Jinny Beyer began quilting in 1972 when she and her family lived in India and Nepal. Using her simple drafting system and inspired by the culture of the Far East, she created her "Ray of Light" medallion quilt. In 1978 this creation won the top prize over 10,000 entries in the Great American Quilt Contest sponsored by Good Housekeeping and the U.S. Historical Society. This catapulted her into the quilting spotlight where she began her career as a professional quilter, author, lecturer, teacher, fabric designer and artist. She is the author of 10 books and three videos and, working with RJR Fashion Fabrics, has designed hundreds of fabrics specifically for the quilt industry. She travels extensively throughout the U.S. and many foreign countries teaching workshops and giving lectures and for 21 years has conducted her own seminar on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.

Ricky Tims has successfully blended two diverse passions into one very unique and interesting career. His skills as a pianist, composer and producer have been evident by the thousands who have heard his music. His success as a quilter is equally significant.

He is known in the international world of quilting as a best-selling author, enthusiastic and encouraging teacher, an award-winning quilter, fabric designer, and a talented and spellbinding speaker. His innovative and entertaining presentations, feature live music and humor combined with scholarly insights and wisdom. His quilts have been displayed worldwide and are highly regarded as excellent examples of contemporary quilts with traditional appeal.

Ineke is an international prize winning textile artist, who combines her love for colour, fabric and travelling to create an ever changing collection of work and sketchbooks.

For the last 10 years Ineke has been working not only in UK where she lives, but also in her native country of the Netherlands, around Europe and she recently returned from a successful teaching trip to New Zealand.

As a respected tutor she generously shares her knowledge and enthusiasm during workshops and courses that take place in her hometown of Bromsgrove, her lovely holiday home in France or whilst out and about in the UK or further a field.

Gail Lawther is a textile artist whos work centres around unique display pieces, writing craft books, and a passion for variations on the stained glass patchwork techniques, which has become something of a signature style. (Though she works in other techniques too!).

Gail teaches all over the UK, as far from her home-base in Worthing in West Sussex as Cornwall, Norfolk, Durham, Cumbria, up to Scotland, over to Wales, and in Northern Ireland. She also takes classes overseas in The Channel Islands, Eire, Holland, Spain, France, Belgium and New Zealand.

Pauline began quilting in Holland, before she and her husband moved to Ireland in the millennium year. As there were no quilt shops around County Donegal, she started a shop with class room facilities in Dunfanaghy. As a teacher she works mainly with traditional patterns. Three years ago she discovered Donegal tweeds and their suitability for quilting, and she fell in love with this unique technique.

Since then, she has become a complete devotee, sharing her knowledge not only with her many Irish classes, but also tutoring many European pupils in this special branch of patchwork.

Is a full time Art/Craft/Design Teacher and Textile Artist working mainly in Patchwork, she joined the Irish Patchwork Society in 2002 and hasn't, stopped quilting since.

She make two types of quilts, Art Quilts, and what she calls  her 'therapy quilts' which are traditional quilts with lots of repetitive stitching which soothes the soul and keeps her calm.

Kaye began quilt making and fabric collecting in earnest in the early 1980's, but was influenced early on by a family of needle workers. She now designs fabrics for Wilmington Prints and heads her own publishing company, Kaye England Publications. Kaye travels the world conducting sell-out lectures and workshops showcasing her wonderful and infectious fabrics, patterns and quilts, as well as her unique and honest outlook on life. Kaye can also be seen on several episodes of HGTV's Simply Quilts.

Australian based, international quilt designer/tutor and Pfaff Creative specialist Alan R Tremain manages a successful sewing school and quilt design studio. Alan specialises in designing quilts both contemporary and modern using fabrics from the world’s top designers and enjoys teaching his designs and skills to students globally. Known for his endless patience and creative flair, Alan says, “Learning to design quilts should be a lot of fun and it can be, especially if you use my ‘Emotional Response to Colour’ theory.”

Dena Crain came to Kenya in 1990 for a teaching position at Egerton University outside Nakuru, Kenya. She has spent most of her time since then living on the shore of Lake Baringo.

Early in her life in Baringo, Dena saw patchwork quilting as a way to employ local women, taught herself the basics and began a small production quilting business in her home. With advanced degrees in design, anthropology, and textiles, she was uniquely positioned to help. As her experience and confidence increased, she began producing "one-off" works of art. Since then, she has studied art quilting in the USA and South Africa.

Dena has a strong sense of responsibility and is committed to supporting local business. She purchases only fabrics and notions made and sold in Kenya. Finding solid color cotton materials unavailable, she took up fabric dyeing and printing. She uses ecologically friendly fiber reactive dyes to avoid using precious charcoal and firewood, thus helping to conserve Kenya's rapidly vanishing forests.

With Canadian quilter Anne Mains, Dena helped found the Kenya Quilt Guild. She serves as its Public Relations Officer and teaches workshops in Nairobi. She is a professional artist member of Studio Art Quilt Associates. She is an author of magazine articles about quilting, especially in Africa, and a lecturer as well as workshop instructor. Dena was recently certified by the South African Quilt Guild as a qualified quilt judge.

Sharon has been quilting since 1986 and teaching since 1987. She lives in the beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island and in 1986 there were no quilt teachers there. After she had made half a dozen quilts I became the local 'expert' and reluctantly agreed to teach her first class. Due to students that were enthusiastic and wanted more, Sharon added another class to the beginner class, and it has just kept on growing.

With a love for teaching, Sharon feels very strongly that students learn more in a relaxed atmosphere. Her classes are full of fun - and information - but the emphasis is on making what we do enjoyable. After all, it is supposed to be fun.

Claudia started her career in teaching patchwork and quilting after her first son was born in 1992. As a quiltshop owner she loves to play with fabrics and colors. As a Longarm-Quilter she got her APQS Millennium in 2005 to play with different textures, structures and motives like feathers and leaves.

Completely addicted to the world of patchwork and quilting, Claudia won several european and international awards recently. She studied Design of Textiles at the local university and worked in an atelier drawing designs for interior textiles for several years.

Jim West is an entrepreneur and marketing enthusiast who inspires and motivates people around the world. He will be teaching a class entitled "How to market yourself as a quilter.

Bernadette Falvey is an award winning quilter. Shewas born in Dublin and moved to Galway in 1970. It was then that she discovered her love of patchwork and fabric art, having been a keen painter and crafts person all her life she found her true passion in fabric. Inspired by her surroundings, travels and experiences Bernadette has produced many wonderful pieces which have been exhibited all over the world and which have been awarded and highly acclaimed in many countires. Bernadett's style is a mix of traditional and contemporary, each of her pieces tells a story from the heart. She held a solo exhibition in 2009 and was the subject of a "Nationwide "program on national television.

Bernadette has been teaching for over 30 years and is a respected and inspiring teacher. She loves nothing more than unlocking the skills of her pupils and helping them to discover their enthusiasm for quilting in a relaxed and open environment.

As a teacher, Nikki Foley works with traditional patchwork for her classes and patterns, her own personal work however is more towards art quilting. She likes to use hand dyed fabric, and loves colour.

She is passionate about patchwork and quilting, and her aim is to promote the craft all over the world but in particular Ireland.