A doctor’s reputation is often based on credentials. Sandra Leichner’s credentials are impeccable: every quilt she has ever entered into a show has won Best of Show. So when Sandra demonstrates her appliqué techniques, you know you’re in capable hands. Sandra has been quilting since 2000, and prior to that she sewed clothing. She shares her understanding of how fabric behaves, and teaches quilters to better work with their projects. Sandra shows how to create a perfectly flat appliqué point without using glue. She also demonstrates her signature tendrils in various thread weights. You will be as amazed as the studio audience was while they watched her! Sandra also introduces her son, who helps with her business and does his own artwork. Afterwards, quilt maker Lynn G. Kough shows how to use just one shape to create a variety of designs and original works in fabric.

Jamie Fingal earned her reputation as a Rebel Quilter because she doesn’t like to follow the rules. She does like to have fun though, and imbues her whimsical quilts with positive messages. Jamie often uses heavy-duty zippers in her work. She doesn’t bind her quilts. She uses wool felt for the batting and the backing. She also gives herself one day every week to just play in her studio and have fun, and create. Jamie carries a sketchbook with her everywhere and uses her drawings as inspiration for her quilts. She walks Alex through the process of making a small prayer flag art quilt, then shows Ricky how to build a quilt background using overlapping pre-fused hexagons. After Jamie’s visit, Gina Perkes offers tips for creating bobbin appliqué on a domestic sewing machine.

Lisa Calle was once described with admiration as a woman who “could make quilting a competitive sport.” Her specialty is longarm quilting, and soon after mastering it she was winning top awards for her work. Lisa studied Textile Management and Marketing in school, then left a corporate job to raise a family and work at a quilt store. When designing, she carefully plans her longarm quilting patterns, starting with the center of the quilt and using tracing paper to sketch and audition designs. She works in one area at a time, and develops fillers that enhance and support the main areas. She is a great fan of echo quilting and radial symmetry. She also quilts feathers into every project. Later in the show, artist Youngmin Lee shares her love of Bojagi, which is traditional Korean patchwork. These square pieces were originally used to wrap, store and carry items, including quilts and clothing.

Becky Goldsmith is one of the true Queens of Appliqué, but she is also a Master of Color. In this show, she shares great information about the use of color and its various elements: how white can freshen the look of a project; how to identify and use clear colors vs. gray ones; and how to combine the two into one quilt. She shares some of her many quilt creations, including her recent Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge, in which she used every unsightly piece her blog readers sent to her. Still near and dear to her heart, Becky shares her secrets for making wonderful appliqué letters, and getting around tricky turned corners. She even shows how to appliqué your signature. Lastly, she shares an amazing technique for binding quilts, which may be your biggest challenge to duplicate! Alex then demonstrates a super fast, three-hour baby quilt top, made with a center panel and a border of flying geese, and she shares her speedy and accurate technique.

Louisa Smith loves creating designs, and especially tessellations.  She is fascinated by the work of M.C. Escher, and she demonstrates how to make one of her patterns, the Curved Diamond Footwarmer, also called the “Tootsie Toaster,” which is derived from a tessellating curved hexagon.  Her footwarmer pattern is being made available as a free gift to TQS members.  Louisa also loves Dupioni silk, and currently works mostly with the lustrous fabrics.  Louisa, who was a guest on TQS previously (Episode 204), shares a fun new technique she calls “Double Vision,” which came to her while doodling during a car trip.  Louisa uses the “Hugs and Kisses” pattern elements (circles and diamonds) to illustrate her new technique.  She discusses both fused and pieced options. Also during the show, Ricky shares some ideas for basting quilts.

Click here for Louisa's Foot Warmer, "Tootsie Toaster," pattern.

Art Quilter Andrea Brokenshire’s style when she started quilting is radically different from what she currently produces. A debilitating illness changed the course of her quilt journey, moving it from hand appliqué and quilting onto other pathways. She now works with more contemporary looks, and favors a confetti technique she developed, along with the use of silks for appliqué pieces. Her inspiration comes from Monet’s garden paintings. Her confetti backgrounds are created with batik snippets that are haphazardly sprinkled on a matching background, which are then stitched down randomly, creating a dimensional texture. She also demonstrates tricks for mastering appliqué with slippery silk charmeuse. Artist Melody Crust then offers tips for perfect straight-line quilting, which can be used to enhance both contemporary and traditional quilts.

There are so many tools that are available to quilters nowadays which make the process much easier, faster, and more accurate. Have you ever wondered who comes up with those tools? Meet Deb Tucker, who is one of those amazing people. Deb has been quilting for 30 years and she began teaching soon after she mastered many quilting techniques. She notes that accuracy was a recurring challenge for students, so she set out to create tools to help them be successful. Her tools are designed for improving ease and precision when piecing. She demonstrates how they help simplify the creation of a LeMoyne Star with foolproof accuracy. Do you think of a LeMoyne Star as traditional? Not necessarily! Deb offers infinite variations on this block. She also dissects a quilt pattern, examining its parts and offering ideas for changes and simplifications. Later, author and fabric designer Carrie Bloomston shows us how to cool down a wild color with paint and fabric.

Jamie Wallen loves to play.  His playground is his studio:  he draws pictures with his longarm machine; he paints with threads; and he uses a grid as his field when creating a new design.  When Jamie was a child, his mother took in mending, and he often fell asleep to the sound of the sewing machine.  As an adult, he left a highly stressful nursing career after seeing an ad in a quilting magazine, and he took to longarm quilting as easily as picking up a pencil.  Jamie shares how he strives to make threadwork look like a photograph, blending multiple shades of threads to create one color.  He offers ideas about printing your own fabrics, as well as creating quilt designs both simple and complex by utilizing a grid and starting with basic shapes.  To open the show, Alex demos a fun and fast quilted mini basket using just two squares of fabric and a piece of fusible batting.

You might think that someone who has earned the title “Pineapple Queen” would live in a tropical climate, but Jane Hall has earned it through her amazing creations and alterations of the traditional pineapple block, which has held her interest for 25 years. She wrote the first book on the subject, and has since written many more. Jane shares some of her creations and techniques, and how she tweaks the block to invent many more designs. She also talks about her recent interest in making fabric baskets and bowls. Susan Brubaker Knapp has always been known for her nature-inspired works, and she shows some of her recent work. She then walks us through the basics of creating a piece, from taking a photo through the painting phase. She also demonstrates how her threadwork can add depth and realism to her pieces.

Artist Lyric Kinard shares her transition from the use of bold colors to a preference for soft neutrals, emphasizing composition and texture. She then demonstrates transfer printing techniques, and the use of foil to add zing to a project. In a completely different printing technique, artist Deborah Langsam demos her photo mosaic method of printing 1”-square photos onto fabric, then sewing them together to create entirely new images. She discusses how to choose good images, and how to match images when sewing them together. Be inspired as Ricky helps Libby Lehman return to quilting after her massive stroke.

Susan Lenz began working full-time as an artist in 2001, and she shares the fears she conquered regarding her work. Susan uses grave rubbings, antique textiles and buttons prominently in her art, which she creates to honor the memory of an object or a moment in time. She uses the rubbings to give a second life to a person whose memory may have been lost. Susan shares her technique, as well as the etiquette involved in obtaining grave rubbings. She shows how to heat and set the work, and then embellish and quilt it. A second technique involves created stained glass-like fabric pieces using synthetic fibers, a soldering tool and a heat gun. The results are surprising! She also discusses her global thread art installation. Also included is a visit with Judy Simmons, who uses Shiva Paintstiks to add realistic shading and depth to her quilts.

Leah Day began free motion quilting a decade ago, and has spent a lot of hours making it look easy. Her ease and fluidity did not come naturally, but she certainly makes it look as if she was born to quilt! Leah shares her journey from novice quilter to the stunning patterns she produces today. Her online teaching via her blog outlines how to get started with simple designs, how to move to more complicated patterns, and when to set aside a design that isn’t working. She discusses the process start to finish, from sketching ideas on paper to hiding threads at the end. Afterwards, Laura Gaskin demonstrates her amazing and intricate embroidery pieces, many of which are inspired by nature. Laura does all her embroidery by hand, then finishes many pieces with a fabric border.

A visit to the North Carolina home of Georgia Bonesteel is much more than just a quilting experience. Georgia is known for her lap quilting technique, using a large wooden hoop and a magnifying glass, and we are included in a viewing of some of her amazing creations. Georgia is also a Master Gardener, chicken farmer, and community volunteer, who approaches all her activities with enthusiasm and endless energy. Her history includes broadcasting a quilting show nearly 40 years ago, and authoring nine books on lap quilting. She helps to maintain the gardens at The Flat Rock Playhouse, whose walls feature a quilt block that she designed. The tour includes both Georgia’s home of 45 years, and the Playhouse gardens.