We couldn't imagine a more appropriate guest to kick-off Series 1300 than artist, teacher, author, and legendary shop owner, Jean Wells, who returns with an update on her continuing shift in creative direction. After sharing her favorite sources of inspiration, Jean shows the important role of value in building her quilted compositions, her approach to construction, and how she overcomes the occasional creative rut. (Look for Jean’s "What If I Get Stuck?" worksheet on the Projects page.) We wrap with a tour of Jean's beautiful home and studio in Sisters, OR, and her great tip for giving your quilt a portrait finish.

A crafting enthusiast from a young age, the enterprising Mickey Depre earned spending money by making and selling handmade doll clothes . . . to her sisters! In this episode, the accomplished quilt artist, teacher, and author shares a sampling of her wonderful quilts, demonstrates the basics of traditional English paper piecing (including a nifty trick or two), and then opens the door on the infinite variations possible for those fabulous pieced hexies. The episode concludes with Jane Knight, who takes us on a tour of our day's location, The Charleston (SC) Tea Plantation, the only operating tea plantation on the US mainland. Brew up a pot of your favorite variety, settle in, and enjoy!

The quilt world gained a valuable asset when Grace Errea made the transition from high-level corporate executive to full-time textile artist, designer, author, and teacher. After sharing striking examples of her "value based" contemporary-realistic work, Grace shows and explains an eight-value fabric chart, oversees an impromptu workshop involving the studio audience, and reveals the materials and methods she uses to create and build the patterns for her quilts. All this, plus Alex demos a lightweight, snuggly receiving blanket that features the surprising combination of flannel and voile.

The TQS gang returns to the Charleston Tea Plantation for a visit with quilt artist, teacher, and author, Wendy Butler Berns, known for her amazing photo-based pictorial quilts. Wendy, recipient of the 2009 Jewel Pearce Patterson scholarship for quilting teachers, presents practical solutions for designing and implementing pieced borders, offers a wealth of tips for adding texture to a variety of quilt projects, and compares notes with Ricky about their simultaneous foray into quilting—with their respective dads! Then we check in with contemporary folk artist and teacher Sue Spargo, who shares a sampling of her newest adventures in dimensional stitching.

Quilt artist Mickey Lawler began painting sky fabrics in the mid-80s when she couldn’t find the pieces she wanted for her original quilted landscapes. Before long, her company Skydyes was born…and the rest is history! Mickey visits the TQS set to chat about her newest work, engages Ricky in a fun, hands-on fabric-painting exercise (complete with tips), demos how she builds a landscape design by combining painted fabric with touches of piecing or appliqué, and shares her practical method for designing a quilting plan that enhances the finished quilt top. As an added bonus, we track down the legendary and "Liberated" Gwen Marston on the road in Sisters, OR, where she shares her method for creating "skinny finishes" and Amish-style bindings.

Although she's been making art all her life, LA native Sheila Frampton Cooper is relatively new to quilting. That hasn't stopped her from making a splash, as evidenced by the award-winning quilts she shares in today's fun and info-packed show. In addition, Sheila demonstrates her clever technique for piecing curves without pins and offers loads of tips and suggestions for machine quilting, including how to tackle multiple thread changes. Also on hand: machine quilter, author, and popular blogger Angela Walters, who shows how she gives traditional quilting designs a Modern twist and determines strategies for quilting the negative spaces in those Modern (and other) Quilts.

It's a fabric lover's dream as co-host Alex Anderson "anchors" aboard the USS Yorktown with a boatload of inspiration and tips for creating sensational and successful scrap quilts. From building a healthy stash, to choosing a scrap-worthy block, to establishing and implementing a viable "plan" — Alex touches all the bases. (Our self-described "queen of pinning" even demonstrates a quick-and-easy, no-pin technique for piecing the Bowtie block.) Then join us for an enlightening field piece on how a group of Egyptian artisans, known as The Tentmakers of Cairo, are adapting their traditional talents to the world of quilting.

Renowned quilt artist, teacher, and author Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry takes Alex, Ricky, and the gang on a tour of Bryer Patch Studios, her lovingly designed 8,000 square-foot shop, studio, and home. You'll love seeing Caryl's first quilt, as well as the beautiful, artistic features she has incorporated into this very special place that she now calls home in downtown Paducah, KY. You'll also love learning about how she designs and executes a quilt using a hybrid method that she calls "appli-piecing," her techniques for creating work based on the Fibonacci series, her 30th Anniversary Project (which debuts in Houston in Fall 2013), and so much more!

In this show, you'll meet "quilt sculptor" and teacher Susan Else, who made the leap from "flat quilts" to one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional quilted works and has never looked back. After showing a selection of her incredible quilted sculptures, Susan demonstrates how she uses felt, fabric-wrapped floral wire, and couching to create dimensional leaves, helps Alex construct a 3-D diorama, and shares some excellent tips for adapting your cutting tools to accommodate physical limitations. In addition, Alex demos the fast-and-fun, paper-pieced fan block that she used in her colorful quilt Hot Flash. Don't miss it!

Rose Sheifer has designed dozens of quilting books in her career, and now she has combined her artistic eye with a love of vintage linens to transform a collection of treasured family table covers into beautiful quilts. Rose shares helpful info about finding, auditioning, and preparing the vintage linens, methods for devising a compatible block and/or quilt design, and the process for combining the two. (Note: The pattern for the Dogwood Quilt seen in the sewing demo is available TQS website.) If that's not enough, Ricky shows a super landscape technique using a background fabric, fabric "slivers", and "confetti," and oversized random stippling stitches.

We return to Charleston's beautiful Magnolia Plantation and Gardens for a visit with artist, author, and educator, Lyric Kinard. After showing a variety of her quilts and mixed-media artwork, Lyric—named 2011 Teacher of the Year by the International Association of Professional Teachers—identifies and explains the five fundamentals—or ABCs—of good design. She also demystifies the basics of screen printing using a thermofax machine and a few simple tools, and shares lots of creative ideas for using beads to add color and texture to your work. The episode closes on a lovely note as Lyric, a classically trained professional musician, offers a sampling of Bach on the French Horn.

The holidays are in the air as quilt artist, author, and fabric and quilt designer Amanda Murphy connects with Alex and Ricky in historic downtown Charleston, SC. Amanda demonstrates how to make a fast-and-fun tree skirt, complete with inverted-miters, points, and continuous binding. She also shares a quick-and-colorful Christmas quilt, with trees in three sizes, snowflake appliqués, and pompom trim. We finish with a tour of the day's location, The Old Exchange and Provost (built in 1767) which has played host to patriots, presidents . . . and pirates!

It is with great pride and pleasure that we reveal our 2013 TQS Quilting Legend: quiltmaker, artist, and author, Michael James. Our first stop is the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where Michael serves as Chair and Ardis James Professor of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design. UN-L is also home to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, and we're treated to insights on the collections from Michael and Carolyn Ducey, Curator of Collections. Then Michael reveals how he transitioned from painter to textile artist, and the evolution of his work in the process. In addition, he shares a technique for enhancing a wholecloth quilt, and welcomes us to his home for a tour of his studio, a peek at his fabric collection, and a preview of the newest piece on his design wall. It's a fabulous finale to Series 1300!