Instructor/Lecturer

Cruise

Biography

A prize-winning quilter, Joyce R. Becker focuses her art, writing, teaching and lecturing on landscape quilts.  Joyce's books, Beautifully Embellished Landscapes & Luscious Landscapes, Simple Techniques for Dynamic Quilts were published by C&T Publishing.  Joyce's DVD, Joyce Becker Teaches You Landscape Quilting, is informative, educational, & entertaining.  Feeling blessed to have such a creative profession; Joyce volunteers throughout the quilting community and is one of the founding board members of the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters.  Many articles authored by Joyce have been published in national quilting magazines.  Joyce was a featured guest on the Home and Garden Television Network's "Simply Quilts," episode #834.  She also appeared on episode #113 of a new PBS series, "M'Liss's World of Quilts".  She recently taped a promotional video for the Tsukineko Company.  Her quilts have been displayed internationally in contests and invitational exhibits and have appeared in books, magazines and on television.  An article by Joyce was published in Quilting Arts Magazine in the fall of 2004, Page 88; "Expand you Horizons -  Landscape Techniques".  Joyce's lively sense of humor and positive attitude result in lectures and workshops that inspire, inform and entertain quilters as she travels throughout the world.  Joyce teaches and lectures throughout the United States for guilds and large conferences, such as the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX, and has also traveled to New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada to teach and lecture.  Be sure to visit Joyce's website at www.joycerbecker.com or see www.ctpub.com for Joyce's books and DVD!  Joyce has previously taught on Quilt Camp at Sea's 2008 Panama Canal cruise, 2009 New England Cruise For A Cure, and the 2010 Sisterhood of Quilters cruise.

Though very accomplished with more than 30 years experience in most all types of quilt-making styles, Janet is best known for her photograph-like watercolor designs.  She has demonstrated her artistic skills as an accomplished instructor, an entertaining speaker, and an original designer of quilts (most of which have been acclaimed with numerous local, county, and state awards).  It was at the 26^th National Quilting Association Show in Riverside, she received a First Place and Judge’s Recognition award for the very first of her watercolor quilts.  At the Road to California Show in 2002, Janet won top prize in the Innovative Wall Mixed Division for her “Oriental Theme” creation, a quilt that later hung in the governor’s office in Sacramento.  Her true gift is with the blending and coordinating of color which makes her in demand for original creations, kits and patterns. Janet lives in Grand Terrace, California with her Qubby (quilt-hubby) Steve where they opened Bluebird Quilts and Gallery, which is quickly becoming known as the “Friendliest Store in the Inland Empire!”  Janet loves to travel and teach having done so throughout California and Nevada even while on vacation!  When not on the road (or SHIP!!), Janet can be reached at her store toll free number 877 757-0333 (oh-tweet-tweet-tweet).  Janet previously taught on Quilt Camp at Sea's 2009 New England Cruise For A Cure and the 2010 Sisterhood of Quilters cruise.

Patti Carey

2011 Alaska cruise and the 2012 Mexican Riviera cruise (this cruise is included in Quilt Camp at Sea's 21-Day Collector's Voyage cruise!!)

Patti Carey began working at Northcott/Monarch 16 years ago and her primary responsibilities are making the samples, designing and printing the shade cards, and working with her assistants to swatch them. She is also responsible for designing displays for trade shows and coordinating the advertising program to promote new fabric collections.  Her popular quilting patterns featuring Northcott's newest fabric collections can be seen in numerous issues of The Quilter Magazine and other quilting publications.  Patti has been an extremely popular instructor on numerous Quilt Camp at Sea cruises including past cruises to Alaska and New England.

Mary M. Covey is an award winning quilter whose favorite part of the process is design. A self-starting entrepreneur and owner of quilt pattern company, The Good Life, Mary has quilted for more than 21 years and has spent a majority of this time sharing her wealth of knowledge with others through speaking engagements and educational seminars.  Mary’s passion of quilting has awarded her much acclaim through various media from television to publications including “Quilting Today” and “Miniature Quilts.” Most recently, Mary showcased her Mother’s Memories work as a featured guest on the public television program, “Quilt Central.” Having started her career in the health care industry where she was able to lend her talent as a speaker on the local, state and national levels, Mary now devotes herself completely to designing quilts and to teaching others about her passion through lectures and seminars. Mary has previously been an instructor on Quilt Camp at Sea's 2008 New England Cruise For A Cure and 2009 Alaska Quilt Camp at Sea cruises! Be sure to  to visit Mary's website is: www.thegoodlifedesigns.com

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). 

Eva Holen teaches creative sewing at the Lake Washington Technical College and finds being a teacher rewarding and challenging.  She is always looking for new techniques and ways to improve her own skills and ways to simplify the process for her students.  This is Eva's second cruise with Quilt Camp at Sea and is returning by popular request of her students on her first cruise!  Eva has been featured on several television shows and in  magazine articles and brings a lot of excitement to her classes with her enthusiastic teaching methods.  After teaching on a previous Quilt Camp at Sea cruise in 2009, Eva became one of the most requested instructors to have on another cruise by those who took her class!

Heidi has a passion for fabric, fiber and surface embellishments. She has been sewing since she was 12 and quilting for 12 years. Heidi is a five-time Sulky Thread Challenge winner whose garments and art quilts have been exhibited Nationally and Internationally. Her garments have been featured in the prestigious Bernina Fashion Show along with 48 other of the most celebrated names in the world of wearable art. Her latest ensemble "The Gathering of Leaves" is featured and exhibited at the Bernina Fashion Show during the 2006 International Quilt Show in Houston and she has won Best Wearable two years running at the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters. Heidi’s work can be found published in Bernina’s Fashion and Imagination 2003 book Masquerade, and their 2004 book "Fantasy"; in Quilting Arts 2003, 2004, 2005 and on the Cover of the 2007 calendars as well as Issue #9 Quilting Arts Magazine. She has written a two page article on catching the "Embellishment Bug" for Issue #13 of Quilting Arts Magazine and look for an upcoming article in the Winter 2006 edition on water soluble stabilizers.  Heidi likes to work with cottons and silks but also enjoys dying, painting and airbrushing fabrics and loves to apply yards of threads by free motion on her sewing machine.  Her unique works are well "garnished" with unbelievable embellishments from fibers, to ribbons, beads, buttons, ultra suede and even shells. She makes wearable art, art quilts and beaded jewelry. Heidi teaches quilting, surface design, collage, dyeing, embellishment and beading. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her two chocolate spaniels.  Visit her website www.heidilund.com  to see some of Heidi's creations..

Anita has been a quilting instructor for over 10 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

Lisa Moore

2011 Mexican Riviera cruise, 2011 Alaska cruise, and 2012 Mexican Riviera cruise (this cruise is included in Quilt Camp at Sea's 21-Day Collector's Voyage cruise!!)

Lisa Moore is a retired engineer living in beautiful Sitka, Alaska. She as applied her engineering skills in developing a series of quilt patterns featuring Alaskan images.  Her pattern business is "Quilts With a  Twist".  Her focus is to create the most effective way to piece a quilt,  then provide the best and most complete set of  instructions to accomplish it.  She loves to work with focal or novelty fabrics, and creates quilt patterns that show them off.  Lisa began quilting in the early 90s, and started teaching quilting classes in  1993.  She is continually inspired by the beauty surrounding her in Sitka and by the close group of quilters in a small town setting. Visit www.quiltswithatwist.com to see some of Lisa's numerous quilting patterns.

2011 Mexican Riviera cruise, 2011 Alaska cruise, 2012 Hawaii Spring Fling cruise (this cruise is included in Quilt Camp at Sea's 21-Day Collector's Voyage cruise!!)

Kathy Scott

2011 Mexican Riviera cruise (Lecturer and Quilt 'til You Wilt assistant)

Kathy was born with the desire to quilt. As a child she made "pretend" quilts on an elderly cousin's sewing machine.  As a young adult, Kathy tried to teach herself to quilt with less than pleasant results!  Kathy has been quilting for over ten years (after finally taking some classes)!  She loves hand work as well as machine piecing and quilting.  Kathy loves to learn new tips and techniques.  Her motto is "remain teachable"!  Kathy began teaching quilting classes at Perfect Points Quilting in 2002 where she taught a variety of classes and is currently teaching classes from her home studio in Maple Valley, Washington. Kathy particularly likes taking her love of quilting and sharing it with others in a way that will make their quilting enjoyable and fulfilling.  She loves to discover new techniques (at least new to her!) and share them with others.  Kathy began teaching classes and assisting during the Quilt 'til You Wilt sessions on Quilt Camp at Sea cruises in 2004.

Jackie Wolff

2011 Mexican Riviera cruise, 2012 Mexican Riviera cruise, and 2012 Hawaii Spring Fling cruise (both 2012 cruises are included in Quilt Camp at Sea's 21-Day Collector's Voyage cruise!)

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!