Speakers & Teachers


*FEATURED SPEAKERS AND TEACHERS*	The GVQC Garden of Quilts Festival holds fabulous workshops and lectures. All workshops require registration, and all lectures need tickets. See "Lectures/Workshops" for a more information or click here for a downloadable registration form. Our Featured Speakers and Teachers Jane Sassaman, Paula Scaffidi, and Mary Mashuta will be at the festival, along with quilt historian Janet Berlo. Be sure to check out all the offerings we will have in our seminar room. Join us for exciting workshops. We will have classrooms equipped with sewing or embellishing machines with grateful thanks to our sponsor Baby Lock and Pffaf. All you need to do is choose a workshop and sign up! Registration is through U.S. mail or at a GVQC meeting. Just be sure to have a self-addressed, stamped envelope when either way.
	About Janet Berlo Janet Catherine Berlo is Professor of Art History at the University of Rochester. She is a scholar of Native American art and quilt history, as well as a quilter and creative writer. Her recent books include the co-authored textbook American Encounters: Art, History and Cultural Identity (2007), Wild By Design: Innovation and Artistry in American Quilts (with Patricia Crews, 2003), and Quilting Lessons (a memoir, 2001). Janet was a founding board member of the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has lectured widely on quilt history, and will lecture this summer at Quilting By the Lake.
	About Jane A Sassaman www.janesassaman.com Jane A. Sassaman is a contemporary quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher whose critically acclaimed work inspires creative confidence in aspiring artists of all backgrounds. Her internationally known quilts are known for their bold designs, celebrating the energy and miraculous beauty of garden flowers and plants (and the occasional skeleton!). Jane's quilts are shown worldwide and can be found in many private and corporate art collections. Her quilt Willow was named one of the best 100 American Quilts of the Century. She was awarded the Quilts Japan Award for her work in Quilt National 1999. She also received "The Fairfield Master Award for Contemporary Artistry" at the International Quilt Festival in 1996.
	About Paula Scaffidi www.fiberella.com Paula has been combining fibers in her own art for a number of years and loves to be on the front edge of new technologies, discovering ways to combine them with old passions. She brings a wide variety of innovative workshops to quilters, garment makers and textile artists. Paula’s creative studio work incorporates machine needle felting in fresh and surprising ways into garments, quilts and a variety of textile media. At the heart of her teaching is the expressive use of color, drawing with a sewing machine and unlocking landscapes from memory. Whatever the topic, all of Paula's workshops combine beginner-friendly art basics, tips for outstanding textile craftsmanship and ways to tap into personal creativity.
	About Mary Mashuta www.MaryMashuta.com Mary Mashuta grew up in southern California.Today she shares a home in Berkeley with sister and fellow quilter, Roberta Horton. She is a professionally trained teacher and has taught high school, community college, adult education, and for the California State Department of Education. As a full-time quilt teacher and author, Mary has taught in 34 states, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, and The Netherlands. Mary has exhibited her prize winning quilts at national conferences and juried shows such as Quilt National and Visions. In addition to collaborative works with Kaffe Fassett, Mary has created 14 garments for the Bernina, Fairfield, and American Quilter Society fashion Shows and is an author of many quilt books.
	About Deborah Pope http://deborahcpope.typepad.com Deborah Pope has a life-long interest in art and a fascination with fabric. Deborah has created her own unique style and approach to feltmaking. Her imaginative felted fantasy creatures, art dolls, wearables and accessories demonstrate her mastery of technique, color and design. Deborah freely shares her extensive knowledge to promote and exchange new ideas. Deborah is an artist member of the National Institute of American Doll Artists, or NIADA and her work has appeared in Cloth Doll and Soft Doll & Animal magazines and featured in Making Creative Cloth Dolls, Lark Books, 2002. Deborah was also featured in the Artist’s Profile segment for the Carol Duval Show on HGTV in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Deborah’s work was selected for 500 Handmade Dolls: Explorations of the Human Form, Lark Books, 2007. Her work has been shown from the east coast to Alaska . Deborah lives in Williamson , New York and teaches selected classes throughout North America .
	About Margaret Tully As an Event Specialist for Baby Lock, Margaret spends her time traveling from coast to coast conducting seminars and sharing her knowledge and love of the Baby Lock product line. Margaret’s involvement in the sewing industry reaches beyond the love of sewing to holding offices in the American Sewing Guild, Smocking Arts Guild of America, being part of the faculty of Hancock Fabrics and JoAnn Fabrics, and finally being a Board member for the Sewing and Fine Needlework Guild.Margaret does have a few extra-special loves in sewing, heirloom sewing and the serger. Add this to her creative techniques on both the sewing machine and serger and you end up with fantastic results. Margaret is always coming up with a new and exciting techniques, and is always willing to share.
	About Toni Foster Toni has been a traditional quilter for over twenty years. Her projects often are inspired from antique quilts and she enjoys the time honored tradition of hand quilting. Many of her quilts are enhanced by dense hand quilting and trapunto. Her quilts have won many awards, including ribbons at the AQS show in Paducah , IQA show in Houston and the Schweinfurth show in Auburn , New York . Her work has been published in magazines, books and the IQA Calendar. She and her husband have lived in Rochester, New York since 2000.
	About Linda Bachman Linda is a Fiber Artist who loves the process of making art. Linda enjoys dying, airbrushing and painting her own fabrics and will add those pieces to commercial fabrics in designing her quilts. Although her art quilts may be machine pieced, appliquéd, free-motion quilted, or hand quilted, Linda finds the serger a compliment to her design tools, and will show us how to serge a quick quilt who's simplicity will lend it to other embellishments.
	About Jeanne Simpson www.aquilterstouch.com With a background in traditional quiltmaking, Jeanne Simpson has taught quilting for more than a decade. She prides herself on her popular quilt retreats (feature article of Quick Quilts magazine) drawing national and local participants. Encouraging others in their quiltmaking adventure is her focus as she gently coaxes students to step outside their comfort zone. Her career as a long-arm quilter has provided Jeanne with the ability to enhance quilts with a wide assortment of threads. Being drawn to simple geometrics and saturated colors, Jeanne now enjoys creating art quilts using commercial and hand-dyed fabrics.
	About Janet Root Janet has been quilting since 1989, but sewing since her preteen years. She has taught quilting classes at many area shops and local guilds. Her quilts have been exhibited locally and at The Schweinfurth Gallery in Auburn . She has won three honorable mentions at two National Quilting Association shows, one in Fort Wayne for January Frost, two in Columbus for A Step Beyond and Ozroya. Her kaleidoscope quilt, Nagano , appeared in the 2000 AQS Art Quilt Calendar, and January Frost was published in Issue No. 83 of Traditional Quiltworks. She was nominated for the teacher of the year for 2005 awarded by The Professional Quilter Magazine.
	About Mary Lowe Mary Lowe has quilted more than half her life. In the 1970s, Mary honed her hand quilting skills, then moved to tackle intricate piecing. Her needle turn appliqué technique is stunning, and her ability to adapt select and proven methods of quilt construction serves her in replicating many quilts that have graced the covers of several national quilt magazines. At home with traditional quilting, Mary Lowe will tackle art quilts with the same attention to detail and precision. Her soft manner and steady voice are wonderful guides for learning Mary's many ways to quilt. Mary Lowe makes her home in the rural eastern part of Pennslyvania.