Our Instructors

JANICE GUNNER – United Kingdom

Janice has taught Patchwork & Quilting for 35 years, including City & Guilds (a UK qualification in P&Q which includes Design) and in a wide range of other countries, including USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain, Abu Dhabi, and Japan.

She is a qualified Adult Education Teacher and holds a Master of Arts degree in Textiles from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey. She was instrumental to the creation of The Festival of Quilts, Birmingham in 2003 and in 2019 was awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award by the current organisers Immediate Media.

Janice is also the former National Exhibitions Officers, Divisional Head of Marketing Vice President, and President of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, she is currently the Area Representative for Bedfordshire, the county in which she lives. An experienced quilt judge, Janice has judged most recently for The Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival in 2020

She’s written two books, Shibori for Textile Artists, and Liberating Log Cabin. Janice is a specialist in Japanese textiles and techniques and lead tours to Japan and elsewhere. She was born and brought up in London and lived there all her married life until moving two years ago. She has three sons and four grandchildren.

LIZA PRIOR LUCY – Pennsylvania

Liza made her first “quilt” in 1972 when she sewed 25 bandanas together, layered the top with a fat batt and a corduroy backing and tied it all together with wool knitting yarn. It was for her college boyfriend’s waterbed. She made her second quilt in 1990, this time in a more conventional manner, piecing a sampler block quilt. Quilting became a passion and in 1993 she proposed doing a book with her dear friend, Kaffe Fassett.

Kaffe and Liza work closely together writing patchwork books and developing the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric line for Free Spirit.

Their first hardcover book was Glorious Patchwork and they just published their 7th hardcover book, Timeless Themes. They specialize in re-interpreting traditional quilt patterns using contemporary fabrics and unexpected color combinations.

From the time she began making quilts, her favorite projects have been those that are hand sewn. English Paper Piecing is her passion. She designed the popular Glorious Hexagon sampler based on the book, The New Hexagon. Last count over 5000 people worldwide are following her lead and making their own glorious version!

ILARIA PADOVANI – Bristol, United Kingdom

ILARIA PADOVANI
Ilaria Padovani grew up in Italy, where sewing, knitting and crocheting were part of her life since the age of four. Thanks to her grandmother, she learned very fast to get things right. If the work was not done the right way, it had to be undone and remade until perfect.

Since leaving Italy in 1999, Ilaria has been living in many different countries – including the US, Ireland and the UK. However, it was in 2003, while in State College, PA that she become fascinated with quilt making, owing to a guild of traditional quilters who took her under their wing. During those formative years, Ilaria developed a passion for hand sewn projects – hand appliqué, English Paper Piecing and Foundation Paper Piecing – which are still her preferred techniques.

In 2014, while living in Bristol where she still resides, it was Ilaria’s love for color and eye for perfection that led her to being recruited to work for Kaffe Fassett, making and coordinating his sample quilts for his popular Patchwork and
Quilting’ books.

As a passionate quilter, maker and traveler, Ilaria loves sharing her expertise through teaching, making her ambition to inspire creativity in others on her art, and loves to travel and meet new people.

SUE SPARGO, Ohio

Southern Africa had a considerable influence on Sue’s life and creativity. She was born in Zambia and educated in South Africa, spent time in England, moved through four US states and is currently settled in Ohio.

Sue always felt drawn to the color, energy and simplicity of traditional African designs. This, along with the stark contrasts between the many environments she has lived, combined to stir her love of “primitive” arts and crafts and grew into a focus on contemporary folk-art. Working in a bright, saturated color palette, Sue creates her pieces with layers using hand-dyed wools, cotton fabrics, linens, silks, velvets and embellishment stitchery. As an international author and teacher, Sue’s workshops range from 2 to 5 days and explore textual depth and dimension through wool layering and embroidery. Sue’s publications consist of technique and pattern books, and her extensive website is a treasure trove of products that support her designs. (https://suespargo.com)

Sue Spargo Folk-art Quilts, Inc. currently employees 10 full time staff to oversee her retail and wholesale websites, Block of the Month program, publications and dye studio. We are a family team who’s goal is to provide our customers with a unique but complete product; hand and mill dyed wools that match our Ellana wool appliqué thread, a vast range of embroidery threads including Sue’s line of Eleganza Perle cotton, an eclectic mix of cotton and textural fabrics, patterns, technique books and kits.”