Irena Bluhm was born and raised in Poland, moved to Germany in 1981 and on to California in 1991. On her husband's retirement they purchased 74 acres in rural Antlers, Oklahoma, where Irena has established her studio. With 18 years of garment making and design experience and 12 years of making art as a hobby, she transitioned to quiltmaking for shows and exhibits. She is passionate about creating quilting design patterns and new ways to make show quality quilts.

Her enthusiasm is contagious and she loves to share, encourage and inspire through her books and classes other quilters to try something new that they never thought they could do. After longarm quilting for just a little over a year, Irena started teaching her methods nationwide at MQS, HMQS, MQX shows as well as AQS Shows in Paducah and Des Moines and International Quilt Festival in Houston and Road to California. Irena hopes that her encouraging nature and contagious enthusiasm for creating fabric art will inspire others to try her techniques. She was nominated as Quilt Teacher of the Year in 2010 and many of her workshop students are no producing award winning quilts.

Her quilts have been exhibited all over the country and her work has won over 65 awards in national and international competitions. She has designed hundreds of quilt patterns and authored nine books, five workbooks and produced severalDVDs.

For a preview of her work check out this short snippet of video

On Friday, August 14th, Irena will present her workshop "Quilts of a Different Color" featuring adding color to your quilted wholecloth designs. More information on her workshop on the Calendar page.

Here's a video of her coloring technique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WtJBvfstIQ