have truly fallen in love with fiber art. My background is in fine art; drawing, painting and sculpture, and I use this experience in creating my quits. Although I have always viewed quilts as art, it wasn’t until recently that I have discovered the blending of traditional art mediums ; colored pencil, paints, and inks, with quilting. I love painting and working with fabric because of the versatility it lends to the artist and I like using a variety of art mediums along with longarm quilting on my art quilts.


Dini Yan
Brooklyn, NY
Momo-Dini Embroidery Art

Dini is originally from Beijing, and along with her sister Momo, is a recognized artist in China. Their paintings have won awards in both China and international competitions. As a professor of Fine Arts at the University of China, Dini taught at the Fine Arts Institute of Northeast Normal University. Dini and Momo design and digitize embroidery patterns for their company, Momo-Dini Embroidery Art. Their designs merge the different cultures of the East and West together to give the embroidery new life and energy. Dini and Momo blend the best of art and technology, and their goal is to produce the best designs with the highest standards and quality. www.momodini.com


Gail Yellen
Glastonbury, CT
Gail Patrice Design

Gail’s original design sweatshirt jacket classes have been a consistent favorite at Manchester Sewing Machine Center in Connecticut where Gail has taught a variety of techniques for the past 7 years. Gail Patrice Design began when a gallery owner in Maine carried these designs as ready-to-wear jackets and sold out the collection each season! Gail has created a pattern line of jackets and is developing a series of DVDs to include her favorite design and embellishment techniques. She is an active member and the Manchester Neighborhood Group leader of the CT Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. Gail holds a BA in English and Dental Hygiene. www.gailpatrice.com