Our quilting group has enough in the treasury to consider importing a moderately well known teacher as a community event for the future. Has your group done this? Who would you recommend? (Probably would like a teacher from Eastern or Central USA to save on transportation cost.)

Don't know what she charges, but I've enjoyed my time spent in Bonnie Hunter's (of Quiltville) workshops and lectures. She's in NC and travels most weeks out of the year. I think she's booked into 2012 already. http://www.quiltville.com

edited: she's now booking 2014!!! So she may be too popular for you to start out with unless you want to wait a few years!

Sue Nickels came to our group. she was really good. you can check out her website as it has info on it.

I took a class from Karen Combs and found her to be an extremely gifted teacher. In fact, I have signed up to take a couple of classes from her at the Tennessee Valley Quilters' Spring Seminar.

Try Kaye Wood. e-mail Terrye if interested at [email protected]

We had Charlotte Warr Anderson; We will be having Liz Faminoff; We've had the singing quilter; I took a seminar with Jinny Beyer, if you are interested in hand work.
Is there any particular method you're interested in learning, each person has their own areas of expertise.
http://www.charlottewarrandersen.com/
http://lizfaminoff.com/aboutus.php
http://www.jinnybeyer.com/
http://www.singingquilter.com/

Diana McClun & Laura Nownes on the West Coast

If you can get Carol Doak , the queen of paper piecing, that would be great. Or Carol Bryer Fallert.
http://www.bryerpatch.com/

Or Bob from Superior threads , he has so much info and is a great speaker and everybody uses thread. If you think you know everything there is to know about thread .. well Bob knows more than I ever thought I knew.

Another awesome choice would be RaNae Merril ( I think she is in the NYC area).
http://www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/teaching

You really need to narrow it down to area of interest.

I took a class from Karen McTavish and she was phenominal. A great speaker, entertaining, personable. However she may not appeal to your guild. http://www.designerquilts.com/teaching.html

If you have a lot of member interested in domestic machine FMQ, you should consider Diane Gaudynski.
http://www.dianegaudynski.net/workshops.htm

Maybe Leah Day would come, I'm not sure if she has expanded to the point of travelling for teaching or trunk shows.
http://www.daystyledesigns.com/lectures.htm

Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions. It will be fun researching and making a choice.