A friend and I have taken classes from a couple very well known quilter/designers and we both agreed it was a miserable experience. I have also taken classes from nationally known quilters and had a wonderful experience and learned a lot. I have also taken classes from local quilters and had both good and not so good experiences. I believe the not so good experiences were because the personalities of were quite strong to the point of being abrasive and I think that it quashed the creativity of the students. I was not the only person in the class that was miserable. We have very few quit shops in the area so classes are hard to come by. I don't think we should limit ourselves by taking classes only from the "rock stars" in the quilting world because we miss our on learning something new (and possibly making new friends) in a smaller, more intimate class that is local.