QA Teachers J - Z

Get to know our amazing Quilter's Affair teachers!

Michele Muska

Michele Muska has been hand stitching from a very young age and has appeared on various television shows to share the crafts she loves. She has worked as a professional in the craft industry for over 20 years and is currently the Director of Content and Community for Oliso irons.

Michele is a quilt book author and has been a columnist for several creative and business magazines. Her work has also been featured in many craft, quilting and knitting publications as well as a pie book!

Besides being a hand stitcher, she is also a quilter, teacher and avid gardener. Leslie and Michele have a weekly live chat on IG where they share their and others creative journeys.

Visit Michele's website

Mary Noble

Mary has thoroughly enjoyed fiber arts as long as she can remember. Learning to sew garments as a teenager was both a necessity and an opportunity to explore the design process. Her mother taught her to knit as a very young child and there were some pretty “suspect” sweaters knit as a youth! Now she can never get enough of knitting. Embroidery, cross-stitch and crewel work were always in the mix. Quilting came later when kids wanted their own special “blankies”.

It wasn’t until retirement that Mary came back to hand-stitching. What thrills her about Sashiko and other humble stitching techniques is the beauty and utility of the work. The possibilities for how simple stitches can be used as art or in useful items is endless and Mary finds joy in dreaming up new ways to apply these art forms.

Tonye Phillips

Tonye Belinda Phillips is a fiber artist/quilter living and creating in Camp Sherman, Oregon. Her work covers several different styles from whimsical folk art to abstract. Bright, saturated colors are a key ingredient in her work, along with the use of multiple different fibers for added texture. She is the author of the book Hand Appliquéd Quilts -Beautiful Designs & Simple Techniques. Tonye’s true love is hand stitching of any kind.

Giuseppe Ribaudo

Giuseppe Ribaudo (Giucy Giuce) grew up in Long Island, NY. His Sicilian-American family lived on the bottom floor of his grandparents’ house. His grandmother is a talented seamstress who taught him to sew at an early age. It wasn’t until college that he discovered quilting. After a decade of traveling, he moved back to New York to pursue a career in textiles. He was offered a marketing position at Andover Fabrics and was soon promoted to multimedia manager. In 2018, he turned his focus to fabric design and released his first collection, Quantum. His tenth collection, Nonna, is an homage to his grandmother and her home where he learned to sew. Recently he relocated to Portland, Maine where he continues to design fabric and patterns, and teach quilting classes.

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Irene Roderick

Irene’s quilting activities are a mixture of discovery and elation. She has been an artist for most of her life and began quilting in 2016 when she retired. She loves making “functional” art. She considers her quilts paintings using fabric as the medium.

Currently, she works from home teaching Zoom workshops and presenting Zoom lectures/trunk shows, as well as travelling all over the world teaching in-person workshops. Irene’s is the author of "Dancing with the Wall" and her work is exhibited throughout the United States and is included in private museum collections. A recipient of many awards, she is a juror for Quilt National 2023, and one of two jurors for Schweinfurth Arts Center 2023.

Latifah Saafir

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.

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Jennifer Sampou

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.

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Sew Kind of Wonderful

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!

We love combining curved piecing with straight line piecing to give variety and beauty to every project. We always use an easy piecing technique that makes sewing with the bias quick and easy, and the square-up step ensures blocks are consistent for piecing at the next step.

One Ruler-Multiple Patterns -Endless Possibilities

Visit the Sew Kind of Wonderful website

Sujata Shah

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.

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Brooke Shankland

Brooke is the designer and maker behind Eudaimonia Studio, which she founded to join her passions for philosophy and modern quilting.

Each design she sketches is inspired by her search to answer the ancient question of what it means to live well and make the most of life. Brooke crafts simple, meaningful designs that are imbued with centuries of wisdom for purpose and human flourishing.

Brooke lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her partner, Pat, and spunky dog, Ace, where they enjoy all the outdoor activities the mountains have to offer. Having studied Economics, Philosophy and Social Enterprise, Brooke aspires to make an impact through art that focuses on common humanity, mindfulness and well-being.

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Kelly Sheets

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.

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Sheila Snyder

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.

Lawry Thorn

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.

Jean Wells

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.

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Michelle Wilkie

Michelle Wilkie is a self-taught textile artist of modern quilts. She sees quilting as a means of storytelling, capturing her experiences and connection to community like the women who have come before her. Community connection is a key driver for her art practice, a foundation from amazing experiences growing up in South Auckland, New Zealand. She experiments with a variety of modern techniques and aesthetics, though embraces Improvisation and Minimalist styles.

Michelle is an artist in residence at Durham Art Guild and completed Penland School of Craft Winter Residency(2023).She has exhibited many place and her work is featured in multiple in magazines.

Michelle enjoys teaching and has taught quilting and sewing classes since 2015.

Susie Zeitner

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.

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.

Visit Susie's website