Deborah Boschert - Lewisville, TX
Deborah Boschert is an artist, author and teacher. She creates art quilt collages with layers of fabric, paint and stitching. Her artwork make a visual impact from across the room and offers intimate, personal details upon close viewing. Deborah’s art quilt collages often include personal symbols like ladders, chairs and bowls. The shapes, compositions, lines and textures in her work serve as metaphors for ideas and themes including growth, transition, rest and curiosity.
She is the author of Art Quilt Collage: A Creative Journey in Fabric, Paint and Stitch. She has appeared on Quilting Arts TV and The Quilt Show and is published in several books and magazines. Deborah’s quilts can be found in the collection of the International Quilt Museum, the Frank Klein Quilt Collection and as a mural in the Dallas Arts District.
Deborah lectures and teaches workshops both in person and virtually internationally. Her workshops provide students with both structure and creative flexibility. She is known for her organization, enthusiastic spirit and encouraging vibe.
5-day class: July 20 to 24, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Photo Inspired Art Quilt Collage
Kathy Doughty - Sydney, Australia
Kathy Doughty is a self-taught quilter, author, fabric designer and owner of Material Obsession, a patchwork shop in Sydney, Australia, that is known for innovation in contemporary fabrics and designs. Many of the concepts that define the current modern movement have been practiced at Material Obsession since its inception. Kathy’s workshops focus on taking ownership of the decision making process. Participants learn by discussing what fabric designs have to offer, how to make appealing combinations, and how to achieve a unique look that reflects their own personal taste.
As well as designing quilts and teaching. she is now designing fabric. The first two ranges, A Wandering Mind and Trail Blazing, were designed and produced for the Australian market. In 2015, Kathy joined the Free Spirit Fabric Designer team and introduced Flock Together, Folk Art Revolution and Celebrate. The ranges bring to life drawings from her imagination in a format designed to be used in quilts. The color palettes bridge traditional and contemporary fabrics.
5-day class: July 27 to 31, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Organic Appliqué
Valerie Goodwin - Tallahassee, FL
Valerie S. Goodwin is a mixed media fiber artist and architect whose works of fine art are included in museum and private collections. Most of her work is inspired by a love of aerial views of landscapes and cities. Many of her quilts are based on maps.
Goodwin’s art has moved through various stages from traditional quilting to an interest in abstract expressionism and, currently it is inspired by real and imaginary landscapes and cities. In some cases, her work shows an architectural sense of space with an archaeological perspective. In others, the network of the city and its built form is more prominent. These compositions work on several levels, from close up and far away as if one was looking at it from above.
5-day class: July 27 to 31, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Light & Lacey: Mixed Media Fiber Art Collage
Luke Haynes - Los Angeles, CA
Luke Haynes is an architect turned quilter who loves creating tactile objects with a history of utility. After surviving a childhood of poverty and an Autism diagnosis, Haynes values using recycled textiles in his work and is passionate about using quilts to convey comfort, systems of support, and accessibility for all. Luke is recognized as a core pillar of the "modern quilting movement" for his projects that bring quilting techniques into public art installations and community activations.
His quilts have been shown in over 160 shows in 10 countries. They are in the private collections of multiple art museums including the Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Norton Collection plus many more.
5-day class: July 20 to 24, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Narrative Quilting: From Figures to Feelings
Amanda MacCavour - Toronto, Canada
Amanda McCavour is an artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. By sewing into fabric that dissolves in water, she builds up stitched lines on a temporary surface. The crossing threads create strength so that when the fabric is dissolved, the thread drawing can hold together without a base.
McCavour holds a BFA from York University where she studied drawing and in May 2014 she completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. McCavour shows her work in galleries nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions in Ottawa (ON), Virginia Beach (VA) and Vancouver (BC) and has completed residencies at Harbourfront Centre’s Textile Studio in Toronto, and the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon. She has received numerous awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association, and The Embroiderers Guild of America.
5-day class: July 27 to 31, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, New York Flora: Machine & Hand Embroidery with Water-Soluble Stabilizers
Jane Sassaman - Harvard, IL
Jane began quilting in 1980. Since then her graphic quilts have been shown in many national and international exhibits. Her quilt Willow was named as one of the One Hundred Best American Quilts of the 20th Century. Jane is also the author of The Quilted Garden, Patchwork Sassaman Style and Color My Garden. Jane’s love for historic decorative arts can be seen in all facets of her work, but it is especially evident in the exuberant fabric she is currently designing for FreeSpirit.
5-day class: July 20 to 24, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Totem of Life
Carol Soderlund - Ferndale, WA
Art is a colorful journey for Carol. Her curiosity about the range of hues derived from red, yellow and blue led to her creation of the Color Mixing system for dyers. Carol encourages the freedom of mixing color by eye with results-based samples to guide the student. For Carol, the ability to dye any color and the increased understanding of the interaction of colors opens the door to spontaneity and intuitive use of color in her work. It is this joyful key to color she hopes to give her students.
Carol maintains an active teaching schedule throughout the United States, teaching her color mixing techniques at Nancy Crow’s Timber Frame Barn in Ohio and Pacific Northwest Art School in Washington as well as online. Her award-winning quilts have been exhibited nationally and internationally in such venues as International Quilt Festival, Visions, Husqvarna Viking Masterpieces touring Exhibition. She co-authored Playful Fabric Printing with Melanie Testa.
5-day class: July 20 to 24, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Color Unlocked: Exploring the Power of a Limited Palette with Thickened Dye
Kevin Womack - Lynchburg, VA
Kevin Womack, a textile artist from Lynchburg, Virginia, began quilting in 1986, taught by his maternal grandmother. Inspired by family quilts made from scrap fabrics, he explored pattern and cloth, developing a passion for fiber art. Kevin specializes in hand dyeing and surface design techniques to create unique fabrics for his quilts. His work has been featured in regional and national exhibitions, including Quilt National ’13 and Quilt Visions Biennial 2014. He won Best in Show at Quilts=Art=Quilts 2021 and the Award of Excellence at Form, Not Function: Quilt Art 2023. Kevin also teaches and lectures nationally.
5-day class: July 27 to 31, 2026, 8:30am to 4pm, Make Your Mark: Creating Unique Fabrics with Soy Wax Resist
Sherri Lynn Wood - Cincinnati, OH
Sherri Lynn Wood teaches improvisational quilting as a creative life practice, and is considered a leader in the modern improv quilting movement. Her best-selling book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting & Living Courageously provides frameworks for flexible patterns and creative exploration, along with practical instruction in stitching techniques and intuitive color.
Ever since Sherri Lynn unwittingly defied the sexist dress code at Wiley Junior High School with a modest sundress of her creation, she experienced sewing as a source of creative expression, subversive resistance, and personal empowerment. Exposure to the liberated abstract quilts of black makers such as Rosie Lee Tompkins and Arbie Williams in the early 1990s initiated her trajectory as a community based artist focused on restorative social practice.
She is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, two MacDowel Fellowships, and numerous artist residencies. She holds a Master's in Fine Arts in sculpture from Bard College and a degree in Theological Studies from Emory University.
5-day class: July 27 to 31, 2026, 8:30 am to 4 pm, Intuitive Color Quilt Stories in Abstract Piecing