Creative Spark Online Learning from C&T Publishing

Amy Friend of During Quiet Time

Amy Friend is a former museum curator turned designer.  She designs modern quilts and specializes in paper pieced designs.  She authored the books Intentional Piecing (2016) and Improv Paper Piecing: A Modern Approach to Quilt Design (2017), and has a new book, Petal + Stem (2020).  Since 2019, Amy has run a paper pieced Block of the Month program.  An award winning quilter, her quilts have been exhibited at a number of quilt shows and museums. You can follow her creative path on her blog During Quiet Time.

Website: duringquiettime.com

Instagram: @duringquiettime 

Facebook: duringquiettime

Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

Amy writes the popular blog, Diary of a Quilter, which has allowed her to find hundreds of other people who share the same interest in cutting up fabric into little tiny pieces and sewing them back together as she does. She also is a Riley Blake fabric designer.

Website: diaryofaquilter.com 

Instagram: @diaryofaquilter  Facebook: diaryofaquilter

Pinterest: amy_u_smart

Brett Lewis of Natural Born Quilter

Avid Quilter and Fabric Designer, Brett Lewis, aka Natural Born Quilter, discovered his love of the craft through learning to sew and quilt in 2016. Fast forward over 50 quilts later, Brett has been featured in the acclaimed magazine Love Patchwork and Quilting, various podcasts, and instructs his very own EQ8 designed quilt patterns, with classes focusing on foundation paper piecing, fussy cutting, and curves. His quilting style is Contemporary Traditional, using contemporary vibrant and bold fabrics with traditional patterns. Brett debuted his premiere fabric line Stag and Thistle with Northcott Fabrics in 2019. His second collection “Prairie Meadow” will be shipping Fall 2021.

Website: naturalbornquilter.com

Instagram: @naturalbornquilter 

Facebook: Natural Born Quilter

Chrissy Lux of Sew Lux

Chrissy Lux owns Sew Lux Fabric with her mom, Linda Herrman. She learned to sew from her mom and made her first quilt for her college dorm room. Quilting and bag making became a more serious hobby after college and in 2010 they opened their online shop and haven’t looked back!

Chrissy enjoys making scrappy quilts and designing smaller (and quicker to finish!) projects like pouches and pillows for their monthly clubs. She will make any bag her own using patchwork panels and pieces. These include the popular Sew Together Bag, Weekender Bag and Nova Tote.

Website: sewluxfabric.com

Instagram: @sewlux 

Facebook: sewluxfabric

Christa Watson of Christa Quilts

Christa Watson is an enthusiastic, award-winning quilter from Las Vegas, Nevada who enjoys teaching others to find joy in making “perfectly imperfect” quilts from start to finish. She's a fabric designer, quilting industry ambassador, and cheerleader for the modern quilting movement. She's written several quilt books, and she publishes numerous original quilt patterns.

 Website: christaquilts.com

Shop: shop.christaquilts.com

Instagram: @christaquilts

Facebook: christaquilts

Daisy Aschehoug of Warmfolk

Daisy has been making quilts since 2010 and designing quilts for magazines since 2016. She is passionate about the art of modern traditionalism and incorporating curved piecing into utility quilts. Daisy is also excited to explore how the resources she uses in her craft can reflect socially and environmentally sustainable practices. She is a member of the Modern Quilt Guild and the Studio Art Quilt Associates. She is also a C&T author.

Website: warmfolk.com

Instagram: @warmfolk

Facebook: warmfolk

Ginny Robinson of Minnowpeck

Ginny Robinson began quilting in 2009, inspired by her grandmother, who was born into a very long, unbroken line of Kansas quilters. Besides quilting, she also writes and teaches, so she feels pretty lucky anytime two or three of these activities come together. She currently finds inspiration in the way craft traditions can “speak” to each other, and of all quilty things, she loves appliqué the most because at its best, it’s forgiving, a trait she seeks more and more in everything.

Website: minnowpeck.com

Instagram: @minnowpeck

Heather Valentine of The Sewing Loft

Heather is the voice behind The Sewing Loft. This self-proclaimed fabric hoarder likes to stitch the night away and dreams of one day discovering a better way to detangle her thread collection. These days, you can find Heather teaching at local shops and sharing her talent in online video classes. Each year she hosts a sewing retreat, Sew Scrappy.

Website: thesewingloftblog.com

Instagram: @thesewingloft

Pinterest: thesewingloft

Facebook: TheSewingLoftFB

Jen Kingwell of Jen Kingwell Designs

After decades of exploring all areas of the craft world, Jen bought her first patchwork store in 1999. Surrounding herself daily with walls of fabric encouraged her to explore colour combinations and push the boundaries when discovering her signature style: which she describes as “traditional blocks with a modern twist”. It’s Jen’s use of colour that makes her quilts instantly recognisable. She is a scrap quilter and the more fabrics she can include in any one project the happier she is. Jen now travels the world teaching and lecturing but always loves returning to her family and store- Amitie Textiles in Torquay, Australia.

Website: jenkingwelldesigns.com and amitie.com.au

Instagram: @jenkingwell @amitietextiles 

Facebook: amitie.textiles 

Latifah Saafir of Latifah Saafir Studios

Latifah Saafir is known for her bold and innovative modern quilts. Combining her training as an engineer with her lifelong passion for sewing, Latifah creates designs that are graphic and contemporary, featuring challenging techniques with meticulous attention to detail. A co-founder of both the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild and the worldwide Modern Quilt Guild, Latifah currently teaches workshops to guilds around the country.

Website: latifahsaafirstudios.com

Instagram: @latifahsaafirstudios

Facebook: latifahsaafirstudios

Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced

Lee began her career as a news reporter, writer, and editor, later making a switch to graphic design. She took up sewing after stopping work to stay home with her daughter. Designing quilts felt like graphic design in the form of fabric, so is it any surprise that she love it? She now has a line of quilt patterns and co-authored the book Vintage Quilt Revival: 22 Modern Designs from Classic Blocks. Lee’s work has been seen in numerous magazines including Curated Quilts, Quiltmaker, Fons and Porter’s Easy Quilts, and more.

Website: freshlypieced.com

Instagram: @lee.a.heinrich

Facebook: lee.a.heinrich

YouTube: Lee Heinrich

Rebecca Bryan of Bryan House Quilts

Rebecca Bryan is an award-winning quilter, author and fabric designer. Rebecca experienced a color revolution when she used rainbow colors in her designs, moving her from color muddler to color master. Today she teaches thousands of quilters how to create color palettes. Her other love is modern triangles and teaching quilters how-to-techniques through her courses, books and patterns. Her work is described as fun, modern, playful, classic, and always colorful.

Website: bryanhousequilts.com

Instagram: @bryanhousequilts

Facebook: Quilting in Color

YouTube: rebeccabryan

Teri Lucas of TerifiCreations

Teri Lucas is the Chief Creative Weirdo at TerifiCreations, quilter, teacher, and author of Color, Thread & Free-Motion Quilting Learn to Stitch with Reckless Abandon (July 2020). Teri is best known for her improv style quilting, with a bit of spunk and a dash of sass. She loves talking about needles, thread, and tension - Oh My. And batting too. Look for courses on Creative Spark from Teri in the near future.

Website: terificreations.com

Instagram: @terilucas

Facebook: TeriLucasquilts

Pinterest: quiltedteri