2025 NE Ohio Instructors
Betsy Bauman
Teaching: Lecture- Vintage Trunk Show, Lecture: 25 Tips & Tricks, I Wish You Bluebirds in Spring
Betsy Bauman is a teacher and artist whose love of fabric, drama and history led her to the theatre and a career as a costume designer. She brings her knowledge of fashion history and sewing construction together with her sense of color, line, and shape to help the actors tell a story that will express something universal about what it means to be human. These are the same things that draw her to working as a quilt artist. “I am inspired by the history and tradition of quilting, and I collect antique quilts to study and to enjoy. This respect for the past is the springboard for the quilts I make. Although I use the same basic structure as quilters from the past, I am not trying to decorate a bed or provide warmth, but rather I seek to tell a story or express an idea. My quilts are playful and whimsical, and I think viewers will see my theatrical background in them, as well.” Betsy began making quilts in 2000, and since then her quilts have been juried into national exhibitions such as the American Quilter’s Society shows at Paducah, Lancaster, and Grand Rapids, Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA, as well as shows in Vermont and Indiana, and locally at Lake Farm Park, the Rocky River Reflections of Nature Shows, and Mutton Hill in Akron. She also lectures on Quilt History and other quilt-related topics. Bauman serves as Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Hiram College, where she has been teaching since 1998. She holds an M.F.A. in Design from Kent State University, an M.A. in Theatre from The University of Akron, and a B.A. in Theatre from SUNY Brockport.
Kellie Beckwith
Teaching: Lecture: Crochet-Fusion
Kellie is the owner of Tulip Cottage Quilts from Lakawanna, NY. She designs quilts that combine traditional patterns with modern design and techniques
Julie Belin
Teaching: Legit Kits: Hazy Hills East, Quiltworx: Maple Leaf Flurries, Quiltworx: Haystack Cookies
Julie Belin’s quilting career began more than 30 years ago after receiving a quilt as a wedding gift. When her husband challenged “you could make that” the journey began. Although originally a self-taught quilter, her careers of engineer and high school math teacher fueled her passion for precision piecing. She’s always on the lookout for efficient methods and tools to do just that. Wanting to share quilting tips and techniques with others, she became a certified quilt instructor for Studio 180 Design and Sew Kind of Wonderful and is pursuing the same for Quiltworx. These certifications have opened the door for her to share her enthusiasm for quilting tools and techniques across the country with workshops and lectures at guilds, retreats and quilt shows. She loves seeing the excitement of her students as they master the tools. When Julie isn’t teaching or lecturing, you can find her busy with her many guilds planning events, quilting for charity, long-arming for her business or maybe even playing in her garden.
Aasta Deth
Teaching: Paint Your Own Barn Quilt
Aasta Deth is the owner of Harrison House Designs. She has a background in fine art painting, printmaking and sculpture. She grew up in the quilting industry from the time she could walk and has been part of her family business since she could run a cash register. She now focuses on custom washout screenprinting for quilting teachers as well as a community art studio she runs with her husband, Dan. Aasta utilizes her background in painting and design with her deep-rooted love for quilting.
Jack Edson
Teaching: Beginner Fabric Portraiture, Intermediate Fabric Portraiture
Jack Edson, a quilter from Hamburg, NY, earned his BA from Canisius College and his Master of Library Science from the University of Rhode Island. Inspired at a 1976 Bicentennial exhibit in Elmira, Edson started quilting and has been honing his skills for the past four decades.
Edson’s work has featured some of his favorite images from art history. From these images, Edson creates a working quilt pattern that evolves as he creates the piece. He describes his process as “more like being a juggler, with twenty balls in the air...I am constantly adding more balls to the juggling act.” He combines many of these historical elements to create portraits of the artists he finds most influential. He describes these portraits as a way to pay homage “in thousands of pieces of fabric to the artists whose work inspires me and whose lives touch my heart.”
In 2017 Edson retired from his role as director of the Hamburg Public Library, a position he held since 2005, after a 46-year career as a librarian. Over the course of his career he developed a love for collecting art and other assorted objects. Surrounding himself with the work of other artists has influenced his own work, inspiring him to take chances, like experimenting with colors and patterns.
Edson’s quilts have been featured in the Art in Craft Media exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 2015 and 2017. His self-portrait quilt in the 2017 show earned him the Margaret E. Mead Memorial award.
Edson has also exhibited his quilts nationally; most recently he has been featured in exhibitions at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum in Washington (2018), the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Colorado (2018, 2016) and the CASS Project in Buffalo (2018).
Lyn Gerard
Teaching: Making a Cork Bag
Lyn Gerard is the owner of The Cork Emporium. This unique store is for eco-conscious fashion enthusiasts and creative artisans alike. The Cork Emporium specializes in offering a diverse range of thread, cloth and ornate accessories crafted from an environmentally friendly and versatile material: cork fabric.
Derived primarily from the bark of the cork oak tree, this high-quality fabric is sourced from Spain, Portugal and France, regions known for their abundant cork oak forests. One notable aspect of cork fabric is its sustainability.
Joanne Hubbard
Teaching: Point The Way: Paper Piecing, Demystified Half Square Triangles, Simple Gifts, Funhouse, Lecture: Charm School
Joanne Hubbard lives in Milan, Ohio – the birthplace of one of her heroes, Thomas Edison. Without his lightbulb invention, she would not be able to spend countless hours sewing into the wee hours of the morning. Quilting is her passion, and she has the full support and encouragement of her family, especially her “quilt holder extraordinaire” husband, Jack. Joanne enjoys every aspect of quilting from designing, choosing fabrics, all the way to the binding - even “quilt math.” She teaches classes, offers trunk shows and workshops, creates patterns, and tests patterns for a variety of designers. Joanne blogs at http://joanne-everyonedeservesaquilt.blogspot.com/; and as her blog name indicates, she truly does believe that everyone deserves a quilt!
MJ Kinman
Teaching: Lights! Camera! Action!, Color Shifting, Dive Deep into Transparency, Lit From Within
When people ask me what I do, I like to tell them “I make the biggest diamonds in the world… But instead of working with the hardest substances on earth, I work with the softest …. cloth.” The idea to create giant gem portraits took hold of my soul 20 years ago and has grown into a passion that has enriched my life as a textile artist.
The adventure started years ago when, as a novice quiltmaker, I discovered an image of a gorgeous gem. With only a basic understanding of quilting techniques — and no knowledge whatsoever of gemology — I was unsure how to transform that image into a pieced work of art. However, I was convinced there had to be a way. And I was determined to find it. After several years of research and experimentation, I made my first gem portrait.
I work with fabric and paint to create larger-than-life portraits of colored gemstones. Inspired by the image of an actual stone, I study the gem to understand its particular personality — the play of color and light across its facets. My goal is to capture the luminosity of these “divas” and “drama queens.”
I prefer to work in a large format in order to convey the story of light and color encased in a gemstone. The larger format also provides viewers with a more intimate experience, inviting them to discover greater levels of detail as they approach the work. While I prefer to work in a series — my most recent series, “Bourbon Diamonds”, celebrates Kentucky’s iconic spirit — each piece is a unique, one-of-kind design. Planning is underway for a new series based on the National Gem Collection housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
I was delighted to have been invited to have a solo show at the National Quilt Museum (Paducah, KY) in 2020. The NQM subsequently acquired one of my Bourbon Series pieces, “Char #4”, for their permanent collection.
Audra Rasnake
Teaching: Beginner Hand Quilting, Beginners Blossom Needleturn Applique, Folded Cutwork, Boutis, EPP Beyond the Basics,
Lecture: Designspirations
Audra is a fourth-generation quilter and grew up literally underneath a quilt frame. She’s been hand quilting for 30 years and has been doing needleturn appliqué for 20 years. She considers herself a traditional quilter. She began teaching hand quilting, EPP, and needleturn appliqué about 10 years ago and then, in 2014, decided to enter the world of competition quilting. Audra has won many ribbons at national shows since then, many for her hand quilting. One of her greatest passions is folded cutwork. She uses appliqué in every quilt she does. Audra enjoys helping beginners overcome their fear of the dreaded “A” word. For more information visit www.facebook.com/audra.rasnake.
Patricia Simons
Teaching: Lecture- Template (Rulers) and Machine Quilting- a Primer Course, Lecture: Dancing with Rulers, Maximizing the Use of Machine Quilting Templates/Rulers
Patricia represents Quilter’s Rule. When Quilter's Rule created the Design Tools line, Patricia developed a knack for designing different quilting patterns. Her signature class “Unlock Your Creativity (The Key is Templates)” has opened a whole new world to people who are not naturally artists. Her techniques are applicable to all quilters regardless of whether you hand quilt, use a home machine, a short-arm, a mid-arm, or a long-arm machine. These techniques can even be used in a variety of different crafts. In addition to using templates to create designs, she also helps create new products. She looks forward to sharing her techniques to help you develop your own style and look.
Gloria Stickney
Teaching: Lecture- Square in a Square Trunk Show, Not Your Mamas Square inside a Square: An Introduction to Square in a Square
Gloria is the owner of Sew Fabulous, Inc. She started sewing at 6 years of age and has been professionally quilting since 2006. By day, she is the Grants and Contracts Manager for the Physics Department at Wake Forest University and Sew Fabulous is her play job! In 2006, she designed the Dreamin’ Deacon© quilt for Wake Forest University. This quilt literally launched Sew Fabulous and the business has been growing and expanding every year since then. She has licensed several handcrafted items for the Wake Forest University collegiate licensing.
Gloria has been teaching quilting classes for 12 years and provided many guild demonstrations using the Square in a Square system. Her students include beginning to advanced quilters. She discusses the use of creating intricate pieced blocks with speed and accuracy. Gloria specializes in teaching the Square in a Square technique, making custom theme-stitched t-shirt memory quilts, provides edge to edge longarm quilting services, and creating Wake Forest University licensed products.