Instructor/Lecturer

Cruise

Biography

No doubt you have seen Lori's quilt designs featured in numerous quilting publications - including on the cover of the recent issue of The Quilter magazine and it is our pleasure to have Lori sailing on another Quilt Camp at Sea cruise.  Lori was born and raised in San Jose, California close to the mountains and the ocean where blossoming fruit orchards and sunshine were both plentiful. Most of Lori's quilt designs originate from the beauty of nature and her love for drawing and designing.  First introduced to quilting in 1983 as a young mother of three living on her husband’s family homestead in Fairfield, Washington, Lori was invited to join a quilt group to meet other moms. In 1999, Lori began working at The Quilting Bee in Spokane, Washington part time. She loved being surrounded by new fabric, new quilt ideas and people and began teaching classes a few years later and designing more of her own quilt patterns.  In 2005, Lori began her own design company,  Cool Water Quilts (www.CoolWaterQuilts.com). 

Anita has been a quilting instructor for over 12 years and a crafter most of her life!  Her ability to inspire beginning quilters and her enthusiasm for teaching quick and easy techniques to make the novice quilter feel successful has made her one of the most popular instructors on Quilt Camp at Sea cruises!!  Anita lives in Washington State and teaches weekly classes at her shop in Tenino where she also conducts her long arm quilting business.  Anita has been teaching on at least one cruise a year with Quilt Camp at Sea since 2003 and is a very popular "pressing fairy" during the Quilt 'til You Wilt sessions as well.

In 1986, Stacy Michell started a business venture she named “Shades Textiles”.  After visiting several large quilt shows, she was inspired to explore the options of hand dyed textiles in the quilting marketplace. At the same time, she was 21 years old, and in need of employment! Stacy was uniquely qualified for this job of textiles artist. As a child she began sewing at age 4, and received a Singer Featherweight at age 6 for Christmas. She made her first quilt in fourth grade at age 10, and taught a 6 week quilting class the next year at her school. Additionally, according to her mother, she was an avid finger painting artist, enjoying just the touch and feel of the paint and the swirls of colors as they would mix with each other on the paper, very much like some of the fabric Stacy produces today. Stacy’s parents are also in the quilting business. This family profession assisted in qualifying Stacy for the textiles business she operates today. With in her first couple of years in business Stacy started exhibiting at as many as 18 quilt shows a year from smaller local events to some of the bigger venues like The American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show in Kentucky or Quilt Market & Quilt Festival in Houston. In Stacy’s first year at Houston, she met a Japanese Textiles artist named Akio Kawamoto and she quickly entered the export market place. Today much of her fabric is sold in Japan and there are several very large private collections of her cloth in Japan. Also, Stacy’s Cloth has been featured in many Japanese how to quilt books written by Kathy Nakajima. This international quilting coloration Stacy has developed has had a very synergistic effect on her career in recent years. Many of her Japanese customers started to make Hawaiian Style quilts using her colorful hand dyed cloth. These fabric choices broke the old design rule of Hawaiian quilts being made from 2 solid colors of cloth. This artistic movement inspired Stacy and her associate Toshiko Hashimoto to create a large line of appliqué designs inspired by Hawaiian quilts, but on any design theme, but Hawaiian. Hawaiian style quilts have a distinctive technique, where the cloth is folded and cut, kind of like making a paper snow flake, but the designs are of a Hawaiian theme. “All-Around Appliqué Designs” from Shades Textiles have over 100 block designs with diverse themes from cats & dogs to Christmas trees and Jack ‘O Lanterns or sports like surfing or golf. All of the creative energy flowing around her studio with the addition of the appliqué patterns has also created many new dyed fabric techniques and colors. Currently, Stacy is living in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Shades Textiles Studio occupies a 3600 square foot space. This studio is a part of a large complex of artist that occupy an old furniture factory. When Stacy moved in to this space, it was an empty hole lacking all plumbing or electrical work required for fabric dyeing and all amenities for living were also missing. After almost 15 years in the space it is fully equipped and very functional, colorful and comfortable. With a staff of about 3 people and currently 1 studio dog, Frannie, Shades Studio is a busy and fun place to be.  Be sure to visit Stacy's website at www.shadestextiles.com for a glimpse at some of Stacy's incredible designs and Hula Hoops!!

Judith Baker Montano's newest book, Fibreart Montage: Combining Quilting, Embroidery & Photography with Embellishments recently received The International Book Award for 2010 as the most outstanding Craft/How To book and the Ben Franklin 2010 Most Outstanding Craft Book award!!!  The Benjamin Franklin awards recognize excellence in independent book publishing and are hosted by the Independent Book Publishers Association.  Judith teaches internationally, including traveling 25 times to Australia and 17 times to Japan, and designs for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. She is well known for mixing mediums into original art pieces, easily working between the needlework, quilting and fiber art world!!!!   Judith is a Canadian fibre artist who grew up on the historic Bar U ranch in the beautiful foothills of Alberta, Canada. A love of fabrics and embellishments reflect her heritage. Her great-grandmother was a master quilter and her mother taught her needle skills at an early age. She attributes the rich, embellished ethnic influence in her work to living next door to an Indian Reservation and a Hutterite Colony where she observed beautiful handicrafts. Eight years overseas in England, Germany and Japan was another profound influence on her artwork and outlook.  Judith started quilting in 1976 while living in Houston, Texas and made her first prize winning quilt in 1982, winning Best of Show at the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was a special victory as her great-grandmother won the same award in 1934.  She began to concentrate on appliqué quilting and “Pekisko Memories” a quilt depicting her childhood home, won Best of Show at the Texas State Fair and the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, British Columbia. It won the Mountain Mist award, the Margaret Steel award for design and colour, plus many more. It was presented to the Bar U Historical Museum in 1995 and represents ranching in Canada.  At the same time, Judith was running a successful antique shop and tearoom. For six years, people enjoyed her European menu and hospitality in an old, converted church. In 1982 she closed the shop to pursue a career in fibre arts.Her designs soon turned to clothing and crazy quilting. Using rich fabrics, vibrant colour combinations, embroidery, beading and punch needle, original pieces took on a unique style. Judith’s Indian heritage appears in many of her art garments and embellishment projects. Experimenting with materials and sewing machine, Judith created a machine method of crazy quilting using a five-sided centerpiece, which proved to be fast and effective. This led to teaching classes and her first book on crazy quilting. Over the years she has become the leading expert on Crazy Quilting and embellishments.  Judith has been honoured to be spokesperson and endorser for both Kanagawa Silk Company of Tokyo, Japan and W.F.R. Ribbons, USA distributors for Mokuba Ribbons of Tokyo, Japan. She was presented with the prestigious “Governor General’s Centennial Award of Canada” in recognition for her work in the Arts and representation of Canadians living abroad.  Judith’s career has taken her from painting, to quilting, to crazy quilting and embellished embroidery artwork. Although her work keeps evolving, crazy quilting always appears in new designs, and she has turned it into a contemporary art form. She is renowned for her fibre landscapes, which incorporate all aspects of art and needlework techniques. An accomplished fiber artist, Judith is also a qualified teacher and lecturer of embroidery, quilting, and fiber arts world. Teaching has taken her throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Judith now resides in La Veta, Colorado with her husband Ernest Shealy and an ever-growing menagerie of pets.  Judith's website is www.judithbakermontano.com

2012 Hawaii Spring Fling cruise (this cruise is included in Quilt Camp at Sea's 21-Day Collector's Voyage cruise!!)

Jackie Wolff

2012 Collector's Cruise (the Mexican Riviera AND Hawaii cruises) Join Jackie for 1, 2, or 3 fun-filled weeks at sea!!

As a young mother and homemaker, Jackie decided she needed a creative social outlet.  After enrolling in a quilt class, she was soon dreaming about quilt blocks and fabric and at last found a group of women that spoke her language.  She started “hanging out” at a local quilt shop and then began working one day a week.  Three years later (in 1985) she was holding the keys to the shop!  Jackie has owned The Quilting Bee in Spokane, Washington for over 20 years.  She loves to teach and encourages new quilters to start a project and finish it to find the pure joy of creating.  Jackie has been an educator at the International Quilt Market, That Patchwork Place, and many Quilt Guilds and quilting groups. Jackie’s gift of spontaneous creativity, her flair for embellishing and the fact that she never is sitting idle (you will always find her doing handwork) is definitely contagious!  Jackie has been one of the most requested instructors on Quilt Camp at Sea cruises since she began teaching on them in 2005 and her classes are always among the first to fill on every cruise!