Continuous Lines

Newsletter for AMQA Inc members

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Newsletter 27 - February 2013



Editors Message


Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first newsletter for 2013.  I hope everyone has fully recovered from the silly season and are onto some ‘serious’ quilting.  2012 was a busy year for AMQA Inc., the last 6 months particularly so – with the AGM, the Festival and all the craziness and fun of the Christmas/New Year period.  So it’s time for some new challenges this year, but before we get onto that let me introduce you to our new Committee.

We said goodbye to a couple of our committee members – Tonia Brooks and Michelle Turner have sadly resigned from the committee and we sincerely thank them for their hard work and dedication in keeping this organisation going.  All the committee members are volunteers who are working to make AMQA into a professional organisation that our members are proud of and that can provide increasing benefits to our group.  The new committee is as follows:



Barbara Cutmore is a temporary Committee member as she currently resides in Queensland.  The Secretary needs to be a Queensland resident as our organisation is registered there.  We thank Barbara (who is Raylee’s Mum) for kindly stepping into that role. As you can see we still have a couple of positions vacant and we would  love our members to join the team.  

The Members Only Challenge for 2013 is up and running.  You can find links to it on the AMQA website.  All members are encouraged to join the challenge.  It is a fun way to improve your skills and get recognition for your work.  

The Member Spotlight segment is on again. All members can use this segment to highlight their business, themselves, their charities and provide us all with some of their tips. I hope members will respond to this segment and use it as a great tool for networking. As all our members are scattered across Australia, I hope this segment can be used as a way for our group to connect with each other. If you are interested in being in our Member Spotlight section, please contact me at: mailto:editor@amqa.com.au?subject=Continuous Lines

That’s all from me for now.  I hope to get some feedback from our members and some articles that we can share with our group. Any information about products that you find useful, suppliers, general tips etc all would be welcome.


Yours in Quilting.......

Vanita

President’s Message

Greetings everyone,

I’m sure you are all back into the swing of the year whether there are children back at school or they’ve all grown.  This will be the first year all of my kids are at school and I am enjoying those short hours between 9 and 3.
The main exciting news of the past year was our wonderful show held in conjunction with the Australian Machine Quilting Festival at the Adelaide Convention Centre.  The display looked terrific and the quilts generated a lot of interest and I received some great comments about the quilts when I was on white glove duty. The committee worked hard behind the scenes to ensure the show ran smoothly.  Much work goes into preparing for a quilt show and I want to thank everyone who made such a huge commitment to making sure the show was so terrific. 

The committee enjoyed the opportunity to meet many AMQA Inc. members at the social gathering we hosted. We mentioned at the time the hope that some more members would feel they have some skills to offer the Association.  I acknowledge the delay in speaking with those of you who expressed interest in helping run our association and hope you will still be willing to contribute. I look forward to speaking with you over the next few weeks.
Preparations will soon be under way for next year’ show, which sounds so far away doesn’t it, but it makes things easier for the committee.  If you have any ideas with regard to the show, please let a committee member know using the contacts available on the AMQA Inc. website.

Our lovely new web diva, Vanita Roychoudhry has been updating the website and adding some new content. If you haven’t had a look recently, I encourage you to do so soon.  If you have anything to add please send it to Vanita using the contact for the web diva found on our website. I would also like to encourage you to share your knowledge and experiences by writing an article for our newsletter.  We’d love to hear your stories and/or opinions about all things quilting related. Please send them to Vanita for inclusion; I look forward to reading your articles.

Are you up for a challenge?  The biennial AMQA Inc. Members Challenge has been released and is on the website for you to see.  I would love to see many entries and hope you all consider taking on the challenge.  The Challenge includes a pieced design and a wholecloth quilt; you may enter either or both. Please check the Conditions of Entry for further details. I’ve made my pieced quilt entry so I know the pattern works and I’m looking forward to deciding how I will quilt it. Will you have a go too?  Pieced or Wholecloth, c’mon challenge yourself; show us what you can do. 

Are you on Facebook? AMQA Inc. has a Facebook page and we hope you will take advantage of this extra forum for communication and sharing of ideas and knowledge.  Like us on Facebook; I look forward to chatting with you there.

Until our next newsletter

Raylee Bielenberg
AMQA Inc.

AMQA Committee Meeting Report

At the meeting held in February this year, there were a few topics discussed, one of which was finalising our Member’s Quilt Challenge. Our President Raylee Bielenberg has completed the design & instructions, details are on the AMQA Members website. We hope you will take up this challenge, it would be great to have lots of entries for judging in June. Did you see the challenge quilts on show in Adelaide? They were from our previous challenge in 2011, with lots of positive comments & beautiful quilts. If you would like to have yours on display at our next Quilt Show, you need to put in an entry!! There will be some wonderful cash prizes for the winners in all categories, so why not take this opportunity & give it a go!!

We also approved a survey to be sent out regarding the judging critiques that members’ received from AMQA Quilt Show. Your response to this would be appreciated as it takes a lot of extra time to have these done on judging day, we would like to have your feedback on this.

Tracey Browning reported that she & Sharon Parkinson are beginning to organise the venue & teachers for AMQ Festival 2014 - so soon after the one we’ve just had! This also means the Committee will soon be organising our Quilt Show too, how quickly the time does fly!!

Raylee has also been busy sending out letters to our State Guilds offering Sponsorship for machine quilting categories, but this is still in its’ very early stages.  It is hoped this will help lift the profile of AMQA with the State Guilds, an area where there has been some concern for a while. We will keep you informed as this progresses.

At the December meeting we welcomed our new Secretary, Barbara Cutmore from Queensland. Although this is a temporary placement, this now brings us in line with requirements of the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Barbara has had a considerable amount of experience with committee’s so we are very grateful that she has now joined ours. However we are still in search of a Publicity Officer to assist us with all our advertising. If you have had some experience in this field or in public relations, please consider coming onboard with this committee, your help would be most appreciated. If you would like to know a little more about us, there are now some short bio’s on the website, you will find us on the ‘Contact Us’ page.

Finally, a big thank-you, to everyone who renewed their membership late last year. This has assured your membership with AMQA giving us 65 Members plus one Corporate Member.  For anyone who has yet to do this, please do so as soon as possible – you can do this via the website at the
 About Us/Join AMQA page.

Until next time

Val Towill
Minute Secretary, AMQA Committee

Member Spotlight


This edition of Continuous Lines is excited to focus on Kim Doulman. Thank you Kim, for being our first member to share some thoughts.

Editor: Tell us about yourself, your hobbies,  how did you come to quilting?
Kim:   Me ? Well I'm married, 2nd time lucky, with 2 children, 1 of each 13 & 11. Both of them do the normal kid stuff especially loving their Ipods. I originally came to Long Arm Quilting as I needed an income I could work at from home approximately 5 years ago. I've loved patchwork for the last 13 years and quilting seemed to be the next step.

Editor: What would you say was your specialty (if you had one)?
Kim:  A quilting specialty that I love is kids quilts.  You can make them come alive with thread and even a simple yet exciting design such as loop the loop can make a huge difference !!

Editor:  What part of the process of making a quilt do you enjoy the most?
Kim:  When it comes to making the quilt I would probably enjoy the beginning the most before I even start.  I have always loved maths and sit for quite a while working out whether the pattern has allowed enough fabric. I've been caught a number of times with nowhere near enough fabric and then have to try and buy more.  This usually turns into a major quest as when I originally purchased the material, can be quite some time before I make the quilt.

Editor:  Tell us a bit about your business and services, how can customers find you?
Kim:  My business runs mainly from word of mouth, which I find is a fantastic advertisement.  I do advertise in a number of magazines from time to time and have specials with local feeder shops.

Editor:   You support a few charities - tell us about them, how can people get involved?
Kim:   I support a number of charities, usually local where I appreciate the cause and where the funds are going to. I'm currently working with Ronald McDonald House Orange where I'm helping with others to put a quilt on every bed in every room and a quilt for every child that receives treatment through the house. Details can be found on Facebook or www.blanketlovez.com.  If anyone is interested in anything to do with making quilts, i.e. donating fabric or wadding, piecing, quilting or binding it would be appreciated by so many.

Editor:  Any tips for persons wanting to start a quilting business?
Kim:  If anyone is interested in starting a quilting business I would suggest doing your homework. Same as any other business. This business isn't for everyone and it's not for every stage of our lives.   I couldn't imagine making it work when my children were very young, yet everyone's different!

Editor:  Best advice someone gave you?  Something you live by?
Kim:  The best tip I can give anyone would be to give it a go!  Many times I have put things into the "too hard basket" and when I pull them out and work through them, I find that it's not as bad as what I had thought. I try to include my kids in this theory as well.

Editor: Thank you Kim for sharing. 

If anyone wants to help with Kim’s chosen charities you can contact her at : kimsquilts@bigpond.com .  If any members want to highlight the charities that they support, please contact me at editor@amqa.com.au and I will highlight on the website as well.

AMQA 2013 Members Only Challenge


The pieced design for this year's challenge is .....
Lemoyne Star

The above diagram is intended as an example only and does not depict the colour requirements of this year’s challenge. 


You may choose to refer to the web page below for downloadable instructions for piecing the Lemoyne Star:



For your entry to be the required size for the 2013 Challenge, each diamond should have a side length of 12 3/8”. This measurement is also the side length of the squares and the shorter side lengths of the right angle triangles.

You will need:
8 - 45’ diamonds; each side measuring 12 3/8”
4 - 12 3/8” squares
4 - right angle triangles; shorter sides measuring 12 3/8”
Seam allowances of ¼” are included.

The Entry form can be found and the terms and conditions are available in the members only section of the website. The closing date for entry forms is 28th March, 2013.  Quilts must be received on or before 31st May, 2013.

Upcoming Events

The website calendar is maintained regularly by the webdiva. If you want to add any events to the calendar please contact the webdiva at: webdiva@amqa.com.au



Key Dates:


March – June 2013

AMQA 2013 Members Only Challenge



August 2013

AMQA AGM - Keep checking your inbox and the yahoogroup for updates. Please consider joining the committee and contributing to AMQA.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)