MARGARET J. MILLER

Margaret is a studio quiltmaker who travels widely giving lectures and workshops on color and design which encourage students to "reach for the unexpected" in contemporary quiltmaking.  Her full teaching schedule has taken her throughout the United States, as well as to Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Denmark.  Her presentations are known for their enthusiasm, humor, and sincere encouragement of quiltmakers at all levels of skill and experience.

Having done various forms of needlework all her life, Margaret learned to quilt and appliqué in 1978.  At that time, she was on the faculty of the Home Economics Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, teaching a creative textiles class.  She later moved to San Diego, where she started "Tanglethread Junction", a pattern business featuring appliqué and stained-glass appliqué designs.  In 1982 she sold her business as part of her commitment to becoming a full-time quiltmaker.

Margaret's sixth book on the art and craft of quiltmaking, AnglePlay - A New Look at Triangles, has just been published.  This and her seventh book will feature the next classic shape in pieced quilts, the half-rectangle triangle.  Margaret has developed a new set of "AnglePlay" acrylic templates, to facilitate rotary cutting and perfect piecing of this formerly difficult-to-sew patchwork shape.

In addition, she is the author of Smashing Sets:  Innovative Settings for Sampler Blocks (2000) and Easy Pieces: Creative Color Play with Two Simple Quilt Blocks (1998) (both by C & T Publishing, Concord, CA).  Blockbender Quilts (1995), Strips That Sizzle (1992), and Blockbuster Quilts (1991) were all published by That Patchwork Place, Bothell, WA.  Her "Bloomin' Quilt Grids" design technique was a chapter in the Oxmoor House book Quilt With the Best (1992).  She also wrote the introduction to the Quilt San Diego catalog Visions: The Art of the Quilt (C & T Publishing, Lafayette, CA, 1992)

She makes her home in her beloved Pacific Northwest, an hour's ferry ride west of Seattle on the Kitsap Peninsula.  There her full life as a professional quiltmaker includes writing, making quilts for commissions and one-woman shows (two of which occurred in 2000 and 2001), and gardening.  She cherishes her time in the haven of her studio with her cat, Patches.  Though some months, with her travel schedule, her days at home are few indeed.  Her skills as a gardener are likely to stay at the enthusiastic-amateur level for quite a few years to come!

You can keep up with Margaret at her website:  www.MillerQuilts.com

NANCY LEE CHONG

Nancy learned to make Hawaiian Quilts from Margaret Luika Kamaka in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii, between 1978 and 1981.  Calling on her degree in Education, Nancy began teaching Hawaiian quiltmaking in 1982, when her family moved to the Seattle area in Washington.  In 1988, she made her first pieced quilt, and has been making both traditional and art quilts since.  Nancy became a full-time quilt teacher in 2001, leaving behind a 20-year career as a legal secretary.  She has never looked back.  Her passion is needleturn appliqué and her drive is to make needleturn as stress-free and enjoyable for her students as it is for her.  Hawaiian quilting and appliqué quilts continue to be her specialty.

Nancy has taught to rave reviews at such notable venues as Quilting by the Lake (NY), Quilting by the Sound (WA), Holland America cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean, International Quilt Festival (IL), Quilt Hawaii (HI), The Appliqué Society (OR, TX & CO), A Quilters Affair (OR), and at a host of shops and guilds across the United States and Canada.  In addition, she teaches several classes on-line at QuiltUniversity.com.  Believing that needleturn appliqué and Hawaiian quilting are best learned by watching, rather than by reading, she produced her first video Hawaiian Quilting with Nancy Lee Chong in 2002 (Pacific Rim Quilt Company).  That was followed in 2004 with a second video "2 Fabric Appliqué Quilts with Nancy Lee Chong", also teaching needleturn appliqué.

Nancy's pieced and appliquéd quilts have appeared in magazines, quilt books, and have traveled throughout the United States and to other countries.  Dedicated to promoting quilting in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, Nancy served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters from 2000-2004.

With her sister, Janice Lee Baehr, she co-curated a show of Hawaiian Quilts at the 1990 Northwest Folklife Festival, in Seattle, Washington.  In 1990 they formed Pacific Rim Quilt Company to sell their Hawaiian quilt patterns and to promote Hawaiian Quilting.  They also curated the special exhibit "Hawaiian Quilts:  An Evolving Tradition" at the 2002 Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, sponsored by the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, in Seattle, WA.  In 2007 Nancy and Janice co-curated a show of their own Hawaiian Quilts at the AQS Quilt Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee entitled "Tropical Treats:  The Hawaiian Quilts of 2 Sisters".

Married for almost 30 years to one husband, Nancy has no pets, her husband does all the shopping and cooking, and she just last year began to dabble a bit with gardening (she planted a few hostas in her yard).  In her precious spare time she appliqués and enjoys spending time with her husband.  Her three children are grown and doing very well on their own.  She has one teenage grandson.

You can follow Nancy at the Pacific Rim Quilt Company website:  www.prqc.com

While you will not see Janice teaching in a classroom very often, you cannot miss her influence.  It is her business acumen that makes Pieceful Harbor Retreat, and Pacific Rim Quilt Company successful. 

Janice has been sewing since she was five, and even made a few simple quilts before 1982, but she considers that she became a "real quilter" only when she began her first Hawaiian quilt in 1982.  Janice learned to make Hawaiian quilts from her sister, Nancy Lee Chong.  Through the years Janice has branched out to machine piecing and quilting, traditional and contemporary quilts, fabric dyeing, quilt photography and writing.  Hawaiian quilting in all its evolving forms remains her fist love.

In 1990, Janice and Nancy founded Pacific Rim Quilt Company to publish their Hawaiian quilt patterns and to promote Hawaiian quilting.  While Nancy is best known as the teacher, Janice has been the behind-the-scenes person who manages most aspects of the business.  Janice received her Executive Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Washington in 1997.  In 1999, Janice brought up their web site (www.prqc.com) and continues as the web mistress.  Janice does the photography for their company, including Nancy and Janice’s on-line classes at QuiltUniversity.com.  She also has added her hand-dyed fabrics to their product line, wanting Hawaiian quilters and appliquérs to have a source of fabrics suitable for their art.  In 2002 they released their first instructional  video, “Hawaiian Quilting with Nancy Lee Chong", and in 2004 their second video, "2 Fabric Appliqué Quilts with Nancy Lee Chong."

While Janice has taught Hawaiian quilting and Broderie perse appliqué through the years, most of her teaching until recently was in Project Management during her 23-year banking career.  Janice now teaches "Photographing Your Quilts" on QuiltUniversity.com.

Janice & Nancy co-curated a show of Hawaiian quilts at the 1990 Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington and the special exhibit “Hawaiian Quilting:  An Evolving Tradition” at the Pacific Northwest Quiltfest 2002, also in Seattle.  Janice served on the Board of Directors for the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters 2002-2004.   In 2007 Janice and Nancy co-curated a show of their own Hawaiian Quilts at the AQS Quilt Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee entitled "Tropical Treats:  The Hawaiian Quilts of 2 Sisters".

Janice’s quilts have appeared in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine (Jan 1997, page 42),  Op-Art Quilts, by Marilyn Doheny (page 36), and Isometric Perspective, by Katie Pasquini-Masopust (page 46).  One of her Hawaiian quilts was shown in Paducah at the American Quilt Society show in 1991, and she has sold a number of her quilts into private collections.  Her first article, “Designing Hawaiian Appliqué Without the Tropics”, was published by Threads magazine (Aug/Sept 2003 issue).

Janice lives and works in the country about 40 miles northeast of Seattle with her husband of 30 years.  They opted out on the kid thing, and have had a variety of cats through the years.  Right now just one neurotic cat is enough.  Janice has no spare time, but when forced to, she and her husband enjoy traveling in their motor home and jamming at bluegrass festivals.  Her husband is a semi-retired luthier and guitar player -- mostly bluegrass and country music -- who does nearly all the shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry.  What a guy!

You can see what Janice is up to at the Pacific Rim Quilt Company website:  www.prqc.com