Quilting Adventures ~ The Friendly Store for Everyone Who Creates With Fabric!

Teri Austin

Visit Teri's website at http://esteritaaustin.com/.

Laura Blanchard

Laura took her first quilting class in 1987 and was instantly hooked. She soon began producing quilts to sell at craft shows. Laura has been teaching for seven years and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for quilting and seeing her student’s satisfaction in their accomplishments. Her classes cover a variety of techniques on the machine, including piecing, quilting, and applique.

Laura designs her own patterns and markets them under the name Plum Tree Quilts. She is also a professional quilt designer for Red Rooster Fabrics.

Laura’s quilts have appeared in Fabric Trends, For Love of Quilting and British Patchwork and Quilting magazines and in Jennifer Chiaverini’s book, Return to Elm Creek.

Laura and her husband, Ray, live in Midlothian. They have two grown children. She can be contacted at plumtreequilts@aol.com.

Kathleen Chrisman

Kathleen Chrisman has been making dolls for over 25 years. She started in high school by using patterns available at the fabric stores. She made dolls as gifts for friends and family.

Several years later she did an online search and discovered how much doll making had changed over the years. Delighted by the changes, such as articulated fingers and armatures, she started designing her own line of patterns.

Kathleen discovered beading about 6 years ago and can't seem to make anything without adding beads to it. Most of her new work incorporates beads into the finished piece. She says she can’t help it, beads are addicting!

She is the founder and Executive Editor of Dolls United Interactive Magazine, a unique CDRom magazine for doll makers.

She is now teaching doll and bead classes locally and across the country.

Patti Culea

Carleen Fink

Phoebe Guider

Nina Hancock

Joyce Hartley

Michele Holt

I began sewing a little back in high school on my grandmother’s old sewing machine.  About 10 years ago, my mother-in-law gave me my first new sewing machine.  A new machine helped me realize that sewing was much easier than I had thought.  With my new machine, I made my first quilt.  It was a mystery quilt and for a beginner it wasn’t too awful.  I made clothing and use my machine over the next few years, but I didn’t become a quilter until I moved to Virginia.

In 2002, my husband and I moved to Virginia and had a baby.  I switched from being a kindergarten teacher to a mom and life changed!  My mother-in-law followed us down and talked me into joining a quilt guild, The Country Piecemakers’.  Now I am a mother of two handsome boys, Vice President of the quilt guild, and completely addicted to quilting!

To see photos of my work and find out more about me please visit my website through The Arts and Crafts Guild of Goochland:

Linn Kreckman

Smocker Linn Kreckman has been practicing this beautiful and useful art for over 30 years. A seasoned teacher, she is active in the local Richmond smocking Chapter of SAGA, currently serving a third term as President. A published designer, owner of Kreckreations Children’s Clothing, and a lifelong Fan resident, this mother of three and grandmother of one, looks forward to smocking for the next generation, teaching and sharing the fabric art she loves in the Richmond area and at the Bay School of Mathews, VA.

Susan Leschke

Mark Middendorf

Estelle Porter

Estelle Porter, former elementary and secondary school art teacher and art museum administrator, has been quilting professionally since the late 1980's. She admits that she is totally addicted to quilting which competes with her other love, gardening. Although she enjoys all types of quilting she is best known for her house portraits. She says creating them allows her to combine both addictions.

Her portraits, known for their amazing detail and realism, have been featured in American Quilter Magazine and Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Her quilts have been displayed at numerous local and national shows including IQF, Houston and AQS, Paducah.

She constructs the portraits with machine applique and reverse applique but also utilizes other quilting and embellishment techniques to achieve "painterly" effects. Her works include commercial, hand-painted, hand-dyed and discharge-dyed fabrics, embroidery, trapunto, and free-motion quilting. She views each portrait as an opportunity to experiment with new techniques and materials and enjoys sharing her knowledge with her students.

Susan Scheer

Cheryl Schenck

Cheryl Schenck

Where were you born?
I was born in Detroit. I grew up mainly in Michigan with a few middle-school years in Oklahoma. However, I moved to Wisconsin after college and that's where I consider home. I lived there until I moved to Richmond a week before Joyce opened her shop (I guess it was meant to be)! I have a wonderful husband and daughter, and one dog and one cat, both geriatric.

How long have you been sewing?
I started quilting in 2003, a few months before finding out we were having a baby. I bought my first sewing machine so I could make my first quilt!

What is the first thing you made?
The first thing I really made was a baby quilt in my first beginning sewing class. I was too scared to quilt it myself (I have done every one since, though). But the information sheet for the class said "You must know how to use your sewing machine before you come to class" so I found a very simple skirt and I made it the weekend before class.

What is your favorite sewing technique? Hand or machine?
Machine for sure. I have too little patience and need instant gratification.

What is your favorite color?
Purple!

What color do you have the most trouble using in your quilts?
Beige

What inspires you?
Color mostly, and my daughter.

Favorite book?
Watership Down by Richard Adams (this was a childhood favorite, too).

Favorite movie?
Pulp Fiction, Fargo, The Crying Game, Election, A Fish Called Wanda, Thelma and Louise, Space Mutiny (don't ask)

Favorite band?
The one you've heard of is The Beatles. The one you probably haven't is Sonia Dada. I think I've seen them live a dozen times.

Favorite song?
It depends on my mood.

How long have you been working for QA?
Since January of 2007.

Cheryl with her husband, RT, and her daughter, Molly.

Kirsten Schuler

Cynthia Stockdon

Cynthia Stockdon has been sewing for 34 years, ever since she was big enough to reach the pedal. A VCU Fashion Design graduate, she worked as a Dressmaker/Designer for individuals, theater and dance groups, retail establishments, and a museum. Cynthia has been teaching sewing since 1997. She has taught Beginning and Advanced Sewing at J.Sargeant Reynolds, The American Sewing Guild, Henrico County Adult Education, and Quilting Adventures.

Cathy Tyler

Darlene Ware

Monica Wilmore