Alegre Retreat 2026 Teachers
Katie Pasquini Masopust is our master of ceremonies and has gone to great lengths to line up a fabulous team of instructors who will offer a rich variety of courses for the 2026 Alegre Retreat.
- Katie Pasquini Masopust
- Pat Pauly
- Susan Lapham
- Libby Williamson
For 40+ years Katie Pasquini Masopust has produced high quality contemporary art quilts that have been coveted and collected by a broad range of admirers. From her early beginnings as a painter dabbling in traditional quilt making, her work has evolved from structured Mandalas and mind-blowing dimensional pieces to very painterly landscapes executed with the finest fabrics and most creative stitching techniques. Katieʼs easy, energetic manner has made her a very popular teacher and lecturer. When not in residence at her studio in California she travels the world presenting her contemporary quilting theories and techniques to classes; not only in North America, but in Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Awards and accolades have been numerous for Katie, culminating with her 2005 induction into a very select group of art quilt professionals who have earned the Silver Star Award presented by Houston Quilt Festival and in 2024 she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.
Pat Pauly: With a graphic, color-saturated palette using her hand-printed fabric, Pat Pauly’s fiber art is distinct in strong abstracted natural forms and complex color combinations. Her early textile work was accepted in Quilt National ’83, and is now seen in major exhibitions and in both private and public collections around the world. With a degree in art, and graduate work in design and fine art, Pat chose fiber art as the perfect amalgam of construction, painting and printmaking. She has taught throughout the United States and abroad in design and surface design. Her lectures are fast paced, funny, and speak on the intersection of traditional quilt arts with contemporary fiber art. She brings the same pace and relaxed atmosphere to her workshops. Often seen in exhibitions, Pat’s work is also widely published, and she has appeared in Quilting Arts televised segments. If not teaching, she is found in her studio in Rochester, New York where she has the best advantage of being surrounded by great artists as well as the beauty of the Finger Lakes.
Susan Lapham:Lapham is an abstract textile artist who dances between the design wall and sewing machine. She is inspired by her unusual childhood crossing five continents, learning three languages, and managing four brothers. Her vibrant, geometric, and exquisitely colored work has been exhibited widely in fine art museums such as the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Dairy Barn, Schweinfurth Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her awards include Merit Award Winner at ArtFields, Best of Show at the Torpedo Factory, and Best Use of Color in Artist as Quiltmaker. She received degrees in cartography and statistics and worked as a mapmaker and researcher until her retirement in 2023. She spends her creative time in her studio in Vienna, Virginia.
Libby Williamson: a mixed-media fiber artist, Libby pushes the boundaries of her art, incorporating metal, rope, paint, vintage relics, used tea bags and a wide variety of fabrics and fibers into her work. She relishes the challenge of constructing fiber art that entails stitching (with pliers) through rigid and coarse materials. Though technically quilts, her works are rarely categorized as such. Williamson’s award-winning work has been exhibited internationally in numerous invitational and juried exhibits, textile and art museums. She presents workshops at guilds, museums, shops, and destination art retreats, as well as offering online classes. Williamson has been published in Quilting Arts Magazine, Patchwork Professional, and Fiber Arts Now and has appeared on Quilting Arts TV, and THE QUILT SHOW with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. She holds a BA in surface design/studio art and is a credentialed art teacher in New York and California. Though she pursues many craft forms, Williamson’s passion and primary focus remain with fabrics and fibers.