Quilting Instructors

You have an outstanding opportunity to spend 7 days with 2 extraordinary teachers aboard Holland America Line’s Zuiderdam. These fantastic two were chosen because they are both exceptional instructors who are friendly, fun-loving and warm. They are internationally known for the books they have published and their exceptional teaching skills.

Chardel Blaine

Chardel Blaine

Instructor: Canada New England Discovery

Woodinville, WA • www.FlyingGoatStudio.com


Chardel Blaine is an award-winning quilter, beader and metalsmith whose work has been juried into numerous Pacific Northwest events.

Nationally, her work has been juried and displayed at the Nassau County Museum of Art Craft and Fine Arts Fair (Roslyn Harbor NY), produced by the American Concern for Art and Craftsmanship; Uncommon Threads Art-to-Wear Show, Fine Line Creative Arts Center (St. Charles, IL); and in “Multiplicities: New Directions in Fiber”, IMAGO Foundation for the Arts, IMAGO Gallery (Warren, RI).

Blessed with parents who valued creative and independent thinking, there was always some sort of creative experience around the house. Most were done at the kitchen table or in the basement workshop with supplies that Mom and Dad brought in with care and sacrifice. Chardel’s mother and grandmother taught her to sew, and her father taught her to saw a shape and pound a nail. Her favorite projects involved designing components that fit, then measuring twice and cutting once to ensure that they did. She has learned how color, texture and unique materials embrace the “what-ifs” and happy accidents that occur when one has backed into an artistic corner and must find a creative means of escape.

Chardel managed and taught at a local quilt shop and bead store for 15 years, exposing her to the latest techniques and materials and feeding the creative beast. Fiber art and jewelry, often combining the two, became Flying Goat Studio where she shares her work. And as editor of Create Whimsy, she shares the stories of renowned artists and makers who inspire creatives to get their hands busy every day.

Needle and thread consistently bring her joy. She still gets a rush when she turns on a power tool – and that includes a sewing machine!

Kathy K Wylie

Kathy K Wylie

Instructor: Canada New England Discovery

Dwight, Ontario, Canada • www.KathyKWylie.com


Kathy K. Wylie is a multiple international-award winning quilter specializing in appliqué, quilt design, domestic machine quilting and English Paper Piecing techniques. She has lectured and taught all over the country at guilds, shops and quilt shows and now offers online workshops and presentations. Her work has been featured in magazines, and her designs are available as individual patterns as well as in her book “Sewflakes: Papercut Appliqué Quilts.

Kathy started sewing and embroidering as a young girl, laying the foundation for the life-altering discovery of quilting two decades later. Over the past twenty-five years, quilting has grown from a hobby into a full-time creative career.

Kathy lectures and teaches all over Canada at guilds, shops, and quilt shows. Kathy has been a guest-artist in residence at The Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy, a quilting cruise instructor with Quilt Seminars at Sea, a guest on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, and a frequent faculty member at Quilt Canada. Kathy is also a Canadian Quilters’ Association Certified Quilt Judge.

Kathy’s quilt designs have received recognition in Canada as well as internationally. Her quilt Instruments of Praise earned the 2011 Bernina Machine Workmanship Award from the American Quilter’s Society and now resides in the U.S. National Quilt Museum as part of its permanent collection. She was honored to receive the 2011 Founders Award from the International Quilt Association and the 2013 Best of Show from the Canadian Quilters Association for her quilt Flourish on the Vine.

Her most recent quilt For Such a Time as This has received multiple awards, including the AQS Best of Show at 2018 Fall Paducah QuiltWeek and the CQA/ACC Best of Show at Quilt Canada 2019. The quilt has inspired a block-of-the-month series of patterns and her first fabric line with Northcott.

Kathy is the author of Sewflakes: Papercut Appliqué Quilts (C&T Publishing, 2007), Flourish on the Vine Pattern Pack, Instruments of Praise Pattern Pack and she has released other patterns in print and online. Her work has been published in magazines, including Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks and on the covers of Quilters Newsletter, The Canadian Quilter, and The Professional Quilter magazines.

Kathy is a Canadian distributor for Apliquick, Hugs’n Kisses, and Bohin products. Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Kathy now divides her time between her country home in Muskoka, her city home near Toronto, and life on the road as an itinerant quilting teacher .