QA Teachers S - Z
Get to know our amazing Quilter's Affair teachers!
Latifah Saafir, is known for her bold and innovative quilts. Combining her training as an engineer with her life long passion for sewing, Latifah creates designs that are graphic and contemporary, fea-turing challenging techniques with meticulous attention to detail. Aco-founder of both the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild and the world wide Modern Quilt Guild, Latifah currently teaches work-shops to guilds around the world. She has a line of patterns and templates that she has designed to use her favorite techniques, including a line of patterns called Quilt Cadets that teaches kids how to sew! She has released three fabric lines and is excited to be working on her fourth. She’s been featured in over a dozen books, magazines and newspapers.
Jennifer Sampou grew up near Boston and studied Surface Design at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and Textiles at University of Vermont. She began her career at Laura Ashley Headquarters in Wales, UK then moved to California and became design director for P&B Textiles in San Francisco. Later, Sampou founded her own studio and licensed to Robert Kaufman Fabrics. She has created more than 5000 prints and sold millions of yards worldwide. She is an author for C&T Publishing and loves to teach. Wanderlust leads her around the world seeking color and art. She lives in the San Francisco area with her family.
Allison Sattinger wears all of the hats at SunnyRisingLeather and Metal and has been doing so since 2007. Custom leather bags, sterling silver botanical-inspired jewelry and hand-cut stones are SunnyRising specialties as well as acrylic and gouache portraiture and art. Allison lives in Sisters Oregon with her family, cats and a therapeutic hospice harp named Mr. Mahogany.
Jenny and Helen are sisters that have many shared passions which include buying shoes, making good food, loving licorice flavored treats, raising and loving 11 children between them, and making beautiful quilts! We grew up watching our mom, grandma and granny always creating something beautiful and we are continuing that passion with Sew Kind of Wonderful! We have been sewing curves since 2010 and we are still going strong with over 100 patterns that use the Quick Curve Ruler, QCR Mini Ruler, Wonder Curve Ruler, and our newest tool the Quick Straight Ruler! We love combining curved piecing with straight line piecing to give variety and beauty to every project. We developed our curved rulers/templates to make cutting curves and angles fast, easy and consistent. We always use an easy piecing technique that makes sewingwith the biasquick and easy, and the square-up step ensures blocks are consistent for piecing at the next step. One Ruler-Multiple Patterns -Endless Possibilities
Sujata Shah, author of Cultural Fusion Quilts, is an award-winning quilter and designer. She finds inspiration in the rich handmade traditions of her home country, India; the quilts of Gee’s Bend; Indian and American utilitarian quilts; and African textiles. Drawn to handmade crafts, Sujata believes imperfections and irregularities show the personality of the maker. Using handmade crafts as a design element has led her to abstract interpretations of traditional quilt blocks. She finds hand stitching therapeutic and nourishing to the soul, and writes personal stories in stitches. Sujata has been teaching for 20 years in the US and abroad and teaches online workshops from her studio.
Kelly is a leadership and personal coach who works with high achievers who are feeling that “there’s got to be something else.” They may have checked all the boxes but want to experience a fulfilled, meaningful, and more creative life. She works with individuals and organizations, runs international retreats with Valori Wells, and co-hosts online groups to enhance wellbeing and creativity.
Sheila Sinclair Snyder of License to Quilt is well-known and loved throughout the Pacific Northwest. She is an author, speaker, designer and talented teacher of a variety of quilting arts. Most popular among her classes recently is Barn Quilt Painting, a project that can be completed in class.
Africa had a considerable influence on Sue’s life and creativity. Born in Zambia and educated in South Africa, she soon moved to England. These early experiences combined to stir her love of “primitive” arts and crafts, and grew into a focus on contemporary folk-art. In 1989, Sue’s dream of moving to the US was fulfilled. Beginning in Connecticut, then moving to Tennessee & Utah, she finally settled in Ohio. Each new move added abundantly to her knowledge and creativity.
Lawry made her first quilt–Storm at Sea–after moving to Sisters and discovering this “cute little quilt shop” in Sisters Hotel (now the bar of Sisters Saloon). This led to filling in at Stitchin’ Post, then teaching quilting classes, and now teaching mystery and beginning quilt classes as well. Traditional style and teaching basic techniques are her forté. At the Stitchin’ Post, Lawry does all of the registration for Quilter’s Affair.
Recurring themes in Jean’s textile art have to do with natural configurations: rocks, trees, grasses, flowers, and the land. They are the common thread running through her mind as she works intuitively, letting her designs take on a life of their own. As owner of Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon for 44 years, Jean has been involved in the quilting industry as an author and workshop/lecture presenter.
Innovative, creative, edgy, fearless, and kind are just a few of the adjectives to describe this energetic, young woman who has impacted the world of design.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a focus on photography, Valori jumped into the world of art, color, design and fabric with gusto. She uses that photographer’s eye to pull out the very best of nature and the world at large.
Her uniquely hand carved blocks add an element to the textile market that is ornate, exotic and a style all her own. Valori can embrace the beautiful culture of Morocco and transfer what she sees in her mind’s eye to amazing prints that invite the viewer to feel immersed in its beauty.
Born into, and surrounded by fabric from birth she was conditioned daily in unspoken ways, living and breathing art, color and textiles into the fiber of her being. Supported by a loving, powerful and creative mother she has had the perfect platform to blossom into the successful woman she is today.
She has co-authored nine books with her mentor and mother, Jean Wells, and is the sole author of three books and multiple patterns. She is the well-respected and admired leader of the Stitchin’ Postin Sisters, Oregon which she co-owns with her mother, Jean. As well, she creates and manages the world renown Quilter’s Affair Conference in Sisters each July.
Z Glass Act was formed in 1998 in Eugene, Oregon by Susie Zeitner. Her career spans 37 years as a Graphic Designer and Commercial Photo Director and 15 years as an Art Glass Interior Design Specialist.
The past three years she has had a special relationship with Stitchin’ Post offering glass design classes primarily aimed at garden art.
Founding her own business has been a great success. Her clients include many commercial developers, interior designers, large hotels, as well as private commissions and national hospitality and restaurant projects.
Each piece Susie creates is entirely handmade. Her designs are fabricated in her studio down to the most intricate detail and then fused at 1500 degrees in custom fabricated kilns. The studio for Z Glass Art is located in Sisters, Oregon.
