Minot Prairie Quilt Guild

Instructors

Mark Lipinski: You will be hard pressed to find a more entertaining lecture personality and enjoyable quilting class than one taken with international quilt teacher and quilt, fabric designer, and creator and former Executive Editor of Quilter's Home magazine, Mark Lipinski. Dubbed "the bad boy of quilting", by the international press, Mark's no holds barred, brutally honest, riotous PG-13 talks are half quilting and all stand-up comedy. As a designer, Mark's work has been seen in 9 magazines has been a guest on HGTV's Simply Quilts. He has also launched a line of his own quilting patterns, called The Quilts of Pickle Road. As a fabric designed, Mark's premier fabric collection, Katmandu, was the very first line of quilting fabrics that was specifically designed to be embellished. On a national level, Mark is a member of the Quilt Professionals Network, Studio Quilt Art Associates, and the American Quilter's Society. A native of Pittsburg, PA, Mark called "home" to San Francisco (where he was a social worker at The Children's Hospital of San Francisco and headed up the milieu program for the Adolescent Day Treatment Center), Miami, Chicago, and Manhattan. Mark and his family moved from the hustle and bustle of New York City into a historical 1864 "fixer upper" in Long Valley, NJ, where he raises honey bees and laying hens when he's not being "called" to his design studio (where his family will one day find him dead and crushed by the too many bolts of fabric and years worth of magazines and books that he can't throw away, and will never use).

Kathleen Johnson - Alexander, ND: Kathleen Moorhead Johnson began quilting in 1983. Little did she know where that first class would lead her. Kathy loves teaching techniques students can have instant success with. Kathy has been published in several books and calendars. Her most recently published quilt is her Jacobean Pineapple Star in the 2010 AQS Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. Kathy works part-time at The Bent Pin in Williston. For more information, check out her web page at www.augustwindquilteddesigns.com.

Kathy Cameron - Pelican Rapids, MN: Kathy has been quilting since she lived in Utah in the early 1980's. She started teaching quilting classes in the late 1980's. She has taught at several of the past Prairie Quilt Festivals, retreats, and workshops. She and her husband make their home on a lake in Minnesota -- which has helped to expand her quilting color palette.

Karen Dockter - Minot, ND: Karen has been sewing since she was 9. Her first quilt was a hand appliquéd hearts to make flowers. She worked at J&R for 8 years, teaching and selling machines. She has been a member of the Minot Guild for 12 years, and has taught many classes for our guild.

Roberta Flannigan - Surrey, ND: A mostly self-taught quilter from a family of quilters. Her grandmother and parents quilted and made up things as they sewed. Her dad cut up coat linings and made mittens for his 11 children and he made "couch blankets". Roberta's grandmother made "sweater blankets" and used a lot of polyester in her flower quilts. Her mom made fancy quilts with embroidered blocks and pieced many blocks from quilt books and magazines. Most of her mother's work is like Roberta's. Roberta helped make her first quilt by embroidering pictures traced from coloring books. She machine quilted her first quilts for her sons born in the 1970's. Since then she has always had projects and plans in the works and thinks she will need many years to do them all! Roberta loves to experiment with new methods and she doen't think you can have too many fabrics, because you just never know what you might need for that special block. Never be afraid to try something new and always experiment with colors and types of fabrics. A lot of her favorite and most interesting quilts come from those experiments.

Faye Grandalen - Mayville, ND: Faye Grandalen is the owner of "Faye's Henhouse Quilts" in Mayville, North Dakota. She has been in business almost 15 years. Faye's first real quilts were made before the days of the rotary cutter. She made log cabin quilts for her daughters, from fabric scraps that she had from dresses made for them. She came from a large family so growing up she learned to sew at a young age and made clothes for herself. When her girls were young she sewed everything they wore, from under ware out (not socks). She also made her husband's jeans, T-shirts, shirts and under ware. Since starting to quilt seriously, she has sewn very little clothing. She enjoys the quilting, it is much easier to make a quilt fit a bed than a garment fit a person.

Sharon Hovey - Great Falls, MT: Sharon started sewing before the age of ten, participated in 4-H competitions, sewed her own garments for more than three decades, and has enjoyed quilting since 1993. A retired nursing professor, she has a quilted art piece in The HeART of Nursing book published by Sigma Theta Tau International. Her husband is a Minot High and Minot State alumni and spent his career as an educator and counselor in Great Falls, MT. They are parents of three adult sons living in Albuquerque, Virginia Beach, and Poulsbo, WA and have three grandchildren.

Kris Jacobson - Amidon, ND: Kris has been sewing since she was in 4-H as a girl. She has a minor in clothing and textiles. In the late '80's she started doing more quilting. In 1990 she took a class from Harriet Hargrave and has not stopped since. Kris has won various local and State Fair awards along with various quilt show awards and has had a quilt accepted in the Minnesota Quilt Show. She began teaching in 1995 and has been teaching ever since. She has also taken classes from many nationally known quilters. "I love to do anything with thread and machine quilting. I have a hand quilted wall hanging that just has to have one border quilted and it has been sitting there since 1998".

Julia Mehlhoff - Bottineau, ND: She enjoys almost all quilting techniques. The pace in her workshops is relaxed, enjoyable and the outcome is pleasing. She is very patient and supportive. She has taught both one on one at students' homes and in classrooms. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she loves to share, inspire and encourage others. She teaches classes from very basic introductory skill levels for those just starting out to more advanced techniques for experienced quilters. And, she finds great satisfaction helping others learn, develop and grow as their skills improve. Her personal preference is for traditional quilt patterns. Her interests include Redwork, needle-turn appliqué, hand appliqué, hand quilting, treadle and early electric machines. This has lead to a personal interest in using vintage era sewing machines to help capture the look and style exhibited in those early quilts as well as developing and appreciation of the time and skills necessary to use those tools. At least that is the excuse she has used for having as many as 27 sewing machines. She sometimes uses one of her vintage machines in class much to the enjoyment of her students. This has resulted in a strong understanding of the basic fundamentals, techniques and how they can be used in both vintage and modern style quilts. She feels that to truly be a good instructor it is important to have skills not only in design and color but also in how to utilize the tools, techniques and machines correctly. There are tips and tricks she will share with her students to make it fun to learn. And yes, if you do not complete your project during class you are welcome to call her at home for continued support!

Norma Lee Miller - Williston, ND: Norma Lee has been sewing since her grandmother taught her how to make aprons when she was 7 years old. She came to the quilting world with a garment construction background, taking her first quilting class from Kathy Johnson in September 1995. She enjoys drafting, designing and piecing new quilt designs. Most of her quilts are commercially quilted. Norma Lee makes utility quilts rather than heirloom quilts, saying she wants her quilts to be used but not abused. Her "quilting mission" has been to find the most simplified method to piece complicated-looking blocks. If you see her name as the instructor, it is almost a guarantee that it will be a simple, quick and easy piecing technique. Norma Lee taught her first quilting class in October 1997. A retired bookkeeper, she has been a member of Dakota Prairie Quilters Guild since 1995, the Badlands Quilters Guild since 1998 and the Minot Prairie Quilters Guild since 2007. She has lived in Williston since 1974. She has three daughters, five grandsons, two granddaughters and one great-granddaughter.

Julie Rostad - Minot, ND: Julie owns the quilt shop, Bernina Plus, in downtown Minot. She has been sewing since age five. Quilting is her favorite type of sewing, BUT, she also enjoys garment making, home décor, stained glass, ceramics and many other forms of art.