PROGRAMS & CLASSES
Please do not wear perfume or cologne when attending classes or workshops, as a courtesy to those with allergies or sensitivities.
Thank You!
Check back on this page often, as the information
and dates may change!
- For NON-GUILD MEMBERS, there is a $5 fee for attending a Guild Meeting.
- For NON-GUILD MEMBERS, if there is a guest speaker, there is a $10 fee to attend the Guild meeting.
- There is a charge for all classes and Guild Membership is required.
- Classes are held at the Chota Rec Center Room "A" located at 145 Awohili Drive, Loudon, TN.
- Half day classes are from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and full day classes are from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., unless noted.
- Cancellations with full refund are accepted up to 2 weeks prior to the class date.
NOTE: If you must cancel within the 2 weeks prior to class,
there are no refunds.
CLICK to view the Program History File (PDF) listing Speakers/Presentations From 2002 to Present.
Zoom Lecture
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
January 10, 2025
Zoom Lecture: “Now You See It, Now You Don’t. The Magic of Disappearing Blocks”
with Brita Nelson
https://questioningquilter.com
Brita Nelson, The Questioning Quilter, will be presenting a Zoom lecture to show us how easy it is to turn simple blocks into beautiful complex patterns using different block designs and color combinations. Learn about the magic and beauty of disappearing blocks with this interactive online zoom lecture, demo and trunk show. This delightful lecture may just jump start your next project!
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Thursday February 13, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full day Class: “Photos to Quilts”
With Rona Herman, Auburn, IN
(Rona the Ribbiter)
Do you love to take photos when you travel? Have you ever thought those photos would look great as a quilt? In this brand-new workshop, you’ll learn how to turn your favorite travel photos into quilts! We’ll explore:
· How to choose the best photos
- How to get your photo design onto the fabric
- How to choose the best fabrics for your photo quilt
- And finally, how to cut, paste and stitch it all down!
Class fee: $45.00
Kit Fee:
*There is a $15 Kit Fee required. Rona will provide a photo in the kit. Sewing machine will be required.
Lecture
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
February 14, 2025
Lecture: “Tips for the Traveling Quilter”
with Rona Herman, Auburn IN
(Rona the Ribbiter)
At 6 months old, Rona caught the travel bug with her first trip from Louisiana to Washington State and that bug is still going strong. Today, Rona travels all over the world in search of endless quilting knowledge and fun. She also continues to design her own Quilt patterns and books inspired by those travels and finds time to organize quilt tours, quilt retreats, teacher and lecturer, quilt pattern designer, and developing YouTube videos.
Based on her book Tips for the Traveling Quilter, Rona has developed a fun and interactive 1 Hour lecture and trunk show where she gives away all of her best secrets and tips for the road. From Budgeting to Safety, Destinations to Air travel, and a few funny shenanigans along the way. She will include something for everyone in this interactive lecture!
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Thursday March 13, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full Day Class: “Love, Baltimore Style”
With Jaimie L. Davis, West Linn, OR
(Loopy Tulip Designs)
Capture the beauty of dimensional flowers with this delightful wall hanging. Students will learn how to mimic the elegance of hand appliqué with some freezer paper, a little bit of starch, and their sewing machines. In addition, Jaimie will share 4 different techniques for making flowers that can be used both in this project and many others. Students will also learn a special technique that guarantees consistent and perfect circles in almost no time.
Class fee: $40.00
Required Class Kit: $35.00. (Payable to the teacher at the class).
Optional $25.00 additional kit containing fabric for border, beaded piping, and tabs is available in class.
Supply List, Required Kit, and Optional Kit:
Lecture
Full Day Class
1/2 Day Class
March 14, 2025
Lecture: “The History and Mystery of Baltimore Album Quilts”
With Jaimie L. Davis, West Linn, OR
(Loopy Tulip Designs)
The history of Baltimore Album quilts is a fascinating journey into an America headed for the Civil War. Discover how the industrial revolution, the struggle over slavery and the social and moral climate of the time contributed to this beautiful art form. Through stories, Jaimie will explore how the demise of Baltimore Album quilts leads us into the hearts and minds of the women who made them, and find out how a pregnancy, a Christmas gift and a quilt class gone horribly wrong helps to explain the mystery behind why these quilts disappeared almost overnight. It’s a funny, provocative and insightful look into some of America’s most beautiful treasures.
1/2 Day Class
Full Day Class
1/2 Day Class
March 14, 2025
(1:30-4:30)
½ Day Class: “Baltimore Blooms”
With Jaimie L. Davis, West Linn, OR
(Loopy Tulip Designs)
Step back to the 19th century Baltimore and the world of exquisite craftsmanship as Jaimie uncovers the art of ruching. In this half-day workshop, Jaimie will work alongside students to teach them how to create the ruched roses.
Required Kit: $15.00 or $45.00. (Each $45.00 kit contains all of the fabric needed to complete a 19" x 19" quilt with the exception of batting and backing. Seed beads are optional and are not included in the kit.)
Class Fee $25.00
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Thursday April 10, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full Day Class: “Dames and Diamonds”
With MJ Kinman, Louisville, KY
MJ will introduce to students the technique she uses to create all of her gem patterns using traditional piecing using freezer paper as a template. She has designed four patterns inspired by some of the world’s most beautiful gems. Patterns will be available as PDF downloads.
Participants will choose one of the fully-charted gem patterns to make during class. During class, you will not only create a quilt block of the patterns, but MJ will have all kinds of gossip about the gems and their outrageous, eccentric, and intriguing owners.
Class Fee: $60.00
Required Kit
(supplied by instructor)
Note: If students wish to purchase additional patterns and instructions, the price will be $10.00 per additional pattern or $25.00 for the remaining 3 patterns.
Note: Fabric bundles will be available for purchase if students don’t want to bring their own fabric. Bundles are available for $10.00 each.
Lecture
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
April 11, 2025
Lecture: “Color Play. Beyond Color Theory”
With MJ Kinman, Louisville, KY
Color plays a pivotal role in MJ’s gem quilts. Over the past 25+ years, MJ has learned ways to approach color with confidence and she is delighted to share these method and ideas. Her Color Play lecture is targeted to helping you gain confidence when working with color choices.
MJ will demonstrate how to make your quilts sparkle and glow by selecting fabrics of different values and saturation levels, how to create effective transparencies, and how to change the appearance of a color in a variety of ways just by placing it next to another color. She will help to demystify the use of color, help you gain confidence in your color selection, and create beautiful quilts regardless of your inspiration!
½ Day Class
Full Day Class
Full day Class
April 11, 2025
(1:30-4:30)
½ Day Class: “Color Play: Beyond Color Theory”
With MJ Kinman, Louisville, KY
Using Kona Cotton solid fabric, MJ will demonstrate how to create sparkle with value contrast and how to make quilts glow with saturation contrast. MJ will show you how to create effective transparencies, understanding how to achieve the illusion of fabric sliding over and under one another. Finally, she will show you how to change the appearance of color just by changing its neighboring hue in a variety of ways.
This practical, non-sewing class, will give you an opportunity to practice in a fun atmosphere the techniques discussed during her lecture.
Class Fee: $20.00
Required Kit
(supplied by instructor)
- Fabric strips and squares for experimentation
- Color wheels
- Sample patterns to inspire blocks
Full day Class
Full day Class
Full day Class
Thursday, May 8, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full day Class: “English Paper Piecing Design Party”
With Tina Craig, Seaside Stitches, Wakefield, RI
Learn the basics of English Paper Piecing and create your own unique 4" hexagon block.
Instruction includes EPP geometry, color & design basics, fussy cutting with Tina's Wonder Window, basting options, various hand piecing stitches, curved piecing, and finishing options.
Class handout includes a bonus table runner pattern.
Class Fee: $60.00
Required Kit: There is a kit fee per student which includes printed handouts and template pages.
Lecture
Full day Class
½ Day Class
May 9, 2025
Lecture: “The Versatility of English Paper Piecing”
With Tina Craig, Seaside Stitches, Wakefield, RI
Tina started quilting in 1990 as an unemployed newlywed looking for something to do. She took a beginner sampler quilt class at Colchester Mill Fabric Store and hasn’t stopped stitching.
Tina tries to challenge herself to learn something new with every quilt she makes. In this lecture she will demonstrate how to look beyond Grandmother's Flower Garden to see all the possibilities of English Paper Piecing (EPP). From different shapes and sizes to improv and 3-dimensional projects, this trunk show may inspire a myriad of design options for your next quilt.
½ Day Class
Full day Class
½ Day Class
May 9, 2025
(1:30-4:30)
½ Day Class: “Improvisational English Paper Piecing”
With Tina Craig, Seaside Stitches, Wakefield, RI
Tina’s demo of her new technique for Improvisational EPP was a big hit during the Global Quilt Connection All Star Sampler Platter. Tina’s instruction will include designing your own block using straight lines or curves, basting options, invisible hand stitching and finishing.
Class Fee: $30.00
Kit Fee: $5.00
Zoom Lecture
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
August 8, 2025
Zoom Lecture: “Honoring Today’s Quilter at the National Quilt Museum”
With Becky Glasby, Director of Learning and Engagement, The National Quilt Museum, Paducah, KY
Becky Glasby has more than fifteen years of experience in museum education. As a lifelong quilter, she works to create future quilters and to inspire in others a love for all types of quilting. She has been at NQM since 2010 and earned her degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington.
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Thursday, September 11, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full Day Class:”Small Landscape Class”
With Cynthia England, Canyon Lake, TN
Blue Heron or Smokey Mountains
Both are 19” X 17”, No tracing involved; templates are preprinted onto freezer paper.
Fabric selection, organizational skills and construction methods will be addressed in class. Sewing machines and irons required.
Class Fee: $50.00
Kit Fee: $37.00 (payable in class to instructor)
Lecture
Full Day Class
Lecture
September 12, 2025
Lecture: “Creating a Pictorial Quilt”
With Cynthia England, Canyon Lake, TN
Cynthia England is a native Texan and graduate of the Art Institute of Houston and has been creating quilts for more than fifty years. Experimentation with quilting techniques led her to develop her own unique style and technique called, “Picture Piecing”. Cynthia’s quilts have been honored with many awards, including three Best of Shows at the prestigious International Quilt Association, as well as Viewer’s Choice at the American Quilter’s Society. Her quilt, Piece and Quiet, was distinguished as one of the Hundred Best Quilts of the 20th Century. Cynthia will provide a lecture showing the process of making pictorial quilts using her picture piecing technique.
Lecture
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
October 10, 2025
Lecture: “Trunk Show”
WIth Michelle Wilkie, Cary, NC
Michelle Wilkie is a artist and designer of modern quilts. She grew up in South Auckland, NZ. Quilting is a passion, driving her creativity. She works to have her quilts seen not just as quilts but as art. She experiments with a variety of modern techniques and aesthetics, though embraces Improvisation and Minimalist styles.
Michelle is currently exhibiting and participating in a community exhibition at the NC Museum of Art (NCMA). She has completed an artist in residence at Durham Art Guild with a solo exhibition “Creating Connections, and a residency at Penland School of Craft. She exhibited at Page-Walker Center in a solo exhibition “Eyes Wide Open”, and exhibited at CAM Raleigh, Truist Gallery, 311 Gallery and ArtSpace NC and curated into international shows in France and Italy. She regularly has work juried into Art and International Quilt Exhibitions and has been featured in several magazines and has work published in the book Modern Quilts: Design of the New Century.
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Full Day Class
Thursday, October 9, 2025
(9:30 - 4:30)
Full Day Class: “Improvisation: Shapes + Lines”
WIth Michelle Wilkie, Cary, NC
For such a seemingly free-spirited technique, improvisation can be difficult to get started. In this workshop, you make various lines and shapes that can be mixed to build your own improvisational composition. You will make some strip piecing using a brown bag method, play with scraps to make squares, triangles and curve shapes. You will use various techniques to audition and edit your composition to get the right balance of color and placement.
Class Fee: $60.00
Lecture
Full Day Class
Lecture
November 14, 2025
Lecture: “Really, I didn’t know that”
With Arliss Barber
In 2026, our guild will be celebrating our 25th anniversary!
Accordingly, Arliss will be conducting a retrospective lecture with visuals about the historical journey of the Guild.
Included, she will note the “how and why” we went from a handful of charter members to the vibrant Guild we are today.
ANNOUNCEMENT
- To all members of The Village Quilters -
The 2025 Guild membership renewal period has started. The annual membership fee is $50.00.
Click the link below to renew today!