About The Staff & Board

The MQG Staff

Alissa Haight Carlton

Executive Director
alissa@themodernquiltguild.com

Heather Grant

Director of Marketing & Programming
heather@themodernquiltguild.com

Jen Carlton Bailly

Communications Manager
jen@themodernquiltguild.com

The MQG Board of Directors

Alissa Haight Carlton

Alissa Haight Carlton

Los Angeles MQG

Alissa lives in Los Angeles and is co-founder and Executive Director of the Modern Quilt Guild. She is a member of the Los Angele MQG. She has written two books,Modern Minimal: 20 Bold and Graphic Quilts, and Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee, which she co-authored. When not working in the modern quilting world, Alissa casts reality shows, including many recent seasons of Project Runway. Alissa has more than ten years of people and team management experience from her career in casting. She blogs about her modern quilting at handmadebyalissa.com.

Los Angeles MQG
Jacquie Gering

Jacquie Gering

Chicago MQG

Since discovering quilting five years ago, Jacquie has become a passionate quilt maker and designer. She is known for her "out of the box" designs and unique style. Her work has been featured in both national and international publications, and she is the co-author of Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts. Jacquie is a passionate advocate for modern quilting and brings 30 years of teaching, staff development and leadership experience to the Modern Quilt Guild Board. As co-founder and former president of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild, she helped build a dynamic, vital guild and her experience in guild structures, membership and programming is an asset to developing the MQG at the national level. She is now a member of the Chicago MQG. Jacquie blogs and shares her quilting knowledge on her popular blog, Tallgrass Prairie Studio and lives in downtown Chicago with her husband and black lab, Bruno.

Chicago MQG
Heather Grant

Heather Grant

Austin MQG

A quilter in her early 20s, Heather stopped quilting until 2005, when she was inspired by the modern quilting movement and made her first modern quilt. Heather is founder and member of the Austin Modern Quilt Guild and author of the popular blog, Modern Day Quilts. She is the Director of Marketing and Programming for The Modern Quilt Guild. You can find her teaching at the Stitch Lab in Austin, Texas. Heather has more than 15 years experience in event planning, creative and marketing project management including experience with non-profit membership based organizations while employed at Texas Electric Cooperatives.

Austin MQG
Elizabeth Hartman

Elizabeth Hartman

Portland MQG

Elizabeth is a full-time quilter, designer, author, and teacher. She is the author of the bestselling quilting guide The Practical Guide to Patchwork and Modern Patchwork and is an instructor for Craftsy.com. Elizabeth is the author of the popular blog ohfransson.com, through which she has introduced thousands of people to modern quilting. Elizabeth lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the founder and a member of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. She has been on the Planning Committee for The Modern Quilt Guild since early 2010 during which time she has contributed patterns and tutorials to The Modern Quilt Guild's blog and managed the creative direction of events such as Project Modern, 100 Days of Modern Quilting, and the QuiltCon Block Challenge.

Portland MQG
Kathy Mack

Kathy Mack

Bainbridge Island MQG

Kathy lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington with her two teenage daughters and two cats. She is a member of the Bainbridge Island MQG. Her grandmother taught her to sew as a little girl and she loves it as much today as she did after taking that first stitch. Pink Chalk Studio is her sewing pattern design company where she adds color and artful design to things used everyday. Kathy Mack is the founder and owner of Pink Chalk Fabrics, a five year old growing internet company and was previously a Product Development Manager with PeopleSoft in charge of General Ledger. Kathy is a CPA and received her BS in Business Administration/Accounting from Portland State University. She began her career with Arthur Andersen in 1987. Kathy served as a charter board member with Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, California.

Bainbridge Island MQG
Open Position

Open Position

Join our team click to learn more

The guild is seeking someone with non-profit association or membership based experience.

Join our team click to learn more
Amy Newbold

Amy Newbold

Salt Lake City MQG

Amy, more commonly known as Sukie in the online sewing community, has been quilting since 2010. Her inspiration for getting into quilting came from her mother in-law who has been sewing for over 40 years. Currently, Amy lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and two kids. She works as an accountant by day, is the Treasurer of the Modern Quilt Guild, and tries to fit sewing in at night and on the weekends. She loves long walks on the beach, is a member of the Salt Lake City MQG and if you want to see more of her creations please visit sukiedontyaknow.com. Amy manages the guild’s finances and has more than 10 years of professional experience as an accountant.

Salt Lake City MQG
Latifah Saafir

Latifah Saafir

Los Angeles MQG

Sewing has been Latifah's avenue to creativity ever since she “took it up seriously” at the age of 11. An accomplished seamstress, Latifah Saafir took the dive into quilting in 2009. As a co-founder of the Modern Quilt Guild, Latifah Saafir has been an early advocate of the organization. She has served as President of the Los Angeles MQG since its inception and helped to set it up as a model for the local MQG's worldwide. Latifah comes to the MQG with a BS Mechanical Engineering but, has had a focus on small business development for most of her career. After spending a year in Technical Sales at General Electric, she worked at Wave Technology, Inc. for seven years managing all aspects of business management and development. Most recently she worked for salesforce.com in the Mobile group as a Project Coordinator. Known for her bold use of color and innovative design Latifah blogs at thequiltengineer.com.

Los Angeles MQG
Susanne Woods

Susanne Woods

establishing the Boulder MQG

Susanne has been a quilter since college. She has almost 20 years of book publishing experience including initiating the launch of Stash Books for C&T Publishing, leading the creative department at Interweave Books and joining Craftsy as their Category Manager in quilting. Always at the forefront of innovation, she was asked to join the MQG board for her quilting industry knowledge, early identification and support of the Modern Quilting movement, and ability to communicate the goals of the MQG within the context of the quilting industry as a whole. She lives near Boulder, CO with her husband and two young boys. She blogs at beyondthekids.com and tweets at @craftyeditor.

establishing the Boulder MQG