Quilting Instructors
You have an outstanding opportunity to spend 14 days with two extraordinary teachers aboard Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam. This fantastic group was chosen because they are all exceptional instructors who are friendly, fun-loving and warm. All are internationally known for the books they have published and their exceptional teaching skills.
Gyleen X. Fitzzgerald
Instructor: 2025 Spain & Portugal Cruise
Baltimore, MD • www.colourfulstitches.com
Gyleen was born in Philadelphia, PA but grew up in Taiwan and Japan. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering at Drexel University and opened Colourful Stitches in 1999.
Those formative years in the Far East developed her love for simplistic artistry. She began needlework at the very young age of four and has since pursued artistic expression in drawing and quilt making. Her quilts blend colour, pattern and texture to provide a contemporary essence to traditional quilting.
Her strength as a quilter is demonstrated by the infusion of engineering tools and techniques to simplify visually complex quilts. Her written works center around Haiku poetry, Quilt project books, patterns and magazine articles and of course the crème de la crème, children’s books.
As an artist, she has achieved “Best of Show” recognition; as a writer and publisher, she has achieved award winning status with Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings. Gyleen has appeared on The Quilt Show and Lifetime TV promoting finishing antique quilts and the new spirit of traditional quilting. For Gyleen, quilting is the passion which colours her world as her writing journey continues.
Margarita Korioth
Instructor: 2025 Spain and Portugal Cruise
Collierville, TN • margaritakorioth.com
Margarita Korioth is a fiber artist and quilt instructor who likes to work with a combination of paper and fabric or fabric alone. Her passion is one of experimentation and discovery of new ways to convert cloth into art. Her recent work emphasizes surface design such as dyeing, stamping, silk screening and stitching with a focus of lettering on fabric. Margarita has published extensively in national and international quilting magazines.
Her acclaimed work has also been exposed at major international quilting shows and has won her several awards.