Alex Anderson has embraced “the quilt life” for more than four decades. The International Quilt Festival awarded Alex the 2008 Silver Star Award, an annual honor given to one person whose work and influence have made, and continue to make, a sizable and positive impact on the quilting industry and community. Alex has worn many hats. Her 30 books have sold over 1,000,000 copies, along with numerous fabric lines. She is a co-founder of Quilters Select (Division of RNK distributing), and thequiltshow.com

Kathy Dunigan is a passionate and imaginative appliqué artist who has been quilting since 1987 and found her true joy in appliqué in 1993 through a Baltimore Album class inspired by Elly Sienkiewicz. Known for her exuberant style, Kathy’s work bursts with embellishments—beads, ribbons, trims, and anything that makes the heart beat faster. With decades of experience in fabric design, teaching, and quilt retail, including running The Quilted Peach and co-founding TQP Design Co. with her mother, JoAnn Hudgins, Kathy continues to create stunning appliqué patterns, such as “Brokenburn” and “Symphony of Blue Wreaths.” A beloved teacher and a people person, Kathy brings her energy and expertise to every class, sharing joyful techniques like her “skinny stem” and “no mark appliqué” methods. Now leading the Kathy Dunigan Academy of Applique in Rockwall, Texas, she carries forward the legacy of album quilt artistry with infectious enthusiasm and heartfelt connection to every student she meets.

Award winning quilt artist Marilyn Badger hand pieced her first quilt in 1978.  Little did she know that would lead to a phenomenally successful 30-year career in the world of competition quilting, as well as traveling around the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan, teaching longarm classes, and representing APQS at all the national and international quilt shows. As a result, she became known as a pioneer in the longarm industry. She appeared on numerous PBS and HGTV quilting shows over a 12-year span, and her work has been featured in numerous national and international publications, as well as special exhibits around the United States. Her passion for quilting will always be a huge part of her life, and she invites you to join her as she shares her love for this art form.

Bob is a thread master

For over 16 years, Cathie has worked as a professional long-arm quilter, evolving her artistic voice through fiber art and mixed media. Her work blends silk, wool, and watercolor to create richly textured compositions inspired by nature’s organic beauty. Over the past decade, she has focused on art quilting, using pigment, dye, and layered materials like hand-dyed cheesecloth and wool fibers to evoke forests, flowing water, and light. Her process combines hand embroidery, couching, wool felting, and long-arm quilting, turning each piece into a vibrant narrative of movement and texture. Collaboration and community continually inspire her journey, while hand stitching keeps her grounded in tradition. Each quilt is a dynamic expression of color, energy, and craftsmanship.

Judi lives in beautiful St. George, Utah with her husband Clint and their four children. She has been designing quilt patterns for over 20 years now and finds great pleasure in the whole creative process of quilt design. She has traveled the world to teach her signature style of free-motion and ruler work quilting, all while having a goal of fabric design. What could be more fulfilling than designing fabric, piecing her own designs, and finally quilting with that fabric? To say she is ecstatic about fulfilling the lifelong goal of fabric design by signing with Riley Blake Designs is an understatement.

Judi owns Green Fairy Quilts, an online quilting supply store, with her husband Clint. It’s a full family business now as their children work with them to ship orders to happy customers across the USA and around the world.

Judi has published 3 books with American Quilter’s Society; taught 3, soon to be 4 online classes with iquilt.com and has recently self-published Creative Chaos, Serenity, and Realm quilting books. She keeps busy with the business as well as with her creativity. In her free time she loves the outdoors by roller skating the trails around her home town, reading good books, learning about Jesus, and spending time with her family.