Our Teachers
Arlene Baker
A needlework and bead artist, designer and teacher, Arlene draws her inspiration for the projects in her classes from more than 35 years of collecting vintage ribbonry and beadwork. She specializes in easy to follow, step-by-step instructions written for novice and experienced alike.
Nadine Berthiaume
Nadine Berthiaume has been on a lifelong knitting journey since her introduction to knitting at 14, and began teaching knitting classes at 16 in her mother’s former knitting store. Nadine has been designing her own patterns over 20 years, and this fine needle art has become an integral part of her life.
Beth Butterfield
Elizabeth is a florist and mixed media artist who is passionate about being creative outside the lines. Her whimsical fairy gardens and fresh holiday wreaths are a favorite around here! She has been teaching at Piecemakers for fifteen years.
Diane Calderwood
Diane Calderwood is an innovative gourd artist who has taught gourd art at Piecemakers since 2001. She is now teaching new mixed media projects as well.
Watch for future classes!
Sheilah Cleary
Sheilah has been passionate about needle arts all her life. She teaches jewelry design, beadwork, knitting, crochet and has taught many other crafts at Piecemakers where she’s been for over 30 years.
Teja Cooling
Teja is a respected sculptor, illustrator, impressionist painter and collage artist and has exhibited at the Laguna Festival and several art galleries. She has been teaching her ever popular Vintage Bobble tree class for the past 10 years at Piecemakers.
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Kathy Davis
As an artist and craftsperson, Kathy has explored and taught various media including clays, fibers and resins to create dolls and jewelry. She enjoys introducing her students to new possibilities, and has taught at Piecemakers for close to 30 years!
Sally Drummond
Sally is a native California designer/seamstress and lifelong lover of fabrics with a degree in fashion design. She has taught sewing skills, pattern drafting, and textile knowledge at the college level, and looks forward to sharing her skills and knowledge to help her students flourish.
Patti Dubreuil
Patti D of Patti D Designs creates and teaches her original patterns and designs for handbags, pillows, quilts as well as Tuffet classes. In addition, Patti is a Laura Heine Certified Instructor for collages.
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Sylvia Fellows
Sylvia has been making lace since she started crocheting at age 10; she taught herself to tat at age 13 and has been making bobbin lace for 40 years. She also does many other forms of lace such as needle lace, Battenburg lace, Reticella and Amelia Ars lace.
Rhonda Church Finfrock
Rhonda is a California citrus farmer, retired elementary school teacher, and lifetime sewist. She enjoys traveling and teaching others how to rescue and refashion sustainable clothing with painting and stitching techniques.
Chris Flynn
Chris comes to us from the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. Chris enjoys antique laces, linens, and wallpapers as she creates fabric books, journals, purses, and just about anything that serves both a purpose and is visually pleasing.
Karen Fraser
Karen has been teaching at Piecemakers since 2003. She excels in teaching silk ribbon embroidery, stump work, thread painting, lace dyeing and embellishments.
Jaimee Gerard
Jaimee learned bear making from her mentor, teacher, and dear friend Evelyn Penfield, and is thrilled to teach the Teddy Bear Necessities class at Piecemakers. She looks forward to fostering creativity, sparking imagination and building lasting memories with her students.
Tacy Gray
Tacy’s passion for quilting began in a hand-piecing class in eighth grade. Since then, she’s shared her passion by running a quilt shop with her mother-in-law in Minnesota, designing her own patterns, working as a long arm quilter, and teaching quilting to kids and adults.
Donna
Two of Donna's areas of expertise are quilting/sewing and baking. She teaches classes in both, including the Apple Pie Baking class, and is one of the bakers of Piecemakers famous apple pie!
Linda Illumanardi
Linda has been teaching at Piecemakers since 2018. Her specialty is botanical printing and natural dyeing. She is currently exploring a variety of California dyes with roots, bark, leaves and cones that she harvested from San Francisco to Orange County.
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Dana E. Jones
Dana is an artist, quiltmaker, journalist, visiting teacher from Colorado, and author of Pagtinabangay: The Quilts and Quiltmakers of Caohagan Island. She is a former editor of Quilters Newsletter magazine and has taught at international quilt shows, as well as shops across the U.S. and Canada.
Bonny Knoll
Bonny's passion is crafting and appliqueing, teaching students to make totes, backpacks, or whimsical home dec items. Specializing in using the latest and greatest tools, Bonny helps her students make their projects look professional.
Gigi Lenker
Gigi Lenker is a local fiber artist who has a passion for creating yarn, weaving, and simple basket making including pine needle basketry!
Hanne Lohde
An award-winning designer and teacher, Hanne specializes in wool quilting, hand applique and embroidery techniques on her original quilts, bags, pincushions and 3-dimensional critters.
Lisa Mattock
We are pleased to welcome Lisa Mattock from Australia to Piecemakers! Lisa and her company “Forage, by Lisa Mattock” is about seeking out reclaimed and vintage textile treasures and upcycling them into beautiful pieces that speak to the soul of the stitcher.
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Joanna
You may know Joanna from Piecemakers class sample room or as one of the organizers of our annual fairs. She also takes time to teach the yummy scones and lemon curd that are available in Piecemakers Country Tea Room!
Leslie O'Leary
Leslie is an internationally recognized, master doll artist who loves teaching at Piecemakers! She has been with us for over 25 years, and is devoted to her students and her art.
Watch for future classes!
Evelyn Penfield
For over 40 years Evelyn has taught her whimsical world of Heirloom bear designs and all types of animals from California to New Zealand and Australia. She has delighted Piecemakers students with creations from bears to monkeys, squirrels, bunnies, embroidered pincushions, heirloom babies, and more!
Danna Phalen
Danna has been teaching at Piecemakers for 7 years. Her specialty is Alcohol Ink Art on a variety of substrates including YUPO paper, tile, jewelry, ornaments and more.
Sue Pletl
Sue Pletl has been embroidering for most of her life, starting with pillowcases when she was a little girl. She hopes to inspire you to create your memories with beautiful hand-crafted embroidered cards and bookmarks, and is sure you will love hand crafts as much as she does!
Rossanna
Having over 30 years of experience in the fashion industry, Rossanna is well versed in garment construction. She teaches adults and kids' classes throughout the year and the ever popular kids' summer sewing camps.
Heather
Part of Piecemakers Construction Company team, Heather devotes her handwork time to ribbon and thread embroidery, bead work and soap/lotion/scrub making. She teaches these arts and grass roots skills to adults and children.
Mary Shey
Mary Shey’s needlework life began when she was four, and has been a lifelong love affair. Hailing from Acton, Massachusetts, she teaches the techniques and beauty of ribbon embroidery to all levels in Greater Boston, San Francisco and Southern California.
Di
Di is part of Piecemakers' production department that works on custom quilt orders, and original handcrafted items for sale at the store, including our yummy apple pies. She teaches embroidery, quilting and apple pie baking.
Larene Smith
Larene has been teaching at Piecemakers since 2009. She specializes in simplifying quilting techniques, and excels in designing quilts, wallhangings, table runners, totes and more.
Di Venter
Di Venter has an extensive background in teaching various sewing and art techniques in different parts of the world from South Africa to Berlin, United Kingdom and Tanzania. Di’s passion is designing and teaching a wide selection of bookbinding techniques.
Barbara Willis
For over thirty years, Barbara has been designing, teaching and delighting her students with whimsical one-of-a-kind dolls. We always look forward to her original designs, and her newest creations are admired by both dollmakers and non-dollmakers alike!
Alma Wilson
Since Alma came to Piecemakers eight years ago, she has felt so welcome. Alma assists Rossanna in teaching children’s sewing classes, and is now teaching her own class! Specializing in working with beginners, her goal is to make everyone feel comfortable and confident using their sewing machine.
LeeAnna Yater
LeeAnna has enjoyed teaching the Shibori fiber arts classes at Piecemakers since 2018. She also creates and teaches other fine crafts to include handmade paper, alternative book arts, weaving, printmaking and ceramics to name a few.
Watch for future classes!