Online Courses

Jennifer Riefenberg is an accomplished needle artist, meshing her love of the arts into new and varied mediums. She enjoys teaching, both the technical skills and the pure love and joys of art and creativity at the national, regional, and local levels. Jennifer holds teaching and judges certifications through NAN as a teacher/designer and judge as well as being on the board as the Assistant Director of Judging. She has won numerous awards for her needle art and other artwork to include a piece accessioned into the permanent collection at the Gregg School of Art & Design at North Carolina State University. Jennifer is also an artist with other mediums to include painting en plein air (from “life”) and photography and is a winner of national and regional awards with her artwork as well as her embroidery.

Lorene Salt is an award-winning stitcher. Her favourite medium is Canvaswork. She is a graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical University in the Fashion Merchandising and Design program. She has also completed the Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Canvaswork courses through EAC. She is an avid beader and jewellery maker. When designing, Lorene enjoys watching a piece come alive through colour and texture. Her classes reflect her passion for needlework as she shares her knowledge and expertise with her students. Lorene has been teaching since 2010 in both Canada and the US at the National level as well as at Guilds, Stitching shops and a variety of On-Line classes. She has completed three commissions and has pieces hanging in three countries. She lives in Aurora, Ontario and is a member of EAC, EGA, and ANG.

Carolyn Standing Webb has a degree in education but finds needlework much more rewarding to teach. She grew up in a home where art was a part of everyday life and creativity was encouraged. An EGA member of our Wasatch, Salt Lake City Chapter, she has been a needlework designer and teacher for over twenty years, teaching on the local, regional and national levels. She has a line of patterns available in retail stores. Several pieces of her work have been published in books and magazines and she has won a number of prizes for her needlework. She has her Master Craftsman in Counted Thread. Her goal is to share with her students her love of needlework and to help them relax and enjoy it.

Judy Borreson Caruso stitched her first BDE piece in 2008 and fell in love with the beautiful threads. Now she designs and teaches BDE locally, regionally and internationally. Recently, Judy taught the EGA Online Studio class, Beginning BDE. Judy has taught BDE at the BDE International Guild Seminar for the past twelve years. She also teaches in the Madison, WI area and has taught at a Heartland Regional EGA workshop. Judy is a member and past president of the Madison Area Chapter of EGA and a member of the BDE International Guild.

Carol Lynn Stratton is the chairman of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA) Master Craftsman counted thread program, has been a juried member of the EGA Fiber Forum since 2001, is a certified Master Needlework Judge, and is a member of the EGA Judges Certification Committee. Her work has won two Bobby Pilling Awards and has been accepted into three EGA National Exhibits. She judged the 2017 National Exhibit. Two of her pieces are in the EGA permanent collection.

See some of Carol Lynn’s pieces for Fiber Forum 2018

Embroiderer and author Hazel Blomkamp is, first and foremost, a lover of dogs. She is surrounded by large, slobbery Boxers and that is why she works almost exclusively in cotton on cotton and linen – so that it is fully washable.

She fiddled with textiles, yarns, threads and needles throughout her youth but embroidery, beadwork and the embellishment of crazy patchwork are what stuck and hardly a day goes by without her stitching something.

She has designed and taught embroidery and beadwork for some thirty years, along with adding a busy website when the internet was invented. Once her children no longer required constant attention, some of her husband’s colleagues were suggesting that because what she was doing was not a proper job, that she ‘go find a job’, so she started writing books. To keep them quiet and because, it was the next logical step to take.

Other than her home country, South Africa, she has taught in the UK, France, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, New Zealand, cruises down big rivers in South East Asia, and was regularly to be found flying over the Indian Ocean to Australia where she taught at either at Beating Around The Bush for Inspirations Magazine in Adelaide, Koala Conventions, or for guilds around that country

Kurdy Biggs is a counted canvas designer, teacher and owner of Threedles Needleart Designs. Kurdy holds a Level II teachers’ certification from NAN. Her geometric designs have won numerous awards from EGA, ANG, NAN, TNNA and Woodlawn. She has been published in Needle Pointers, Needlepoint Now, and Cross Stitch and Needlework. Kurdy has taught for EGA, NAN and ANG national and regional seminars and in retail shops.

Pat Olski is a professional needlecraft designer, lecturer, and instructor. Her designs and articles, which span an array of topics from traditional needlework techniques to current knitwear trends, have appeared in many books and magazines including Piecework, Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, and Australia’s Inspirations. She loves to teach, and has taught classes in knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and Dorset button making for years at events, such as Vogue Knitting Live and Knitters Day Out, as well as at museums, guilds, libraries, and schools. She is the author of eight yarn craft books including Dishcloths to Crochet: Fun Designs to Brighten Your Kitchen! (Dover-April 18, 2018). Her newest book, a history and project based title The Dorset Button Book is about to be published.

In a 2019 interview in Vogue Knitting magazine, Pat highlighted her passionate mission to teach a new generation of makers the relevance and approachability of heritage needlework techniques. She lives with her family in New Jersey, USA, and is the president of the Bergen Knitters Guild.

Her website is www.YarnWhirled.com

J. Marsha Michler is a nonfiction author of 13 printed books, and 8 self-published eBooks on the topics of crazy quilting, embroidery, silk ribbon embroidery, wire jewelry, and knitting. Her quilts have won awards at quilting shows, and her work has been featured in national magazines and other publications including our Needle Arts magazine. Holding a degree in Business Marketing, and three-quarters of a degree in fine arts, summa cum laude and dean’s list, she has taught classes on crazy quilting, embroidery, and wire jewelry. She actively pursues crazy quilting, embroidery, fiber spinning, knitting, fiction and poetry writing, ballroom dancing, stone wall building, and resides with her husband and dog in the beautiful and inspiring foothills of Southern Maine.

Merrilyn is an internationally renowned hand embroiderer, designer, author and teacher. Magazine articles of Merrilyn’s work are regularly featured in publications in USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Merrilyn opened her first needlework shop in 1978. With an artistic heritage and a passion for hand work this was the starting point for a long creative and rewarding journey with needle, threads and fabrics.

Cynthia Jackson has been teaching, researching and writing about embroidery for over forty years. She is currently engaged in reproducing a 16th century embroidered garland. Her research is supported by the UK Textile Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London Janet Arnold Award. Cynthia is also an award winning textile artist.

Merrilyn is an internationally renowned hand embroiderer, designer, author and teacher. Magazine articles of Merrilyn’s work are regularly featured in publications in USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Merrilyn opened her first needlework shop in 1978. With an artistic heritage and a passion for hand work this was the starting point for a long creative and rewarding journey with needle, threads and fabrics.

John has been stitching for over thirty years and loves to teach and share almost as much as he loves to learn. Canvas work with the variety of opportunities is his ground of choice. His teaching assignments have included national ANG seminars, Callaway, retail shops, EGA regional seminars and individual guilds (ANG and EGA). John is the twice President of the National Embroidery Teacher’s Association, NETA. He is also a member of EGA’s Fiber Forum.

Margaret Bendig resides in Santa Ana, California. She teaches needlework throughout the country and in Canada, in shops in California and Arizona as well as for EGA Region Seminars and ANG National Seminars. Although she loves all needlework, her focus is on counted thread techniques and counted canvas designs. Her designs have been featured as programs and workshops for many EGA and ANG chapters as well as in Needlepoint Now and Needlepointers magazines. Margaret began designing and teaching over 30 years ago. She is an enthusiastic teacher and very willing to share her knowledge. She is always looking for an opportunity to use a skill or method in a new way. Margaret believes that we are never finished with our education and should pursue new ideas daily.

Margaret began designing and teaching over 30 years ago. Margaret is an enthusiastic teacher and very willing to share her knowledge. She is always looking for an opportunity to use a skill or method in a new way. Although she loves all needlework, her focus is on counted thread techniques and counted canvas designs. She teaches needlework throughout the country and in Canada, in shops in California and Arizona as well as for EGA Region Seminars and ANG National Seminars. Margaret believes that we are never finished with our education and should pursue new ideas daily.

Sandie Cormaci-Boles has a passion for learning and sharing her knowledge about all forms of embroidery but particularly counted work, samplers and the history of needlework. She has taken many courses and classes from the Embroiderers Guild of America (EGA) and the American Needlepoint Guild (ANG). She has been designing and teaching embroidery professionally to children and adults since 1992.

Terri Bay, a teacher and designer, began teaching Ukrainian whitework at a Nordic Needle retreat. One class led to another and now she has taught Ukrainian whitework, hardanger, pulled and drawn thread, and blackwork at EGA national and regional seminars, chapter workshops, various retreats, and other events. She was honored when featured as the Designer Across America in the June 2018 Needle Arts. Terri is a member of EGA, EAC and NETA.

Dawn Donnelly is a mixed-media artist with a primary focus in canvaswork. She holds Level 2 certification with the National Academy of Needlearts (NAN). She teaches nationally and locally for NAN, the American Needlepoint Guild (ANG) and Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA). Dawn volunteers as NAN’s Membership Chairman and Dean of Faculty. In addition, she is President for ANG’s Magnificent Obsession Chapter. Currently, she is experimenting with handmade paper and finding ways to use it in her needle art, a process that earned her a Best in Show ribbon for her Paper & Stitches at NAN’s Assembly in 2017.

Terry Dryden has been teaching and designing for more than twenty years. Her training in art and architectural and landscape design have inspired her designs which range from delicate florals to bold geometrics and bargellos. She is continually exploring new ways to combine color, texture and stitch, and encourages her students to also expand their knowledge of new materials and techniques to personalize their work. She is a nationally recognized ANG Master Teacher and teaches at EGA and ANG Seminars, regional guilds and local needlework shops. Her designs and “In Stitches” column have appeared in NeedlePointers and Needlepoint Now magazines.