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| Teachers Bios:
 Sharon Schamber
Sharon Schamber and her husband Gene have lived in Payson for three years. Sharon was part of the Rim Country Quilt Roundup in Payson in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2009. We are proud to welcome our own local artist back to teach during the 2010 show. She has won many national awards, in 2008, she won the $100,000 Quilting Challenge Magazine contest for her quilt "Scarlet Serenede". We are very proud to announce that Sharon has been awarded the title of Master Quilter from The National Quilting Association. To find out more about the NQA and the Masters award you can visit www.nqaquilts.org.
"I started my quilting just like most of you - buying the wrong fabric, using the wrong batting, and using the wrong needles. With time, I learned to use what really works for me, even though the product might not be known as the "right" one. However, I do not, under any circumstances, compromise my standards.
I had to learn what a scant quarter and a fat quarter were. Translating all those unusual terms that we use, so casually, was the next step. The first year was just a spin of learning and creating a base for future quilts. For a novice, the learning curve is quite steep.
I remember my grandmother quilting back in the `60s, but everything was so different when compared to today. I hope that the quilt world will be just as different for my grandchildren.When I first began I had no idea that quilts were being machine quilted. I remember only that quilts were all hand-pieced and hand-quilted.
I remember my Grandma Larsen counting the stitches per inch and ranting about being inconsistent, so that is where I went. I set out to find how many stitches per inch I needed to make my quilts "right." I asked the wrong person, and she told me that it was just rude to ask. This was the first indication that I needed to be a teacher. " She loves seeing the light come on in her students' eyes.
Sharon has the honor of being the number one ranked longarm quilter in America. She has won AQS's Paducah show in both 2006 and 2007. She is the only quilter to ever win back to back AQS Paducah shows. She recently won the "Scarlet Serenade" won the Best of Show Gammill Longarm Machine Quilting Award at the 2006 International Quilt Festival and the That Patchwork Place Best of Show in the Innovative Appliqué Large category in the 2005 International Quilt Association annual judged show.
A few of Sharon's Awards:
"Scarlet Serenade" took Best of Show at the International Quilt Festival in 2005. It won the Gammill Longarm Quilting Award at the America Quilter's Society Quilt show in April 2006 and another of Schamber's masterpieces, "Sedona Rose," won Best of Show.
"Flower of Life," a representation of Sharon's life, won American Quilter Society's Best of Show in 2007. Take a look at this quilt... www.imqa.org/2007Winners.htm
Despite all her quilting accomplishments, Sharon will tell you she is a teacher first and a quilter second. She loves seeing the light come on in her students' eyes. Her inventive quilting techniques, such as Piec-liqué, have taken the art form to new heights. "Everything I do is different, even down to the binding," she said.
Visit Sharon's web site for books and tips: www.sharonschamber.com .
 Gina Perkes
Gina Perkes is a young talented long arm quilter and mother of three from Payson, Arizona. Check out Gina's latest quilting success, named "Silken Defiance"... www.azquiltersguild.org/quiltshowwinners08.htm This stunning quilt won "Best of Show" as well as first in the "Medium Quilt-Appliqued, Professionally Machine Quilted" category. Gina not only quilted this beautiful quilt, she designed and pieced it as well. Gina does her quilting on a non-stitch regulated Gammill Classic quilting machine. Gina created the "Silken Defiance" quilt by machine using some new techniques she wanted to try and experiment with, such as redwork along the ultra suede appliqué pieces. Her class will demonstrate this new technique...so come join in the fun and learn to use fabrics such as silk and ultra suede! Although a young quilt artist, she has already won many national quilting awards. "Masquerade" is the quilt, Perkes said, she has shown the most. It won her the first best of show she ever received from the Arizona Quilter's Guild a few years ago and was honored with a best of contest for Artwork at the Quilter's Society's Nashville 2005 show. It also won third place in a Machine Quilter's Showcase. Gina has also been featured on “The Quilt Show” with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims where she demonstrated her quilting talents as a spokesperson for Gammill Quilting Machines. Many of you may recognize Gina, as she graces the inside covers of many quilting magazines in this role.
When Sharon Schamber moved to Payson, Gina and she became fast friends. "Gina does a good job bridging both worlds," Schamber said referring to Gina's quilting and mother roles.  Karla Alexander
Quilt designer and author, Karla Alexander lives in beautiful Salem OR, with her youngest son William, Husband Don and family dog, Lucy. Her two older sons, Shane & Kelly, currently attend college. Karla Alexander is the author of Stack the Deck! Crazy Quilts in 4 Easy Steps!, Stack a New Deck!, New Cuts for New Quilts, Baby Wraps! She compledted her 5th book in October of 2009. She was a featured artist on Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson in July of 2002. A featured quilter in the Fons and Porter magazine, Oct. 2007, a contributor to the 2008 quilt calendar by Martingale & Co. as well as the book Creative Quilting,Volume II.
All books were published by Martingale & Co, That Patchwork Place.
In addition to her books, she has released her own line of patterns under the name Saginaw Street Quilt company. She has been a featured teacher at many quilt retreats and has taught thousands of students how to quilt using a variety of methods including her own stack methods. She has made hundreds of quilts with hundreds more waiting to be made.
Visit her website at www.saginawstreetquilts.com to see more information about Karla.  Helen Young Frost
Helen Frost is a name that is familiar to quilters,
especially those that have been quilting for more than twenty years. She has
coauthored several quilt books which you probably own (check your bookshelf).
Her newest book, with her mother Blanche Young, is All-Star Quilt: 10 Strip-Pieced Lone Star Sparklers. Helen
considers herself fortunate to have begun quilting in the early 1970s, and
truly appreciates the wonderful tools and fabrics that are available today. She
has taught at guilds and conferences across the country and in Europe. In 2009, Helen was inducted into the Arizona
Quilter’s Hall of Fame. Although known for her innovative strip piecing
techniques, her first love is hand appliqué. She and her husband live in
Tucson, Arizona and are the parents of four grown children.
She began quilting in the early 1970s when all cotton fabrics were few and far between and most were garish calicoes in red, blue, and yellow. Except for a couple of new quilt books, quilters had to rely on reprints from the 1930s for their patterns. Templates were made from graph paper glued to poster board. All pieces were cut with scissors.But oh how exciting! The Bicentennial was coming and women wanted to make quilts! Not long after she began quilting, she began teaching for adult education in souther California. She says she didn’t know much, but she knew more than the students. She taught a quilt-as-you-go sampler quilt with 12" blocks to several classes, each with about 45 students. Her mother, Blanche Young, and she had developed some innovative strip-piecing methods for the Lone Star, Sunshine & Shadow, and Trip Around the World quilts. They published several books on these techniques in the late 70s and early 1980s. They soon were teaching all over the country at guilds and conferences. She was delighted to teach in Holland, enabling her to add the word “international” to her resumé. After moving to Arizona in 1988, she became involved with the Arizona Quilt Project and was the co-author, with Pam Knight Stevenson, of the resulting book, Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers. Researching the quilters’ stories was a crash course in Arizona history but very enjoyable. All these years later, she is still making Lone Star variations, still fascinated by the design potential. She is also still in love with the Sunshine & Shadow pattern and its symmetry. In 2008, she coauthored a book with Catherine Skow, Radiant Sunshine & Shadow: 23 Quilts with Nine-Patch Sparkle (C&T Publishing). These quilts feature Nine-Patch blocks arranged into the Sunshine & Shadow design. They are very intricate-looking but very easy to make!Another long-time love is hand appliqué. Her response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 was to spend the next year designing and making a Revolutionary War alphabet quilt. Each person, event, or symbol depicted on her quilt, American Primer, reaffirms that the spirit of 1776 continues today. Her next hand appliqué project is a quilt to celebrate Arizona’s upcoming 100th birthday. She makes a lot of quilts to warm the body, as shown by the quilts on all the beds in her home, but finds the most joy in making quilts that warm the heart.
 Julie Hocker
A little information about Julie and her foray into the world of quilt and wearable art design; it was quite by accident.... In the Spring of 1997, after more than 20 years of quilting for herself, her family and friends, she began teaching at a nearby quilt shop. One of the classes she taught was a landscape wall hanging she designed for her home. The class and the pattern were a huge success, and LadyHawk designs™ was born. What started as a whim quickly began to develop into something more - more classes, more designs, then workshops and lectures. So she just went with the flow..... next thing she knew she was a full blown business. She incorporates lots of texture and three-dimensional effects in her work, all of which are clearly illustrated in her patterns. She is repeatedly told by students that her instructions are very clear and easy to understand. She strives for accuracy and clarity in her work. In 2000, she was awarded the national honor of ‘Teacher of the Year' by Professional Quilter magazine. She is frequently invited to be the key note speaker at a show or for a guild, and she teaches and lectures at many shops and quilt guilds around the country. It is her personal goal to inspire and encourage other quilters to get in touch with their creative side, and stretch themselves in new directions. My ‘Kickstart Your Creativity’ lecture is most inspiring!
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