QBL teachers are nationally & internationally recognized quilt artists and teachers.  Below you will find biographical information on all of the QBL 2010 teachers.        

For class descriptions click here.

Working as a studio artist since 1980 in the field of textile and quilt art, Sue Benner continues to push the structure and content of her work.  Benner is known for her complex dye-painted silks which she combines with recycled textiles to form fields of layered pattern, vivid beauty and riotous variation.  Her work is shown internationally and is in many private, corporate and institutional collections, appearing in seven Quilt National exhibitions.  A respected educator, Benner lectures and teaches workshops in surface design, textile collage, fused quilt construction, and artistic inspiration.

Read more about Sue on her website:  www.suebenner.com

Sue is teaching Class #16: Floral Arrangement (5-day Session II)

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Elizabeth Busch is an artist and has been making quilts since 1983. She has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and has taught workshops throughout the US and abroad. She has won both the Quilts Japan Award and Best in Show from Quilt National. Visit www.elizabethbusch.com for books and magazines in which her work is published, where she has taught, and the collections where her work may be seen throughout the USA, EU, AU, NZ, Canada and Japan. In 2009, she was given a Retrospective Exhibition at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery in San Diego, CA

Read more about Elizabeth on her website:  www.eilzabethbusch.com

Elizabeth is teaching Class #1: Painted Quilts: Mixing It All Up! (5-day Session I)

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Artist Nancy Crow has been making quilts for over 30 years. She was named a 1999 Fellow of the American Craft Council and in 1996 she received an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council and The National Living Treasure Award from the Univ. of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has had major solo exhibitions at the Renwick Gallery/National Museum of American Art/Smithsonian Institution: the Museum of Arts & Design, NYC; the Cultural Arts Museum, Konstanz, Germany; the Auckland Art Museum, New Zealand; The International Quilt Study Center & Museum, The Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln; and at the Regina Miller Gouger Galleries, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA. Nancy travels internationally teaching quiltmaking as an art form using improvisational techniques. She is represented by the Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. Her book, Nancy Crow, Breckling Press 2006, is currently available and covers the last 20 years of her work.

Read more about Nancy on her website:  www.nancycrow.com

Nancy is teaching Classes #2 The Best of Strip-Piecing I & II (5-day Session I) & Class #17: Improvisations: Let's Experiment (5-day Session II)

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Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer lives and makes quilts in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches in the Studio School at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in the US and overseas. She is the co-editor of Speaking in Cloth: 6 Quilters, 6 Voices and has written for fiber art magazines in the US, the UK, and New Zealand. She was awarded a residency at the Christchurch Arts Centre in 2007 and has lectured and taught workshops in New Zealand, Canada, and across the US.

Read more about Jeannette on her website: www.jdmeyer.com

Jeannette is teaching Class #6: Expressive Fiber:  Master Class (5-day Session I) & Class #21: Art Quilt Construction Techniques (2-day Session II) & Class #22: Elements of Style:  Design Basics for Fiber Artists (3-day Session II)

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With a degree in fine art, Anita Grossman Solomon moved to lower Manhattan in 1975 to pursue painting. Within 3 years she put down her brushes to work with contemporary art collections. Coming upon some fabric scraps in 1990 she simultaneously taught herself quiltmaking and became a full-time teacher, author and quilt artist. She makes artful bed quilts from classic blocks using non-traditional methods. Her “Why didn’t I think of that?” innovations make quiltmaking faster and easier. She has appeared on HGTV’s “Simply Quilts,” authored both Make It Simpler Paper Piecing and Perfect Blocks in Minutes, contributed to The Experts’ Guide to Foundation Piecing, 100 Tips from Award Winning Quilters and Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Quiltmaking. Anita savors teaching quilters of any experience level. Her workshops feature original techniques, efficient construction shortcuts and no-waste methods. Her third book from C&T Publishing is expected in Spring 2010.

Read more about Anita on her website:  http://makeitsimpler.blogspot.com

Anita is teaching Class #4: The Two-color Pineapple: A Classic Set Anew (2-day Session I). Class #5: A Scrappy Pineapple: Working Your Fabrics (3-day Session I), Class #19: The No-waste Windmill: Ease, Economy & Exuberance (2-day Session II) & Class #20: The Arrowhead: Three Strokes & You're Done (3-day Session II)

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Philippa Naylor began sewing in childhood making dolls clothes, followed by needlework and garment construction. Four years of college training in clothing design and technology led to a job as head designer for a large lingerie company in the UK. She moved to Saudi Arabia in 1989 where she set up a bespoke wedding and evening dress company. In 1996 she discovered quilting and has not looked back. Precise curve piecing, use of graduated hand-dyed fabrics and extensive free-motion machine quilting with trapunto are favorite techniques. Philippa has published a wide range of articles in quilting magazines and has won many awards including the 2008 IQS Pfaff Award for Machine Artistry and the 2009 AQS Bernina Machine Workmanship Award. Her quilts, “Flower Power,” “Pop Stars,” and “Lime Light” are in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.

Read more about Philippa on her website:  www.philippanaylor.com

Philippa is teaching Class #7: Fantastic Free-Motion Machine Quilting (2-day Session I), Class #8: Contemporary Curved Piecing (3-day Session I), Class #23: Studio (2-day Session II) & Class #24: Studio (3-day Session II)

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Sue Nickels has been quilting for 30 years, starting by hand and gradually focusing on machine work and teaching machine techniques for the past 19 years.  She has taught and lectured nationally for shops, guilds and major conferences, and internationally in England, Norway, Spain, Australia & New Zealand. Her major awards include 1998 AQS Best of Show for “The Beatles Quilt,” made with her sister, Pat Holly.  Their quilt, “The Space Quilt” won the 2003 IQA Master of Machine Artistry Award & the 2004 AQS Machine Workmanship Award. Sue’s books include Machine Appliqué: A Sampler of Techniques, Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques & Stitched Raw Edge Appliqué, co-authored with Pat. Her workshop priority is to provide a relaxed environment to learn machine techniques that are timesaving and to emphasize the best quality workmanship, never compromising quality for speed!

Read more about Sue on her website:  www.sue-nickels.com

Sue is teaching Class #9: Machine Quilting Essentials (2-day Session I) &

Class #10: Machine Quilting the Appliqué Quilt (3-day Session I)

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Elin Noble was born in Munich, Germany, grew up in the United States, the Far East and Europe. She received her BFA from the University of Washington in 1982, studied art history in Florence, Italy and has traveled and studied extensively abroad. Travel is an important influence and she travels regularly to experience culture, landscape and teach dye classes.  She is the author of Dyes & Paints: A Hands-on Guide to Coloring Fabric and was nominated for teacher of the year award for 2005 by Professional Quilter magazine.

Read more about Elin on her website:  www.elinnoble.com

Elin is teaching Class #11: Alternative Marbling Basics (5-day Session I) & Class #25: True Blue (5-day Session II)

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Best known for her Fragment series of small fabric collages, Lesley Riley is an internationally known quilter and mixed-media artist with a passion for color and the written word. Her art and articles have appeared in numerous publications and juried shows. She has written 3 books, Quilted Memories, Fabric Memory Books, and Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur, and is a Contributing Editor for Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.  Lesley has filmed 3 instructional DVDs and appeared on Quilting Arts TV Season 1. With her art and her website www.LesleyRiley.com, Lesley aspires to inspire others to find their own voice and share in the magic that is art.

Read more about Lesley on her website:  www.lesleyriley.com

Lesley is teaching Class #26: Image + Text = Textile (2-day Session II) &

Class #27: Sew What?? (3-day Session II)

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Lura Schwarz Smith has been producing textile art for over 30 years. Originally showing in galleries in the 70s and 80s, in the 90s she showed quilts and received awards at national and international quilt shows. Several highlights of her career in the quilt world are that one of her quilts was named one of the “100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century,” and she was one of the “30 Distinguished Quilt Artists of the World” in the invitational exhibit at the first Tokyo Dome quilt show in 2002. Recently she has turned more to gallery and museum venues, as a member of various art quilt groups such as Studio Art Quilt Associates and the California Fiber Artists. 

Read more about Lura on her website: www.lura-art.com

Lura is teaching Class #28: Inking Your Fabric (2-day Session II) &

Class #29: Designing Art Quilts (3-day Session II)

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Carol Shinn is known internationally for photo-realistic machine-stitched images. She has taught many classes and workshops across the United States as well as teaching at Arizona State University and Mesa Community College in Arizona. Her work is in numerous public and private collections and has been featured in numerous books and magazines. She has recently authored Freestyle Machine Embroidery: Techniques and Inspiration of Fiber Art.

Read more about Carol on her website: www.carolshinn.com

Carol is teaching

Class #12: Machine Embroidery Basics (5-day Session I) & Class #30: "Painting" with Machine Embroidery (5-day Session II)

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During Kerby Smith’s 35 years in journalism he worked as a free-lance journalist and photojournalist for leading newspapers and magazines in America, and covered everything from anti-war riots to the first landing of the Space Shuttle. While assignments for National Geographic Magazine took him around the world, he is most at home in America’s West. He has written, edited and produced magazines, books and television documentaries. His last 9 years in marketing have honed the communication skills he uses to create advertising campaigns that sell products. He has been married to art quilter, Lura Schwarz Smith for over 31 wonderful years.

Read more about Kerby on his website: www.thedigitalquilt.com

Kerby is teaching Class #13:  Point and Shoot Fabric (5-day Session I)

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