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Meet Our Teachers


Cotton Candy Fabrics is fortunate to have a stable of experienced teachers that teach a variety of classes spanning multiple techniques. Whether you are interested in learning to quilt, enhancing your skills, or making bags or apparel, we have a class for you. Beyond our group classes in our state-of-the-art classroom, our teachers are available for custom workshops and private lessons. We're happy to introduce you to them!



Erin Byrne

Erin is the owner of Cotton Candy Fabrics. She has been sewing since home ec class in junior high school and added quilting to her sewing pursuits in 1999. She is also an experienced long arm quilter with expertise in Pro-Stitcher computerized quilting, free motion long arm quilting, and ruler work. 


Prior to investing in Cotton Candy Fabrics, Erin was CEO of a NYC advertising firm.

Sam Donovan

Sam Donovan is the Director of Apparel Sewing here at Cotton Candy fabrics. A graduate of Parsons, Sam also appeared on Project Runway twice, where he was a runner-up and an All-Star. His passion for helping people learn how to sew is inherited from his grandmothers, all of whom had a role in his fashion and sewing beginnings. Nowadays, Sam can be found bouncing around the Cotton Candy Sewing Room, soy latte in hand, pins stuck in his shirt pocket, helping people learn the newest apparel pattern Cotton Candy is offering. He hopes to see you in a sewing class soon, but beware: he’ll probably try to get you to try pattern mixing. Watch our calendar for Sam’s apparel classes.

Sam's upcoming classes


Learn more about Sam's announcement.
 



Polly Sorrentino

Polly is Cotton Candy Fabrics' official "bag lady," known for having a new purse almost every time she visits. Polly teaches most of our bag classes, making easy work of zippers, pockets, snaps and straps.

Polly's upcoming classes



Roni Gerhardt

Roni Gerhardt started sewing in 7th grade, but didn’t start quilting until 1980 after graduating from college. While searching for a job, she came across a quilt shop right on the same street where her first apartment was. She signed up for a sampler quilt class and learned how to make her first quilt all by hand. Soon thereafter she bought her first sewing machine and kept on quilting. She was hooked. Fast forward 40 plus years and she's still quilting and teaching quilting too. Her favorites are the traditional patterns – Dresden plate, Sampler quilts, Double wedding ring, etc.  I love to do applique by machine, and really enjoy quilting on the embroidery machine. Roni teaches a weekly open sew, all things Bernina, embroidery and more.

Roni's upcoming classes 


Sandy Chadwick

Sandy Chadwick grew up surrounded by her mother’s quilts. She learned how to sew in junior high school when home economics was part of the curriculum. She did not start quilting herself until years later after taking and bringing home her first Bernina. She enjoys the camaraderie of quilters, the sharing of quilts in Show and Tell, going to a quilt show and admiring the art of quilting, helping each other learn new - and old - techniques, and finally just spending time with other quilters relaxing in back of a sewing machine. Sandy offers a weekly open sew and also several specialty projects.

Sandy's upcoming classes
Susan Denshensky

Susan Deshensky is a Certified Instructor for Quiltworx and an Island Batik Brand Ambassador. Susan also designs her own quilt patterns and has been featured in several national publications. Her quilts have won major awards at Paducah and MQX New England. Susan loves to teach and inspire her students with her quilts, knowing that learning the techniques can make anything possible. Susan teaches Quiltworx quilts and her featured patterns at Cotton Candy

Susan's upcoming classes
Stacey Murren

Stacey Murren has been quilting for more than 30 years. A long career in higher education led to her passion of teaching a wide variety of quilting techniques and she welcomes beginner to advanced quilters. She attributes her many professional awards to the act of creative quilting. Born and raised in California, each year for the past 30 years she has focused on learning and perfecting quilting techniques from collage, paper piecing, story quilts, memory quilts, appliqué, crazy patch, thread painting, free motion designs, whole cloth trapunto designs, improv designs to fiber art/mixed media. For the last few years, she has also been making and selling her own patterns. Anything is possible in class with Stacey, and that will become apparent through the broad array of classes she offers. 

Stacy's upcoming classes


Kim Spinelli

Kim Spinelli is an award winning quilter who has been quilting since 1985 when she decided to purchase a sewing machine out of the blue and make a quilt. Throughout the years paper piecing has become one of her favorite techniques to teach, followed by beginner quilting.  She loves to see the happiness and excitement of her students on their quilting journey.  She also enjoys learning new techniques from others.  There's always something to learn!  Kim teaches paper piecing, beginner quilting, and other featured projects.

Kim's upcoming classes