Mark Hordyzynski

Over the years and several diverse careers, Mark Hordysyznski has striven to excel beyond the everyday design challenges presented to him. "It's the act of creating that I find most challenging. Can I take something ordinary or that's already been done and make it modern present?"

A native New Yorker, Mark began his artistic journey following two years of study at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He has been in both front and back of the "house" as Chef, Sous Chef and Maitre 'd, and in 1983 was awarded an Honorable Mention for his bread sculpture at the 114th Annual Salon of Culinary Arts. Half a decade later, Mark chose to pursue his second career in men's wear. Mark's innate color sense and use of patterns and textures was rewarded during his years at F.I.T. with a number of scholarships and the Designer's Critic Award at graduation. Nineteen eighty-nine provided the chance to design neckwear for Hermes, and a two-week internship at the design studio in Paris after winning Comite Colbert's L'art de Vivre for Men's Wear, and redesigning uniforms for the NYC Staten Island Ferry crew.

After graduation F.I.T., he took a position as a co-designer for a thriving New York based sweater company, heading the private label division for 5 years. Then a textile project for a friend lead to a design position for a major fabric converter where he was responsible for merchandising customer and licensee accounts as well as open line design work. Next it was time for Mark to venture out on his own. In 2002 he was awarded Cotton Inc.'s 21st Annual Cotton Incorporated Textile Designer's Award for "outstanding contributions to innovative design and styling" in the Prints - Home category.

Mark is currently licensing his designs on cotton to a textile related New York based company for quilting, crafting, and manufacturing - products such as scrubs, home journals, scrap-booking supplies and travel & bath accessories, table top and women's apparel & accessories (pocketbooks, shoes, clothing). Recent projects include: the self-publication of his first novel, Shag, being released this spring; a how-to book with C&T Publishing this fall, and his collaboration with a director/producer, and animation studio as artistic director on an original concept for a children's animated television series.

As a child I wandered around gardens picking flowers while daydreaming of fairies. I remember driving to Grandma’s house through the monotonous tan rolling hills of California wishing I could color the hills brighter colors. Mom said I could paint the hills with pastels. Later I was very disappointed to learn that pastels were too tiny to roll with me down those hills, coloring them magenta and turquoise as I had planned.

When my family moved to Guadalajara Mexico at age 16 I fell in love with everything handmade, decorated in a riot of bright colors. While watching the artisans I decided that would be my career.

We were encouraged to paint murals on the walls and sew our own clothes. I have been sewing, cartooning and creating ever since. Hundreds of my humorous cartoons are made into magnets for stores. My sister, who worked in a quilt fabric store, encouraged me to make the cartoons into fabric. In my fabric lines you can enter an imaginary world of luscious colors and pretend critters. All of the pieces in the line coordinate: blocks, borders & sprinkles for unlimited creativity. I use the funny stories of my travels to create one of a kind story quilts both whimsical and innovative. Sharing them with others makes for an entertaining lecture and fun classes. I now live in a magical garden in Santa Cruz California where the cats, Jitterbug and Lunatique, inspired Cat in the Garden.
Visit me at www.ellenedith.com

Karen Combs

Designer Karen Combs has been quilting and teaching for over 30 years. Born and raised in Michigan, she and her family moved to Tennessee in 1990. Karen's quilts are known for taking a traditional pattern and adding her unique "twist." She is intrigued and inspired by dimension and has been designing quilts with illusion for many years. Quilters love her quilt patterns, fabric collections, as well as her unique use of color in her quilts.

Karen is a popular teacher who has been nominated for Quilt Teacher of the Year by Professional Quilters Journal in 1995, 2000 and 2005. She is a teacher who makes the complex easy to understand and encourages creativity in her students.

Karen Combs is the author of 5 books, including "Optical Illusions for Quilters", "Floral Illusions" and the latest book, "3 Quilters Celebrate the 4 Seasons", co-written with Joan Shay and Bethany Reynolds.

She has designed two new and exciting fabric collections for Blank Textiles. The Geometrix group focuses on Karen's love of illusions while the Sew On collections shows her love of quilting and her sense of fun. For more information on Karen Combs, visit her website: www.karencombs.com

Keri Schneider

Ranae Merrill

I grew up sleeping under quilts that my grandmothers made by hand - I didn't know a blanket was anything else until I was an adult. When my mother's mother died, she was in the process of making me a quilt, and my mother brought it to me, half-pieced, after the funeral. More than 10 years later I finished it, and that was my first quilt. (At the time I was in my first year of graduate school studying piano performance)

Not long after, my mother gave me a steamer trunk that had belonged to her father. When I opened it, I discovered it was full of grandma's quilting supplies, unfinished tops, and another quilt. The treasures in my grandparents' trunk kept me quilting - I have made baby quilts incorporating my grandma's squares for each baby born in my family.

Meanwhile, I moved to New York City and worked as a photographer. I started doing travel photography, and nearly everywhere I went I found myself photographing details and patterns thinking "That would make a great quilt or fabric design."

A couple of years ago I was hand-quilting a queen-size quilt for my sister's wedding, carrying it around with me in a large canvas bag so I could quilt on the subway. Many of my friends saw my work and kept saying to me "You should do this professionally!" I laughed and shrugged it off.

Then one night in October 2003, I just couldn't sleep. So, I went to the computer and started playing around with some photographs. Soon they were turning into fabric and quilt designs. My friends were right - and I'm having a wonderful time!

Sara Moe

Fiber Artist, Quilting Designer, Instructor, and Fabric Designer

Sara’s career as a fiber artist had very early beginnings. At the age of 5, in her kindergarten class, she painted a bright red flower on a pastel pink dress that her mom had just made for her, because she felt it was too pale and needed more color. Her love for bright colors and painting on fabric, had early beginnings and she continues to express herself through her brightly colored quilts, fabrics and wearable art. She started sewing her own clothes in Home Economics class in the 7th grade and has been sewing up a storm ever since.

Like most teenagers, Sara didn’t listen to her mom, when she urged her to attend fashion design school in New York, but instead she went to the University of Buffalo, in New York where she earned her Bachelor’s degree. She eventually got into sales in the fast growing computer industry, where she worked for over 20 years. In 2001, Sara finally got the opportunity to pursue her true passion, when she was asked to work as a Creative Consultant for Pfaff Sewing Machines. That year Sara started her own company and named it “Sew Inspired” because she wanted to spread her passion for the “Art of Sewing and Quilting” by inspiring her customers.

Sara has traveled for the last 5 years teaching and inspiring sewers and quilters with her unique and “out of the box” quilts and wearable art. Sara lectures and does workshops at major quilt shows and sewing industry conventions, for sewing machine dealers, quilt shops and quilt and Fiber Art guilds throughout the United States. In 2004, Sara began marketing her first quilting product when she introduced her Spinning Pinwheel Basic Design Kit – a templates set with CD-Rom that teaches and inspires her customers with her unique curved quilt block designs and curved piecing techniques. Sara believes that providing her customers with CD-ROMs that contained not only quilt directions for her templates but galleries of quilt designs, embellishment guides and machine embroidery designs provides a valuable product that will truly inspire her customers.

Sara’s newest venture is designing her own fabric line called “Reflexions” which was introduced in May 2006 at the International Quilt Market in Minneapolis Minnesota and is available from Blank Quilting of New York, NY.

Sara specializes in incorporating digital photography, embroidery, and embellishments into her quilts and the use of the latest technology, equipment, and notions available. She has been featured in Quilting and embroidery magazines and multiple times in the USA on the PBS Television show “America Quilts Creatively”. Pictures of her work, products and descriptions of her workshops can be found on her website, http://www.sewinspired.com.

Heidi Pridemore

Heidi was born and raised in Rochester, NY, where she received a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of   Technology. In 2000, Heidi began offering her services as a product designer to a number of fabric companies. She created her own line of quilt patterns in 2002 and in 2004 Heidi started designing fabric in her own bright and whimsical style.   By 2005 the work load warranted expanding to a partnership and The Whimsical Workshop LLC began with Heidi as the main designer. Heidi is known for her fun and whimsical quilts which she often makes in dramatic, bright colors. She also has an excellent reputation for writing clear and easy to follow instructions. Heidi designs a large number of project sheets featuring fabric lines from national companies such as Blank Quilting, Clothworks, Avlyn, Kings Road and Robert Kaufman. She also designs quilt patterns for a variety of popular quilting magazines such as   Quiltmaker, McCall's Quick Quilts, The Quilter and Quilter's World. In addition she has completed four books; Quilted Whimsy, Bold Batiks and Dazzling Designs for Leisure Arts. For C&T Publishing she has written "Pop Up Paper Structures" due to be released July 2007. Heidi spends most of her time designing and traveling to trade show, giving lectures and running workshops. When not traveling she enjoys staying at home in Arizona with her husband Matthew and their Great Pyrenees dog Cleo.

The Whimsical Workshop LLC is a full design studio and retailer. They specialize in bright fun quilt patterns, fabric, fabric kits, books and other quilting and crafting products, many of which are featured in popular quilting magazines. They also offer lectures and workshops about design, quilting and crafting. Their main designer is Heidi Pridemore. She has a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of Technology and has been designing since 1998. Although The Whimsical Workshop is based in Arizona, their products are available worldwide through their mail order catalog and website www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com . The Whimsical Workshop continues to create new and exciting products that spark people's imagination and make them smile.