Featured Instructors

Great Black Hills Quilt Escape Featured Instructors

Feature Teacher

Harriet Hargrave
Colorado

Harriet Hargrave is no newcomer to the quilt world...

Harriet comes from a family of quilters. Her grandmother, mother and several of her eight aunts quilted. Her mother tried to teach Harriet to hand quilt in the early 1970s but to no avail. Harriet mastered machine embroidery in the mid-1970s and adapted machine quilting from those skills. She was machine quilting when the local quilt guilds in Colorado thought machine piecing was not kosher, let alone machine quilting!

Harriet was teaching machine piecing, appliqué and quilting through the adult education system by 1978, and opened her store, Harriet’s Treadle Arts, alongside her mother in April of 1981. The store started out to be about machine arts but quickly was taken over by machine quilting and piecing classes and supplies.

In 1983, Marti Michell saw some of Harriet’s antique reproduction pieces and was amazed at how hand quilted they appeared. Harriet essentially introduced nylon thread to the quilt world through those quilts. By 1984, she was demonstrating her quilting techniques at Houston Quilt Market and was teaching the last day of Mary Ellen Hopkins’ week-long seminars.

Marti Michell asked Harriet to write a book on machine quilting for her publishing company, then known as Yours Truly. The first edition of Heirloom Machine Quilting was released March of 1987. C&T Publishing published the second expanded and updated edition in 1990. The third edition was updated in 1995 and the most recent fourth edition was updated, re-written and re-released in 2004.

The first edition of Mastering Machine Appliqué was released in 1991 and then revised and re-released in 2002. From Fiber to Fabric, released in 1997, is the quilter’s bible for the care and keeping of textiles. The Art of Classic Quiltmaking which Harriet co-authored with her friend, Sharyn Craig, in 2000, is the ultimate reference book for piecing techniques.

Harriet has also worked side-by-side with Hobbs Bonded Fibers to develop an exceptional line of natural fiber battings to meet quilters’ needs. P&B Textiles has printed five very successful lines of antique reproduction fabric for Harriet.

In 1994, Harriet was chosen by a panel of her peers as one of the 88 Leaders of the Quilt World for a book that was released by the same title out of Japan. In 2006, she was nominated as Professional Quilter’s Teacher of the Year.

Harriet has taught worldwide since 1985, including teaching trips to England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and every state in the USA. She has definitely spread the word that machine quilting is okay, doable by anyone with the desire to learn. Our quilts are not machine quilted but “hand quilted with an electric needle™”!

Currently Harriet and her daughter, Carrie, are writing a series of books for beginning quilters. The first in the series, Quilter’s Academy Vol. 1 - Freshman Year, was released in September 2009. The second in the series, Quilter’s Academy Vol. 2 - Sophomore Year, was released in May 2010 and Vol. 3 - Junior Year will be available March 2011. The subsequent volumes will be released once a year after that

Vendor Teacher

Margaret Branson,
Gillette, WY

Born in Oklahoma, my husband Jim and I moved to Gillette in 1980 to work at a coal mine. We planned on staying only a couple of years, but fell in love with the area and made it our home.

I am a third generation quilter – both my Mother and Grandmother were avid quilters. I started out hand cutting pieces for my Grandmother’s quilts, back then we only had cardboard templates and scissors! I have attended several retreats and classes over the years, and began teaching in order to share all the “helpful tips” I have come across along my quilting journey.

I have just recently completed a Quilt In A Day Teacher Certification course offered by Eleanor Burns in Paducah, Kentucky. I can’t wait to share all the tips I learned at her seminar with everyone!

Ila Kool,
Brookings, SD

My first Quilt Escape was at Camp Judson in Keystone, and I've been hooked ever since!

I've been quilting for 31 years, starting from templates cut from the tops of ice cream pails through to computer-aided quilt designing. I support my quilting habit by working as a relief pharmacist. My husband of 28 years lets me buy all the fabric I can hide in my home in Brookings, South Dakota. My three sons have learned not to ask me to mend their jeans.
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Ila Kool

Sherry Dahlin,
Watertown, SD

         I'm Sherry Dahlin from Watertown South Dakota. I'm married to Arlen Dahlin and we will be celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary this year.
Those thirty years have taken us on some interesting journeys. The Good Lord blessed us with three wonderful boys that have kept us busy over the years.

         I originally came from a little town in Nebraska. My Grandmother made all of her own dresses and also some scrap quilts. Over the years I remember seeing the remnants
that my mom had and recognized seeing that fabric as my grandma's dresses. In her later years my mom started making some scrap tied quilts using very large scrap pieces and using sheets for the backs. As you can see there is some history of sewing in my family but I learned my Quilting skills from my husbands family, Betty Dahlin and Valerie Begeman.
Betty Dahlin taught me how to make my first quilt, and her and Valerie have been teaching me ever since. I am very blessed to be a member of their family.

         I have been sewing for over thirty years and have been quilting for around fifteen years. I enjoy the creativity of quilting the most along with designing. There are so many avenues to explore with in the quilting world. I have made several small quilts and a few large quilts. I designed my first quilt in 2011 and really enjoyed that process. I have learned to be a great fabric collector and look forward to the day I can use all of it in some of my creations. I enjoy teaching others the art of quilting so they also can enjoy creating their own projects and realize that they too can do it.

         I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the retreat....Happy Quilting.

Sherry Dahlin