Meet Our GO! Getters

Samantha Andrzejewski
Samantha is a first grade teacher, in January 2020 she spent the tail end of her winter break making her first quilt and then never stopped. When summer break rolled around she decided to "make something everyday" and vowed to post each project on TikTok to share with her friends and family. She made 8 baby quilts that summer and thanks to a few viral videos her following grew to include way more than just her siblings.  She always has a quilt project going and her next three planned which leaves little time for anything else. The newest member of the Handiquilter Moxie Inspiration squad, Samantha's favorite step in the quilting process is trying new free motion and ruler quilting techniques on her longarm. You can find her on TikTok and Instagram.

Emily Bailey 
Emily Bailey is a scrap quilter, designer and teacher. She grew up in a family of artists and makers, where she was encouraged to create and develop her talents. She thought she would be a fashion designer but after the birth of her three sons discovered quilting was more her style. She loves being a part of the quilting community. She knows wherever she goes to teach and mingle with quilters she will have instant friends.

She has been designing for 20 years. She has been published in Love of Quilting, McCall’s Quilting and Simply Quilts. She teaches through her website, YouTube, and at live events.

Jen Benlap
Jen lives outside of NYC with her husband and six kids. With a large family and a husband who works a lot of hours, she found quilting to be a creative outlet. Sewing is her sanity! There is something about the hum of her sewing machine that is so therapeutic. She loves the design process and enjoys creating new patterns. She also loves the amazing creative people she has met along this journey. She is currently an Aurifil Artisan, on the Thermoweb Design Team, Riley Blake Designs Project.

Contributor and a blogger for the Fat Quarter Shop. When she is not sewing, she can be found planning her next family trip or adventure! Her family motto is “make beautiful memories.” And they try to do just that! You can follow her creative journey by stopping by her blog The Smitten Chicken.
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Kimberly Bennefield
Kimberly is an avid modern quilter and bag maker, although only having started about 5 years ago.  She began this journey in part to explore a new creative outlet, but quickly found a community of supportive and talented quilters, as she found her way to a local Modern Quilt Guild chapter.

In 2018, Kimberly was elected to served as President of Portland’s Modern Quilt Guild, when it reached a record almost 400 members, and she continues to this day, to actively volunteer within guild leadership. You can follow her quilting over on Instagram at @NWPepper. 

Eliane Bergmann
Eliane Bergmann is the pattern designer and modern quilter behind Patchwork & Poodles. Eliane’s love for quilting has propelled her into a passion for helping others to learn how to quilt. Her goal is to create patterns and tutorials that are easy to follow and execute, so everyone can create beautiful quilts they are proud of! She shares her current projects and progress on her Instagram at @patchworkandpoodles. She is an ambassador for Janome America, Riley Blake Designs, and Paintbrush Studio Fabrics. Eliane lives in Wisconsin with her husband Jason and miniature poodle Riley.

Her website, Patchwork & Poodles, is full of tutorials, free patterns, tips, tricks, and lots of quilty inspiration! 

Kristina Brinkerhoff
Kristina Brinkerhoff had her first venture into quilting when she asked her mom to help her make a quilt one summer as a teenager. Her love of math quickly propelled her into sketching out and planning her own quilt designs. In her years of quilting, she’s also picked up a love of free motion quilting and foundation paper piecing. Her pattern company, Center Street Quilts, has a variety of both traditionally pieced and foundation paper pieced patterns. When she’s not at her sewing machine you can probably find her spending time with her husband and four kids, organizing something in her house, or napping.
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Marjorie Busby
Marjorie has been a lifelong stitcher and quilter and retired in 2009 from a 25 year clinical research career to quilt full-time. She was one of the first to adopt the AccuQuilt system and has been a devoted fan since, even serving on the 2009-2010 AccuQuilt Consumer Advisory Board. Computer-loving Marjorie is fascinated by and avidly explores digital quilting and embroidery techniques. She is a Certified Art and Stitch Instructor and has created a line of machine embroidery designed specifically for AccuQuilt. When she is not designing/stitching, she's spending time with her husband, children and 10 grandchildren. Read more from Marjorie on Blue Feather Quilt Studio.

Melanie Call
Melanie began sewing about 14 years ago and immediately got hooked on creating! Fabric is her relaxing, creative outlet, so she's excited to share fun and fabulous projects using the AccuQuilt fabric cutter and dies! She's a Fat Quarter Shop Blogger Friend, Riley Blake Designs Fabric Blog Project Maker, Clothworks/American Made Brand Project Maker, Moda Bake Shop Chef, and Maxie Makes Subscription Box Affiliate. She was also the Art Gallery Fabrics Maker of the Month for February 2018. Read more from Melanie and check out her original quilt patterns on her website, A Bit of Scrap Stuff.

Chip Connor
Chip is a quilter and content creator living in the PNW Greater Seattle area. Over 5 years ago, after delving into garment sewing, he discovered his “authentic sewing-self” within the world of quilting. Although Chip was able to competently construct dress shirts, jackets and jeans, he discovered that, “quilting liberates people by providing a canvas to explore colors, shapes, and forms without having to explain what you're wearing! :)” While Chip is an enthusiastic quilter, his partner, Aaron shares that same level of excitement for knitting. Together they host Fiber Hustle, a popular and inspirational knitting and sewing channel on YouTube that provides rich content with a touch of humor. In addition, Chip is in the process of launching The Quilt Stream, a dedicated guilting channel spotlighting the intersection between his passion for quilting & his love of community.

Melissa Corry
Melissa began quilting as a hobby in 2005 but her hobby turned into a passion after starting her blog in 2010. That passion for quilting powers her original designs that she shares as tutorials, published works, a pattern line and even her own books! Melissa loves designing and finds inspiration in just about everything and anything. Her favorite quilts to create with the AccuQuilt Dies are Scrappy BOB quilts and Curved Piecing quilts!!! Her husband and their five little children live in Cedar City, Utah. Keep up with her daily quilting adventures on her blog. Happy Quilting. Learn More

Tina Curtis
Tina developed an interest in sewing at 7 when she began learning to make quilts with her grandmother in their home state of South Carolina. Since then, Tina's family and career have taken her many places; however, one thing she's always kept with her is a passion for being a heart-ful maker as well as a desire to connect and share her designs with others. Some of Tina's favorite projects include experimenting with vibrant colors, interesting fabrics, and unique techniques. Tina currently creates at her home in Texas with her husband Cameron and constantly smiling four-legged friend, Shannon. Follow Tina on her quilting journey on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Stephanie Jacobson
Stephanie learned to sew from her mom on a now-vintage Kenmore Zig Zag sewing machine. She has been a member of the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild since its 2012 beginning, is currently an Island Batik Ambassador, has been a member of do. Good Stitches since 2012, longarms for the Quilts of Valor Omaha chapter, leads a local 4-H Happy Hands Quilters and was a 2019 collaborating artist for Girl Scouts artVenture. Stephanie opened her studio, Happy Little Stitches, in March 2019 for others to socialize, share, learn and teach. Stephanie lives in Omaha, Nebraska with husband, Craig, and 12-year-old son, Logan. Follow her quilting adventures on Steph Jacobson Designs. 

Raye Hines
Raye has been sewing since she was 8, when her grandma helped make her first pillow. Though it took her until after college to discover quilting, from that point on she was hooked. Raye combines her passion for pattern design and teaching with a background in marketing to share her experience with quilters around the world. Follow her quilting journey on Instagram @thehomebodycompany

Andrew Lee
Andrew is a relative newcomer to quilting. A comment by his wife, Kristy, that they should do more together resulted in the two of them taking a table runner class at their local fabric store. That was three years ago. And as history will record, that was the beginning of Andrew's love affair with quilting. Andrew served in the Army for 10 years his active duty including two deployments to Iraq. Like many other soldiers, he sustained injuries, experienced the death of fellow soldiers, and came home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His introduction to quilting made Andrew realize it was good therapy for his PTSD. It helped to keep his mind engaged and gave him a purpose. He also began making Quilts of Valor for soldiers touched by war. Andrew now serves his country in the TN Army National Guard and has started his own business, Combat Quilter. You can follow along with his quilting journey on his Facebook and Instagram page. 

Porfiria Gomez
Porfiria is a sewing enthusiast, self-proclaimed designer and blogger. She is a dreamer and lover of family life and has a passion to create beautiful things. These days you will find her on her sewing machine creating one of my many loves either a quilt or a beautiful piece of lingerie. Her love of sewing began as a child. In 2007, she began blogging about her life as a mother and wife. In 2014, she decided to share her passion with others - so she began providing Sewing 101 classes. Today, she continues to train and learn as much as she can about the beautiful world of sewing, cooking blogging and living her best life as a maker! You can follow her more on her blog. 

Jennifer Long
Jennifer has been creating artistically her whole life! Throughout her schooling years, she trained full-time to be a professional ballet dancer. During all those years of training in the Ballet world, she also dreamed of designing costumes! Everyday she would walk by and peek into the Ballet Costume Wardrobe - what a MAGICAL space! She learned to sew from her mother and grandmother (who owned a fabric and knitting store) and often made ballet skirts, costumes and knitted leewarmers for herself and other dancers. This journey has inspired her to make a positive difference by designing dolls and quilt patterns for others to be empowered to sew themselves! She studied embroidery digitizing in order to take her doll drawings and create In-the-Hoop patterns to reproduce a doll design. What Jenniferloves the most about creativity is finding inspiration everywhere and in turn, inspiring others to do the same! Join lennifer on her journey by following her on her Instagram and Facebook page.

Denise Looney
Denise lives in a small southern Illinois town with Steve, her husband of 28 years. She made her first hand pieced quilt at age 17 but didn't discover her love for quilting until Steve taught her to use a sewing machine in 1995. She is self taught and since that first quilt, she has evolved her skills over the years. Denise now makes everything from quilted applique jackets and handbags to paper pieced quilt designing. Currently she is a 2019 Island Batik Ambassador and has a goal to continuing growing in the industry and becoming more proficient in longarm quilting. See more from Denise on her blog. For the Love of Geese. 

Bea Lee
Bea has been quilting since 2004 and long arming since 2008. She won her first international quilt show ribbon in 2009 and was first published in McCall's in September 2012. Originally from Denmark, Bea lives in North Carolina where she is a stay at home/work at home mom of four great kids, ages 16, 14, 6 and 3. See more of her quilting collaborations and projects on her blog. Beaquilter. 

Sarah Maxwell 
Sarah Maxwell of Designs by Sarah J is a fabric designer for Marcus Fabrics, Aurifil Thread designer and Grace Quilting Company ambassador. More than 150 of her original the original venty designs have been published over the last twenty years. Her original quilts have also been juried into QuiltCon and various AOS and IOA shows. Sarah is the author of Morse Code Quilts and Fresh Modern Quilts from Traditional Blocks. Sarah's focus is on helping quilters develop confidence in using color and fabrics in quilts. Her classes focus on piecing tips and tricks to improve speed and accuracy. She also loves to teach quilters how to use templates to conquer any shape. Many of her classes are available as either rotary cut & machine pieced projects or hand piecing projects. You can follow Sarah's quilting on her Instagram and Blog

Lori J. Miller
Lori is a Quilter, Pattern Designer, Educator from Oxford, Michigan. She enjoys the design process and one of her favorite tools is EQ8 Quilt Design software. She teaches EOS classes around the country and contributes to EQB Lessons with Lori on the doyoueq.com blog. As an AccuQuilt GO! Getter, she shares tutorials and patterns of her designs on the AccuQuilt blog. Combining these two products, Lori is the creator of Add-on EQ8 Block Libraries that work with AccuQuilt dies. Lori's original Quilt Designs have been featured in American Patchwork and Quilting. Fons and Porter Love of Quilting, American Quilter and many other quilt publications. She enjoys being a member of the Modern Quilt Guild and the Stitching Sisters Quilts of Valor group. See Lori's one-of-a-kind style on her blog, Lori Miller Designs. 

Yvette Niesel
A little over 20 years ago, Yvette Niesel discovered a desire to learn to quilt over a weekend with a friend. Yvette flies by the seat of her pants in most situations, so it did not surprise her hubby when she bought a Baby Lock Ellure the next day. Today, Yvette is an enthusiastic quilter who is especially passionate about Foundation Paper Piecing. Her online membership, Piecing It Real, nurtures community and a love of FPP. Sharing her love of quilting while encouraging confidence and creativity, Yvette loves to teach others. She'd love to someday make her dreams a reality by teaching techniques, writing patterns and quilting full-time! You can follow her on her YouTube channel, TheYvetteRene and on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, all of the same name. She's also just started a TikTok, TheYvetteRene_1 and blogs at http://theyvetterene.com.

Emily Norquist
Emily started quilting in January 2021 after making a New Years' resolution to finish one puff quilt by the end of the year. Throughout the process she filmed herself making the quilt and posted videos to Tik Tok where she quickly grew a large following and now posts quilting videos and tutorials while managing a community of eager young quilters. Emily works as a PreK teacher during the school year in Portland Oregon and has now amended her resolution to make a new quilt each month! You can find her on TikTok @EmandBear

Vicki Schlimmer
Vicki has been sewing and quilting since she was a teen, learning rom her mom along with being self taught. She has sold quilts and table runners at local craft shows almost as long. Machine knitting, beading, crochet and stamping are some of her favorite crafts, but quilting is her first love. From picking fabrics to piecing to longarming. Vicki enjoys each step in the process. One of her favorite feelings is seeing an entire quilt, table runner or wall hanging. Her love and talent has allowed her to be an Island Batik Ambassador for four years now and build an Etsy shop, Vickiscraftden. Follow her projects at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting. 

McKenzie Phelps
McKenzie is a quilt artist who stumbled into quilting when she found an old sewing machine at her parent's house and wondered what she could make with it. She's a self-taught quilter who started about four years ago after getting a fine arts degree in painting. Approaching quilting from an artist's perspective has allowed her to bend the rules and create without limitations, all while discovering the amazing possibilities the medium has to offer. She loves the methodical nature of quilting and finds each step in the process to be very satisfying. Most of all, the rich history of quilting and the stories and community that come along with it are what makes the medium so special to her. You can follow her quilting over on Instagram @KenzPhelps.Quilts.

Jon Raffesberger
Jon (aka the Quilting Doctor) is an avid quilter, doctor of nursing practice, dog dad, and military husband. He learned to quilt in 2018 after his grandmother, an incredibly talented quilter, unexpectedly passed away the year before. Jon has since completed numerous quilts and enjoys learning new techniques as well as sharing his passion with others. He also enjoys traveling and quilting around the world. As the Quilting Doctor his focus is on creating an inclusive quilting community where equality for BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ is front and center. In addition to quilting, Jon practices as a nurse practitioner specializing in geriatric primary care. He has earned a bachelor's degree in art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in addition to a Bachelor of Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Hawaii at Mãnoa. Jon and his husband are currently living with their four dogs in the greater Baltimore area of Maryland. To see more of his work follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (@quiltingdoctor).

Emily Tindall
Emily has been sewing since middle school but learned to guilt in college from her grandmother. Now at 25, she is extremely passionate about quilting and teaching others how to quilt with confidence. She is an ambassador for Husovarna Viking and partners with many different fabric companies. She loves being able to use her skills and passion for quilting to build a community where she can share the highest quality products with followers and readers. Check out more of her work on her blog, Home Made Emily Jane. 

Jennifer Strauser
Jennifer was bitten by the quilting bug in 1999 and began watching Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson. Like the TV show, Jennifer explores various techniques and styles, falling for the art of quilting more and more every day. Her passion and talent have won national and local awards as well as earned her publication in many magazines. She is an active member of Rebecca's Reel Quilters, American Quilter's Society, The New England Quilt Museum and Quilts of Valor. Jennifer lives with her spouse, two sons and their two dogs in New Jersey. Follow Jennifer's love for quilting on her blog, Dizzy Quilter. 

Terri Vanden-Bosch
Terri is a designer, quilt maker and longarmer whose creative journey started in the 5th grade with the creation of a pair of Pjs made with antique feed sacks from her great grandmother. Decades later, the sewing machine is still her best friend, assisting in the pursuit of new techniques while perfecting the old. In her "spare time", Terri works with her husband on their farm in lowa. When she isn't helping him, planning the next motorcycle adventure or spoiling their grandchildren, she's in her quilting studio working on a customer's quilt or designing the next best pattern. Keep up with her quilting adventures on her blog, Lizard Creek Quilting. 

Laura Strickland
Laura is an art quilter, living on the banks of the Mississippi River in East Moline, Illinois. Her quilting journey began almost 30 years ago, and she is enjoying the adventure still. She came to quilting from a fine arts background with formal training. Her fiber arts instructor inspired her to pursue her love of where needle and thread meet color and design. She designs quilt patterns and fabric as well as owns an online quilt shop called Orange Blossom Quilt Design Studio. She is currently one of Mr. Domestic's Master Makers. She is a member of the Modern Quilt Guild [MQG], the Treasurer for the Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild, and the newsletter coordinator for the Geneseo Quilt Guild. 

Katy Sweigart
Katy is a prolific quilter, embracing everything from traditional to modern to art quilts. She began quilting when her children were small, as it was the only thing that ever seemed to stay done. Now she delights in making quilts for the sheer joy of it and blogging as a way of sharing with other quilters. She has been blogging at KatyQuilts for over eleven years. Katy is a former contributor to QUILT Magazine and Quilt Almanac. She is involved in the Quilts of Valor Foundation, both piecing and long arming.

Christa Watson
Christa is an enthusiastic, award-winning quilter from Las Vegas, Nevada who enjoys teaching others to find joy in making their own quilts from start to finish. She's a fabric designer, traveling teacher, quilting industry ambassador, domestic machine diva, and cheerleader for the modern quilting movement. She believes that having the right tools makes all the difference in the success of your quilting projects. To that end, she's written several machine quilting books and has published dozens of inspiring quilt patterns, articles & tutorials - all with the goal of making quilting easier and more fun! Follow her online @christaguilts and christaquilts.com. Find her bold. colorful fabrics at Benartex.com.

Suzy Webster
Suzy has been a quilter since age eight when she arranged some scrap triangles and told her mother, "You should sew it like this." She's been designing quilts from a young age and enjoys being creative. One of the things Suzy loves about quilting is that the possibilities are endless and enjoys sharing her love of quilting with her students. She has been entering competitions since college and has many national quilt show ribbons to her credit including four for best machine quilting. Suzy has also been an Island Batik Ambassador since 2016. She loves appliqué, machine quilting, and paper piecing. Follow her work on Webster Quilts.