Continuous Lines

Continuous Lines

Newsletter for AMQA Inc. Members

Newsletter No.32

DECEMBER 2013

President’s Message- Nov/ Dec 2013

Merry Christmas everyone,

We’re almost at the end of the year and I am looking forward to some slower days. End of year activities with children and then clients Christmas projects as well, doesn’t leave a lot of time free.

I hope you have all planned some free time to recharge and perhaps start or complete a project of your own. A question I often get asked by clients is do I get time to make any quilts myself. I do but it does take a little longer, I have enjoyed the company of some friends this year with a regular Tuesday sewing group. How many of you have a similar situation?

We are well under way with preparation for next year’s Quilt Show. The current aim is to fill our sponsorship requirements. I would like to thank the sponsors who are now supporting our show and providing some wonderful prizes.

Jan Foster - Red Shed Quilting

Bill and Leonie West - Westalee Designs

If you have any ideas for suitable sponsors or would like to support the show, please let me know, we’d love to make the show as wonderful as we can and have some terrific prizes for you all.

2015 Member’s Challenge - Do you have an idea for a pieced design you think would be perfect for the next Member’s Challenge? To enable as many people to enter as possible we are thinking way ahead and wanting to release the pieced design at our Quilt Show in 2014. This will give almost a year for quilts to be thought about and made. If you have a design in mind, I encourage you to spend a bit of your downtime writing it up and submit it to the committee for use as the 2015 Member’s Challenge pieced design. All acknowledgements will be given to the designer as appropriate. The challenge is great to stretch our skills, try new techniques and help us be confident.

2014 AMQA Inc. Quilt Show

Another 2 categories for your consideration. Traditional Custom Large and Traditional Custom Small, are only differentiated by size, this is the perfect category for a custom quilt you have done for a client who would be happy for you to send it to the show. All the custom work is done as quilting, not with extra mediums or embellishment like beading or sequins etc.

4. TRADITIONAL CUSTOM LARGE: Minimum of 240” perimeter, maximum of 480” perimeter. This category is for those functional bed quilts that we do for ourselves or for our customers that are meant for daily use but have been machine quilted with high quality custom quilting techniques. No embellishments, metallic threads or thread painting of any kind are permitted in this category.

5. TRADITIONAL CUSTOM SMALL: Minimum 60”, maximum 240” perimeter. This category is for those functional quilts that we do for ourselves or for our customers that are meant for daily use but have been machine quilted with high quality custom quilting techniques. No embellishments, metallic threads or thread painting of any kind are permitted in this category.

Below is the perfect category to show your style and skills with those mediums and techniques you can’t use in the above categories. Thread art or Pictorial, where you can go to town with thread colours and adding extra things to bring your quilt alive. Enjoy!

6. THREAD ART /PICTORIAL: Minimum of 100” perimeter, maximum of 280” perimeter. Involving thread play and/or a mixture of mediums and embellishments. All embellishments must be firmly attached and quilt must be able to be hung conventionally and with minimal care required. All quilts entered in this category must be the original design of the quilt maker and not made under the direction of another person in a workshop/course situation.

Newsletter: Remember if you have any news items or products reviews, helpful tips or techniques you’d like to share with the members please write a brief article and submit it to the newsletter editor for inclusion in the next newsletter due out. We are aiming to increase the frequency of the newsletter and appreciate anything you have to contribute. Some of us have lives outside of quilting, yes really! How do you make it work? Tell us your story and any hints and tips you’ve discovered along the journey

I want to wish everyone a wonderful and Merry Christmas. I hope you all stay safe if you are travelling and enjoy your time with family and friends.

Happy Quilting

Raylee Bielenberg

Congratulations to Ming Hsu who won second place in the Open Traditional category at Adelaide’s “Festival of Quilts”, early in November. Ming was also awarded a special award which we, AMQA, sponsored for “Excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting”. Ming has graciously allowed us to publish photos of her prize winning quilt, and below she offers some insights into the work’s construction.

"It's the Singer not the song". A burgundy wholecloth.

The quilt is an original design inspired by the inlay on an ancient Chinese bronze that I saw in a book. It was a symmetrical leafy vine design and the leaves reminded me of feathers. I wanted to have my feathers look organic and dimensional like vines in and out of the two frames. I drew the designs on paper many times until I had the one I liked. I now actually call the curl-in fern-head like feathers "Ming feathers". They look really good going in and out, or hook on the two trellis like frames.

I stitched it up entirely using a vintage Australian made 1957 Singer 201P. At that time, I had just started teaching machine quilting. I wanted to show students that with practice, intricate quilting can be achieved even with very basic old machines. That is why I named it "It's the Singer not the song". Well, it is the Singer, but it is also not the Singer(the machine), it's the singer (the machine operator).

I was determined to quilt it entirely with the old Singer, but I didn't want an easy way out, so I chose to use metallic thread on silk. I started it in Oct 2012 and finished it in June 2013. There was a problem with marking the design on the silk fabric. I tried many different markers but none really worked. The silk was too slippery to mark, also because of its colour, nothing really showed on it. I eventually had to mark the entire design on paper solvy then attach the solvy on top of the quilt sandwich. It was not easy to quilt through so many layers and not really knowing what was going on underneath the paper.

Kind Regards,

Ming

Tracey Browning also did well at Adelaide’s “Festival of Quilts”. Congratulations Tracey. I followed the progress of the “Wedding Quilt” on facebook and my back was hurting for you!!

Excellence in Longarm Quilting

Cornelian: 1st place 2 person traditional.

Measures 72” x 72”/ 180 cm

Designed and made by Helen Stubbings, Quilted by Tracey Browning – a collaborative work.

Inspired by design elements at Cornelian bay cemetery in Hobart this quilt began as a play with my new iron on hexagon papers. Redwork hand embroidery using over 20 skeins of thread features throughout along with simple applique to create borders and framing elements. Quilting was chosen to complement the embroidery sections, whilst framing the overall design with tight background fills to pop the main focus elements.

The Wedding Quilt:

3rd place ribbon in Traditional professional category.

100" x 100"

Hobbs Heirloom 100% wool batting over Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Cotton batting.

Designed, pieced & quilted by Tracey Browning. This quilt was made as a wedding gift to my eldest daughter & her husband. Emma chose the fabrics & my design herself. An elegant feel to the fabrics is enhanced by the quilting.

Tracey Browning

http://www.constantinequilts.com

Australian A1 Quilting Machine & Intelliquilter dealer & also your Aussie supplier of rulers/templates for commercial quilting machines, books, patterns & notions!!

partner AMQ Festival

http://www.amqfestival.com.au

The Australian Machine Quilting Festival is dedicated to providing inspirations, education and encouragement to all machine quilters that own a longarm, midarm and/or a domestic sewing machine.

Come & join us in our new venture to grow & learn about machine Quilting!

Kathy Adams talks about winning a “Viewers Choice” award in October with her stunning quilt.

Congratulations Kathy.

The "What a Site" quilt challenge was a collaboration between the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery and the Tasmanian Quilting Guild held in October 2013. Sixteen finalists met the challenge of celebrating the Argyle St Hobart location, near the waterfront and Salamanca Place. There was a first and second place awarded.

				I was thrilled to be awarded viewer's choice, after more than 2000 people viewed the exhibition. My quilt is composed of 36 "mini-quilts" which are assembled onto a background quilt. Hand discharge-dyed fabrics, and hand dyed and commercial silks were used. Extensive thread painting and hand stitching, Sashiko style features throughout.

Hopefully, native Tasmanians were able to recognise my Google-Earth style view of the estuary, however the patterns and textures within the land and sea forms are purely aesthetic and do not refer to specific geographic features. The Mariner's compass at the epicentre contains images of Hobart, including MONA (Tasmania's newest art gallery), tall ships, and some of the classic museum buildings in Argyle St.

I used both my Sweet 16 and Gammill long arm machines to create my quilt. I'd like to say it went like a breeze, but it was a long and hard road to bring this quilt to completion and I nearly gave up completing it to meet the deadline many times! I'm now so glad persevered! I was pleased with the result and so excited that others liked it also

Kathy Adams

KoolKat Quilting

AMQF Tutors 2014.

Tracey Browning has sent through information on one of the Class Tutors for the Australian Machine Quilting Festival 2014…..and its Linda V Taylor!!... (must get her to sign my dog eared copy of her book)

Linda V. Taylor

Linda is a highly awarded longarm machine quilter whose work has been displayed in many venues and published widely in many quilting magazines and books, several times show cased on the cover. Linda has been quilting for over 40 years and is known and respected as one of the innovators of the art of longarm machine quilting. She has won numerous quilting awards in shows sponsored by the International Quilting Association, American Quilter's Society and National Quilter's Association, Machine Quilter's Showcase, Machine Quilter's Exposition and Road to California. To her delight, she has been chosen by her peers 3 times as "Teacher of the Year." Linda was also chosen by the readers of Quilters Newsletter magazine as one of the "Most Influential Persons in the Quilting Industry" (2009) and was selected as one of the "Thirty Most Distinguished Quilters in the World (2008). Most recently (2013), she was awarded the coveted "Lifetime Achievement Award for her exceptional contribution to the machine quilting industry. Her quilts have been in special exhibits and museums in the United States and Europe, including "Free Motion Masterpieces" in the New England Quilt Museum. Linda has traveled and taught in Africa, Ireland, Australia, Canada and throughout the United States. She has appeared on more than 80 segments of television programs with popular TV quilting personalities such as Alex Anderson, Shar Jorgensen, Georgia Bonesteel, and Donna Wilder and has her own PBS television show named Linda's Longarm Quilting which is currently in the 5th season, now showing on thequiltingschool.com. She has produced a dozen how-to DVDs, nine books on longarm techniques, many practical templates and over 1000 continuous line patterns. Linda wrote the handbook on longarm quilting entitled, The Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting produced by C&T Publishing Company. Linda maintains an extensive schedule of teaching engagements and has taught her innovative methods to literally thousands of students from all over the world whom she considers to be her friends. Over the 20 years Linda has been longarm quilting, she has watched as many of her students have excelled as top award-winning quilters. AWESOME!

Check out Linda's video streaming and online classes with www.thequiltingschool.com and her patterns on IPattern Studio.

Classes Offered by Linda V Taylor.

*Essential technical skills for Longarm

quilting - Part 1

2hrs Demo/lecture

A well-rounded longarm/midarm quilter knows as much about the technical skills as she/he knows about freehand quilting. Don't limit your abilities by neglecting these skills. By necessity after 20 years, Linda is an efficiency expert on how to approach and work on a custom quilt (we don't do it the same way hand-quilters do). She will show you how to stitch in the ditch, do 1/4" outlining, quilt diagonal lines, stitch around curves and applique. She will also cover some of the standards of quilting show quilts. Be sure of your skills to maintain the integrity of the piecing, whether you use patterns, do mostly freehand quilting or use a computerized quilting machine.

*Feathered Dreams: The Original Fancy

Feather Frenzy 

2hrs Demo/lecture

There's no question that beautiful flowing freehand feathers can really set your quilting free (not to mention increasing your earnings on the quilting machine). Twenty-year veteran longarm quilter, Linda Taylor, is best known for her FUNdamental freehand feathers and designs. Beginners take heart! Watch and assimilate as Linda quilts over 40 different freehand feathers on a 3 beautiful wall-hangings in this one class. Nearly all of the feathers are uniquely Linda's; she adds more every year. When you leave this class, you should have feathered dreams! Beginners through advance students will find this class very stimulating and motivating. The 3 wall-hangings Linda works on in class are door prizes at the end of class.

*Is there really life after stippling?? 

4hrs Demo/lecture

Linda Taylor says yes, at least 20 years of life after stippling (this is Linda's 20-year anniversary as a longarm quilter) but only if you expand your technique library. Getting bored with your meandering techniques? Then this is the class for you. Linda shows you how to catch the rhythm of quilting a lone star with only one start and stop; many more stippling and meandering patterns (including the "Texas Tornado"); a peacock fern medallion; additional freehand sashing ideas; and sensational new ideas from some of Linda's latest show quilts! If she can do it, she knows you can do it! Sampler done in class is one of door prizes in this class.

*Borders, corners & blocks, Oh My!!

Part 2-longarm technical skills 2hrs Demo/lecture

We all have areas on the quilt that seem more difficult to master. Linda will show you how to quilt the border design (using a pattern) without marking the quilt and how to set block and triangle pattern designs in the quilt. There are also some really cool tools that will not just hang on your wall and look pretty, but are actually vital to your longarm quilting. Let Linda show you how to use those tools so they become like your best friend (she's been using them for 20 years, she should know). Many tools are also multifunctional, which makes them not only vital, but also economical.

*Fabulous “Fleathers” 

2hrs Demo/lecture

Join Linda in her 21st longarm anniversary year for this brand new Fabulous "Fleathers" class. Linda Taylor is best known for her FUNdamental freehand feathers and designs. Beginners take heart! Each student in this exciting class will learn how to quilt and fill in blocks and borders with unique freehand fleathers. "Fleathers" are Linda's term for feathered flowers that can be used everywhere on your quilts! You will come away from this class with a totally new look at feathers for your quilts and an awesome book and DVD for ideas. For all you do, this class is for you!

*Longarm Trapunto class 

2hrs Demo/lecture

Trapunto can add so much to the dimension of a quilt, and isn't that what we are all striving for - texture and dimension. The neat thing is - it isn't that hard to do on your longarm machine and it certainly is worth the effort. Twenty-year longarm quilting veteran, Linda Taylor, will show you how fun and easy it is to do different kinds of trapunto including shadow trapunto, reverse shadow trapunto, layered trapunto and reverse applique raw edge quilting. She will also show how to properly quilt around the trapunto using some innovative quilting designs. All four of the wall-hangings she quilts in class will be door prizes.

*Star Gazing 

4hrs Demo/lecture

Stars gazing at you on those quilt tops? Come with stars in your eyes and allow Linda to give you plenty of ideas to quilt the milky way. Also see how to manage those volcanos in the middle of the star or on any of the pieced blocks on your quilts. Beginners through advance students will find this practical class very helpful and motivating. Go home with tons of ideas on how to quilt those blocks on your quilts, outside and in. You'll be trailing stardust when you leave this class. Yes, of course, the sampler is a door prize at the end of class!

*Practical Quilting

 4hrs Demo/lecture

The most common question asked: How do you know what design to quilt? A design library is the key. Remember if the motor isn't running, you are not quilting. Linda has a ton of ideas for your blocks, triangles and other areas on the quilt. Linda will be quilting on a stitched-out sampler that looks like an antique fan quilt and you will be able to take Linda home with you in the form of a book and a new DVD, included with this brand new class.