Series 1100 gets off to a "dazzling" start as quilt artist (and embellishment aficionado) Tom Russell visits the set with a show and tell of his wonderful quilts and loads of brilliant ideas for using beads and buttons to dress up your work. Tools, techniques, tips and tricks…Tom covers it all! The episode wraps with a demo from Alex, who shows how easy it is to create ruffles using the BERNINA ruffling foot. You won't want to miss this stellar series kick-off!

Self-taught quilt artist LUKE Haynes describes himself as an "architect who makes quilts"—the perfect blend of his background in architecture and fine arts. LUKE, who hits the thrift shops to build his fabric stash, shows samples of his work, demonstrates his method for preparing his salvaged-clothing finds for quilting, shares the design and auditioning processes he uses to build his unique designs, and fields questions from the audience. (Whew!) If that's not enough, Alex shows how to draft and customize a cable motif for hand or machine quilting, and we leave the studio for a field piece on the urban contemporary quilt scene in the lively city of Portland, OR.

Popular author, designer, and 1998 Quilt Teacher of the Year nominee Jan Krentz joins Alex and Ricky at the Quilt in a Day Studio in San Marcos, CA, with a sampling of her striking work, including the stunning Star quilts for which she is best known. She also brings a ton of great info to help you "diagnose" and work with various types of striped fabrics to enhance your blocks and quilts. (You'll love her nifty tip for using gift wrap as an auditioning tool!) Finally, we meet poet Margaret Chula and quilter Cathy Erickson, whose collaborative book, What Remains, was inspired by stories and photos of Japanese Americans in internment camps during the 1940s.

For this episode, we travel to Santa Fe, NM (the second largest art market outside of New York City!) to catch up with Texas quilter and teacher Tommy Romano, who shares his top ten tips—or "ten commandments"—for precision piecing. Preparation, appropriate tools and their maintenance, technique… even the proper state of mind—Tommy puts his precise approach to work while demonstrating a new twist on the traditional Nine Patch block. You'll learn a bunch and love the results! The episode comes to an "artful" conclusion as Peter Stoessel, executive director of our day's location, the beautiful Blue Rain Gallery, takes us on a tour of the site, which features regional and non-regional art by top Native American artists.

Do you get nervous just thinking about curved seams? Fear not! In this "tip-top" episode, fiber artist, designer, teacher, and author Cara Gulati is on hand to demonstrate her fabulous, no-fuss, pin-free technique for sewing curves. She also reveals the simplicity and versatility of freezer-paper templates, with a bounty of tips for making, marking, using, and removing them, and Ricky unveils his top five tips for machine quilting. This show is loaded with ideas, info, and inspiration. Don't miss it!

The TQS gang visits The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, NM, to greet quiltmaker and author Brian Haggard, who has parlayed his love for traditional crazy quilts into a body of work that puts a contemporary spin on a familiar genre. After sharing some of his beautifully embellished pieces, Brian demonstrates an easy way to showcase a cherished photo as the centerpiece for a special memory block. He also shows his technique for creating three-dimensional flowers using die cuts, and Ricky jumps on the embellishment bandwagon with creative ideas for free-motion couching.

"Quilting cousins" (and accomplished fiber artists) Tami Pfeil and Kim Kleine have always been fascinated with "repurposing," and have carried their inclination to rescue and reuse salvaged materials—particularly wool—into their quiltmaking. From our location at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, Tami reviews the stabilizers, threads, and stitch length recommended for working with felted wool, and Kim offers a variety of creative ideas for combining wool with traditional quilting fabrics. (You won’t want to miss our special models, Lilo and Elena!) As an added bonus, Ricky introduces Shockwave, a dynamic pattern based on a 3" paper-pieced Kaleidoscope block.

The stunning Santa Fe home of Betsy and Richard Ehrenberg provides the backdrop for this "must-see" episode. Alex leads off by demonstrating a terrific product that will save you time and effort with your paper-based appliqué. Then the TQS gang welcomes quilt artists, pattern designers—and sisters!—Barbara Persing and Mary Hoover. Mary, a former quilt-shop owner, shares the many creative possibilities of designing with strata sewn from colorful fabric strips. Then Barbara, a professional longarm quilter, author, and popular TQS Classroom host (Listen to Your Quilt), teaches four simple steps for designing an effective quilting plan, and Mary "ties it up with a bow" by sharing a clever ribbon-like quilting pattern.

We return to the home of Betsy and Richard Ehrenberg in Santa Fe to welcome self-described "late bloomer" –AKA fiber artist, teacher, and author—Karen Eckmeier, who demonstrates how she uses overlapping and topstitched fabric strips to create her delightful "accidental landscape" quilts. In addition, Karen shares ideas for adapting her versatile technique for use on garments, and Lilo and Elena model some of Karen's wearable creations. (You'll need to watch to discover why you'll always find a "lucky lizard" stitched into Karen's show quilts.) The episode concludes with a tour of the Ehrenberg home, Casa de Vidrio (House of Glass), which houses the couple's amazing collection of contemporary art glass.

TQS goes back to Eleanor Burns' Quilt in a Day Studio in San Marcos to meet designer and publisher Daniela Stout, whose monthly "strip club" is a huge hit at her quilt shop in El Cajon, CA. Each month, club members take on a new project using fabric strips, and in this episode, Daniela shares some of her favorite techniques and tips for turning strips into versatile tubes, squares, and blocks. (You'll have a chance to "strip" as well: Daniela's Strip it Tube Block Quilt will be available as a free project on the TQS website.) We wrap up with a visit to Washougal, WA, where Barbara Shapel treats us to a show of her award-winning two-sided quilts, in which the quilt back offers viewers a different perspective of the design on the front.

TQS says "aloha" to Hawaii-based quilt artist, author, designer, teacher, and former Quilt Central host Cindy Walter in this "colorful" episode taped at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM. Following a show and tell of her quilts, Cindy discusses the pluses of painting on fabric, reviews the properties of various paints, talks about tools, troubleshoots with easy solutions for potential glitches, and engages both Ricky and Alex in hands-on demos to show how simple and versatile the process can be. All this, plus a mini-lesson from Alex on traditional English paper piecing, too!

We just had to bring her back! Alex and Ricky head off to Main Street Quilting Company in Bozeman, MT, to rendezvous with popular quilt artist, teacher, and author Edyta Sitar, whose TQS Half-Square-Triangle Exchange was a rousing, worldwide success. This time around, Edyta unveils her latest work, demonstrates an ingenious flip-and stitch method for creating eight-pointed stars (learned from Grandma Sitar), and shares some clever tricks for dressing up those star points. Great ideas for enhancing pieced work with appliqué, a bevy of helpful pressing tips, and a video tour of Edyta's barn-turned studio round out this jam-packed show.

We always look forward to revealing the TQS Quilting Legend of the Year, and we've never been happier than to announce our selection for 2012: co-founder and president of the American Quilter's Society, Meredith Schroeder. We begin with a tour of the National Quilt Museum, founded by Meredith and husband Bill over 20 years ago in Paducah, KY, to honor and showcase the work of quilters in a dedicated museum setting. Next, we visit the offices of the American Quilter's Society, where a busy staff of 45 produces quilt magazines, assorted quilt-related books, and four annual quilt shows. Finally, we drop in at the Schroeder home, where—among other things—Meredith reveals the only quilt she's ever made…as part of an ugly quilt challenge! It's the perfect wind-up to another terrific TQS series.