Melissa Simross
Melissa has been quilting for 28 years. During this time, she became a shop owner, teacher and pattern designer. Teaching and designing are truly Melissa’s passions in life. Applique patterns are her specialty, and she loves to embellish her cotton and wool designs with beads, special threads, ribbons and anything she can find that inspires her. She also loves inspiring her students to look at patterns and be creative as well, making it their own, creating a more casual, less-stressful approach to what could be perceived as a pattern that is too hard. Nothing is too hard if you take the approach of making it your own! While Baltimore Album quilts truly have captured Melissa’s heart, she also loves designing seasonal patterns and whimsical patterns as well.
Melissa has taught for Elly Sienkiewicz and taught for the Kathy Dunigan Academy of Applique in Texas as well as her own yearly retreat at the Rockhouse Quilt Retreat Center in Santo, Texas and is now honored to be teaching at the Academy of Applique in Virginia as well.
Her work has been published in Elly Sienkiewicz’s book, Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts and hung at the 2010 Houston Quilt Convention, in the Netherlands and other exhibitions. Melissa’s work was also published in Elly Sienkiewiczs’ Spoken Without A Word – 30th Anniversary Revised Edition. Before this, she has also designed and did work for Jan Vaine for her book, The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment and Applique´.