PROGRAMS

Jan. 8 , 2026 – Virtual lecture

Challenge Yourself by Mel Beach

Mel Beach is an award-winning fiber/mixed-media artist who loves to create through play each and every day. Mel thrives on stretching her creativity through more than one hundred quilt challenges and completing seven 100-Day Projects since 2020, each inspired by daily dice rolling. Mel’s fiber art has been juried into prestigious art venues and traveling exhibitions, while earning top awards and honors along the way. Mel and her artwork have 

been featured on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, Quilting Arts TV hosted by Susan Brubaker Knapp, popular quilting podcasts, and published in several quilting books and magazines.

Mel is an in-demand lecturer and instructor, offering a variety of fun and inspirational quilting programs to inspire others to create with confidence and joy.

Discover the world of Quilt Challenges and the many opportunities awaiting you (and your quilts!) Join me as I recount my adventures (including a few misadventures) while participating in Quilt Challenges at both the local and national/international level. I hope to inspire you by sharing my own quilts and their stories, along with tips/tricks that I hope will inspire and encourage you to enter your own quilts, regardless of style or level of experience/skill!    

This lecture will be followed by a virtual workshop on Jan 10, 2026. See Workshop Section to sign up!

Feb. 12, 2026 – Virtual Lecture

Joyful, Modern, Architecture-Inspired Quilts by Cathy Perlmutter

Cathy Perlmutter started quilting more than 30 years ago, as a hobby during a career in journalism. Her quilting and sewing books include, ‘Scrap Cities, Joyful Modern Architecture Inspired Quilts’, ‘Quilted New York: Celebrate the City with Fabric and Color’, 'Hexagon Star Quilts: 113 English Paper-Pieced Star Patterns to Piece and Appliqué', ‘Stitch-a-hedron: English Paper Pieced Polyhedron Gifts and Accessories to Sew’, and more. Her books and patterns can be found in her Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/CathyPStudio. Find her on Instagram @cathy.perlmutter. See her quilts and learn more about her publications and online classes, on her website at cathyperlmutter.com.

I have been quilting for 30+ years, and have loved nearly every minute of it (except pin-basting). I've never met a quilt fad I didn't try, and my current favorites include English Paper Piecing, and Modern quilts, especially triangle- and star-based quilts. 

But I've never had more fun than with the cityscapes I've been making in the last seven years. I was never good at drawing, so while I liked the idea of cityscapes, I never dared to make one. I fell into it by accident, in 2017, when trying to make abstract ladders! That quilt wound up looking more like a city skyline than ladders! That launched an obsession, and by now, I've made quilts, small and large, inspired by structures in New York City (where I was born), Los Angeles (where I live now), Chicago (where one of my clients was grew up), and many fantasy lands. I'll take you on my journey, including a whirlwind tour of real cities, real buildings, and how I translated them into fabric. No need for drawing ability, and I usually don't do photo replication. I strive to capture the idea of the building, add fantasy elements when I want to and do a fair amount of improvisation; not only because improv is fun, but because it also reflects reality (I will prove it). My buildings are mostly pieced. I have a unique method for turning edges back DURING piecing so that when each building is finished it has neat-folded edges and can easily and quickly be placed anywhere in the scene, even partially overlapping other buildings, like in real cities. Learn this and other tricks I use to give cityscapes dimension, perspective and the "wow" factor. People tell me that after this lecture or class, they never look at buildings the same way again!

This lecture will be followed by a virtual workshop on Feb 14th, 2026: Improv Log Cabin Triangle Kaleidoscope Quilt. Please see Workshop Section to sign up.

We carry a large selection of high-quality fabrics from top manufacturers, including cotton, flannel, and batiks. We also offer a wide range of tools and accessories, including cutting mats, rulers, and rotary cutters. Come visit us and see what we have to offer!