Meet the Teachers

 

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.

 

 

Deb Atchison

Prosper, TX

debatchison.com/quilting.html

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Deb Atchison is an experienced educator, international technology consultant, and quilter that enjoys leading students of all ages through the process of creating beautiful works of art with fabric! Teaching is her lifelong career and quilting is her passion. Combining them both...her dream job! Deb has many years of training students of all ages including adult learners. As a technology education expert, Deb has taught numerous workshops virtually as well as face-to-face! She is certified in Scrappy Applique, and is a Legit Kits Ambassador and Educator and enjoys teaching quilters of all experience levels how to make beautiful works of art with Legit Kits! Deb enjoys sharing her love of applique using embroidery machines as well. 

 

Sandra Chandler

Nashville, TN

sandrajohnsondesigns.com

Sandra Lee Chandler is a Nashville-based textile artist, educator, and social media storyteller with over 38 years of experience in quilting and fiber arts. Holding a B.S. in Clothing, Textiles, and Design from Arizona State University, she specializes in repurposed denim, wearable quilted garments, and sustainable design. Sandra teaches a weekly virtual quilting class through Saddleback Community College and has presented at leading events such as QuiltCon, Quilt Canada, Craft Napa, and the Festival of Quilts in England. Her work has been featured in Threads, Quiltfolk, American Quilt Magazine, and more, and she has appeared on The Quilt Show and Quilting Arts. Passionate about storytelling through textiles, Sandra fosters creativity, community, and lifelong learning in all her workshops—making her a sought-after instructor for guilds and events worldwide.

 

Sue Cook

Pittsburgh, PA

larkspurlanedesigns.com

Sue Cook started quilting in 2001 and began publishing designs in 2003. Her work has appeared in more than a dozen magazines and books. Recently, Sue has designed patterns for the Island Batik catalog. She had a pattern featured in the All New England Shop Hop Magazine in 2025 with another selected for the All Arizona and New Mexico Shop Hop Magazine in 2026. Sue's favorite technique is foundation paper piecing. She uses it to design all her quilts because it eliminates the need for accurate cutting and sewing, while producing perfect blocks!

 

Eric Drexler
Port Charlotte, FL
Sulky of America
sulky.com
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Eric has been in the industry over 40 years. Free-motion artistry has been his life-long passion. 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 since the beginning, he has had the pleasure and honor of being inspired by some of the world's greatest creative sewers and quilters. 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 puts everyone at ease and makes them ready and eager to learn. He is widely sought after to teach and share his contagious enthusiasm at Consumer shows, Sewing and Quilting Guilds and on many PBS shows.

 

Michelle Freedman
Portland, OR

Maywood Studio

maywoodstudio.com

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Michelle Freedman is a quilt designer, maker, and educator based in Portland, Oregon, proudly working with Maywood Studio. Known for blending traditional techniques with modern color palettes and unexpected fabric pairings, Michelle draws inspiration from personal history, pop culture, and vintage textiles. With a background in apparel and textile design, she brings deep knowledge of fashion history and fabric traditions to her quilt work. Her quilt designs have appeared in numerous books and magazines, and she creates original quilt patterns to showcase Maywood Studio’s fabric collections. Through teaching, designing, and collaborating, Michelle is passionate about fostering creativity and community within the quilting world.

 

Lynn Gerard
Nappanee, IN

The Cork Emporium

thecorkemporium.com

Lynn 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. Lynn loves working with and teaching cork bags. Cork fabric is such an awesome media to work with. She a great sense of humor and she brings that to her classes.

 

LuAnn Hartley

Lexington, NC

Sanluchell Designs

LuAnn Hartley has been teaching a variety of classes for over 30 years. Her background includes education consultant, sewing machine sales, and a store owner for over 25 years. She has a passion for embellishing, quilting, and creating new ways to use techniques for both sewing and serging. She has taught all over the country and at major quilting shows.

 

 

Jaymi Horne

Carmel, IN 

Cranky Kangaroo

crankykangaroo.com

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Jaymi Horne has been sewing professionally for over 20 years. She began quilting as a creative outlet, and fell in love with Foundation Paper Piecing. Dubbed the “FPP Queen” by her Instagram followers, she has designed over 50 Foundation Paper Pieced patterns, has been published in Make Modern Magazine and featured in local art shows.

 

Barb Lewis
Millville, UT

Sew With Barb

sewwithbarb.com

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Barb is a Baby Lock National Educator with over 14 years of experience teaching sewists of all skill levels. Having taught across the country, she's known for her fun, encouraging teaching style that makes learning easy while helping students discover new techniques and gain confidence on their machines. Whether you're new to sewing or an experienced stitcher, you'll leave inspired, excited, and ready to create!

 

Susan Luaces

Tampa, FL

susieluaces.com

Susie began sewing at nine, taught by her mother, and honed her skills through high school classes, sewing magazines, and books. She created her own clothes, including tailored suits. Despite college and a career in engineering limiting her sewing time, her passion never waned. After leaving engineering to focus on family, she dedicated more time to sewing. Susie has sewn clothing, Halloween costumes, wedding dresses, home décor items, quilts, toys, and nursery items, with garment sewing being her favorite. She has teaching experience from her engineering career, as a part-time fitness instructor, and as a sewing instructor at Joann Fabrics. Since 2002, Susie found the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo, to be a great source of knowledge. Discovering Lorraine Henry’s fitting classes, she resonated with the Seam Method of pattern alteration. Susie trained with Lorraine and Judith Rasband in 2024 to ensure the method's continued availability and is now ready to share her expertise.

 

Donelle McAdams
Marion, IN
Representing Sew Steady
sewsteady.com
sewbizmarion.com
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Donelle McAdams is the owner of SEW BIZ, Marion, Indiana, now an online quilt resource. Donelle is the designer of Quick Easy Mitered Binding and Border Tools for the Sewing and Quilting industry that are sold internationally and she is also a pattern designer. Previously a Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, she has been a quilt store owner for 36 years. She has taught a variety of SchoolHouse and Take & Teach classes and Business Management Seminars at International Quilt Market, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff Sewing Conventions, Vacuum & Sewing Machine Dealers Trade Association Convention and has participated as a Quilt Store Owner/Educator on numerous panels and advisory boards. She writes a column Profitable Promotions - for FabShop News, an industry magazine and also writes for VDTA. As a promoted Educator for Sew Steady/Westalee Design Templates, Donelle teaches classes in Ruler Work Quilting. Her love and enthusiasm for sewing and quilting is infectious. Taking a class with Donelle is guaranteed to be information-packed, inspirational and FUN!

 

Jill McCloy

Euclid, OH

Jill McCloy Designs
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Jill's sewing career started at an early age – she received her first sewing machine for Christmas just after her fourth birthday. In high school, she did custom sewing and taught at fabric and sewing machine shops using original patterns. In 1992 Jill was hired by Viking Sewing Machines, Inc. as a national educator designing projects for the Viking Club and teaching at Viking World Conventions. She then became an independent educator working with many brands of sewing machines. Jill was featured in the Threads magazine design challenge in 2000, wrote for McCall’s and Threads magazines, designed embroideries for Cactus Punch and taught at many Expo events. Her specialties are machine knowledge and creating original designs. She has over 50 patterns and recently had a truly beautiful line of fabric come out with Northcott fabrics. 

 

Linda McGehee

Shreveport, LA

Ghee's

ghees.com

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Designer, Linda McGehee has a diverse sewing background with 50 years experience from garments to handbags, piecing to heirloom, surface manipulation to combining a variety of methods into a sampler of various techniques. Linda has traveled the globe demonstrating and lecturing from her books and patterns. She is much sought after at trade and machine conventions, consumer shows, guilds, shops & television. Her style is easy and fun with a flair for detail.

 

Pattie Otto
Falling Waters, WV
Great Copy Patterns and Embroidery
greatcopy.com
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Pattie Otto, the creative force behind Great Copy Patterns, brings boundless enthusiasm to the world of sewing. With expertise spanning garment design, machine embroidery, and alterations she not only creates but also imparts that knowledge and shares her inspirations through classes across the country. Beyond her professional endeavors, Pattie finds joy in spending time with her husband, Rick, and their grandsons in Ellicott City, MD. Their travels along the East Coast further enrich their experiences. In her well-stocked home studio, Pattie's passion for sewing shines through as she crafts patterns for beautiful garments and accessories. She has also been busy building her alteration business which encompasses everything from prom and pageant attire to menswear and for everyday. Pattie Otto is not just a sewing enthusiast; she's a creative powerhouse whose love for the craft knows no bounds.

 

Shanna Pappas

Ashland, NE

GlitterBugFairy

glitterbugfairy.com

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Shanna is the owner of GlitterBugFairy, a small family owned business that provides all your bag making supplies. From vinyl to zipper to hardware, GlitterBugFairy sells it all, and in the cutest way possible! Come take a class with Shanna, and see just how fun and easy sewing bags can be!

 

Cynthia Peck
Saginaw, MI
SVP Worldwide
Cindy Peck is a sewing enthusiast who learned to sew as a young child using a sewing machine with a knee controller because her legs were too short to reach the foot controller on the floor. Cindy enjoys sewing garments, crafts, gift items, and quilts as well as embroidering or embellishing ready-made items. Her career as a scientist and as an educator helped her develop an interest in sewing products which reduce the use of one- time plastics and repurpose natural fibers to contribute to the maintenance of a greener earth. She has taught sewing for more than 20 years and believes learning should be fun. Her no-nonsense approach (including everyday anecdotes and examples of what can go wrong and how to recover) empowers everyone to expand their skills and take time for sewing each week “just because they deserve it”.

 

Carrie Philpott
Big Rapids, MI

Carrie simply loves to sew! Once she took her first sewing class at age 14, she has never looked back from the textile/fashion/sewing/quilting/embroidery world.  This has led her on an international journey through all phases of the textile/fashion world at the manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and consumer level.

In the 1990’s, Carrie discovered both sewing machine quilting and embroidery.  Since that time, she has created her own digitized embroidery designs, quilting patterns, clothing, and costume lines.

Her teaching career has spanned 3 continents with certifications from Sue Hausmann, Martha Pullen, Connie Crawford, Nancy Ziemann, and many others. Her quilts have been displayed at numerous major national shows and as part of Michelle Obama’s Quilts of Valor display in the White House.

Not having space for a longarm quilting was thrilled to discover Westalee Design rulers and templates that worked with her Sew Steady Table. The new EmbroideLee collections perfectly compliment her love of machine embroidery.

Classes with Carrie bring a wide variety of quilting, sewing, embroidery and crafting techniques from beginner to advanced level with excitement, humor, and fun.

 

Kaysie Provence

Twin Falls, ID

OSED

oesd.com

Hi, I’m Kaysie — a wife, mom, fashion designer, sewist, illustrator, and creative educator with a passion for helping others express their individuality through creativity and style. With over 22 years of experience in the sewing and fashion industry, I especially love machine embroidery, garment sewing, quilting, and bringing artistic ideas to life through thoughtful design. I’m inspired by the beauty of handmade details, artistic living, and creating projects that encourage others to celebrate their own unique style every day!

 

Amy Regal

Cedar Rapids, IA

Uniquely Crafts

uniquelycraftsllc.com

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I’ve been doing shows since 2010 all over the US. I love to design and make products to make others happy and sometimes laugh. Coming up with new ideas is always a favorite of mine.

 

Nancy Sander
Lakewood, OH

Nancy Sander comes to you as a retired puppetmaster of fifty-three years. She has also been an antique dealer for ten years where she fell in love with crazy quilts. Sewing these quilts has always been her side passion, combining her love of history with color, texture, and artistic design and fabric. The Sander quilt, two years of hand sewing in the making, was a wedding gift to her son. It incorporates all the symbolism of what she feels makes for a good marriage.

 

Nancy Sapin

Franklin, NC
Sulky of America  

nancysapin.com

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Nancy Sapin is a Freelance National Educator representing Sulky of America.  Nancy has been working with Sulky for the past 19 years, both as a National Educator, designer, and a sample maker.  She has worked numerous consumer shows for Sulky, lecturing and teaching. Nancy also lectures and teaches workshops at various quilt and sewing guilds across the United States. You can find some of Nancy’s designs in the last 3 Sulky books and see some of her other works on her website, nancysapin.com.

 

Nancy Scott

Geneva, IN

BERNINA

bernina.com

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As a BERNINA Quilting Specialist, Nancy brings 18 years of longarm experience to help you grow your quilting skills to new levels. She loves sharing her knowledge and teaching others to express their creativity through quilting.

 

Jim Suzio

Pittsburgh, PA
facebook
Jim Suzio is an award winning artist, designer, digitizer and sewing instructor (including embroidery software, heirloom, fashion and serger sewing). A self taught sewer, Jim was inspired to try the craft after watching a neighbor's enthusiasm in the art. A new sales position at a machine dealer found him literally "thrown" on stage at an ASG convention where he was discovered by Sue Hausmann, host of the PBS series "America Sews with Sue Hausmann." Jim soon found himself teaching all over the US, Canada and Australia for Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff Sewing Machine Companies. His work has been featured in numerous books and magazines and several ads for Husqvarna Viking and the launch of Ty Pennington's new fabric line. he has been seen on several television programs here ("America Sews with Sue Hausmann,"and "It's Sew Easy") and in Canada ("the Big Breakfast Show").

 

Jess VanDenburgh

facebook | instagram | youtube

Hi I'm Jess! I was born and raised in upstate New York where I still live with my husband & 2 dogs. My grandma taught me at a young age how to sew and encouraged my creativity. I stumbled upon bag making in 2005 due to a major obsession with bags and a large fabric stash. I started making bags for friends and family at first and then selling them. From there my company, Sew Many Creations was born. Originally the company focused solely on making custom bags but slowly developed into a pattern company after many requests. In 2012 I expanded my pattern company to also include bag hardware, cork, fabric, kits, zippers and more. In 2020 I finally started my Youtube channel where I chat live every Friday about anything and everything bag making. I also upload tutorials, free patterns and educational videos. Teaching is my absolute favorite and if you watch any of the hundreds of YouTube videos I have on my channel, I think you'll agree!

 

Becky A. Weeks
Copper Harbor, MI
Olde Fashioned

Etsy

Living in Michigan's far North, with its waterfalls, and natural wonders, is inspiration for my Waterfall line of draped patterns, including those in my "Skirting the Issues" class. I learned draping on a form, and Millinery, at the Kuopio Polytechnic, in Kuopio Finland. From there, I graduated with my degree in Fiber, and Fashion Design, from Finlandia University, in Hancock, Michigan. I now live near Copper Harbor, the northern most town in Michigan.