President’s Message- Jan/Feb 2014
Happy New Year everyone,
Well I’m sure there are many of you who are already back
into the swing of things, I know I am trying to balance the needs of my boys on
holiday and the quilting deadlines. Canberra has had some rather hot days,
though I know there are many of you who face other challenges, fire and
cyclones for example. I hope you are all
safe and nothing gets damaged.
The AMQA Quilt Show will be held later this year in
conjunction with the AMQ Festival. We’ve
noticed some confusion about the names of our Association and Festival. We hope you will help us to clarify things if
you encounter any confusion. We are both
separate entities but have forged a partnership to work together and we are
supported by Festival to run the AMQA Quilt Show. The current aim is to fill
our sponsorship requirements which are separate to those for Festival. If you
have any suggestions for businesses who might consider sponsoring our show,
please let someone on the committee know. You can find an email address on the
website for the committee members. We hope to make the show extremely
successful with great prizes for all categories. I would like to thank the
sponsors who are already supporting our show and providing some wonderful
prizes.
Jan Foster - Red Shed Quilting
Bill and Leonie West - Westalee Designs
Hollyburton Park.
SA Quilters Guild.
2015 Member’s
Challenge – Competition Now Open!
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.
We need
- a design that is approximately 40-45 inches square,
ideally closer to 40inches but this will depend on the design.
- instructions to make the pieced design and measurements
for cutting etc. Any templates etc. in printable format, ie; PDF is good.
- a picture or photo of the finished design, not necessarily
quilted.
The prize for the successful design is a free year of
membership to AMQA Inc. Other designs will be held to consider for future
Member’s Challenges.
We are hoping to make the challenge a travelling showcase
which will be great for our industry and for our businesses. To be able to offer the quilts for travelling
we do need to make sure it is worthwhile. 4 quilts don’t really make a
showcase. I encourage you all to consider designing and then entering the
Member’s Challenge in 2015.
2014 AMQA Inc. Quilt
Show
Here are another 2 categories for your consideration. Machine
embroidery and Edge to Edge. The quilts in Category 7 must show a significant
use of machine embroidery and the quilts are judged equally on both the
embroidery and the quilting.
Edge to edge is any pantograph or freehand
quilting, as long as it is covering the quilt completely, we have seen some
terrific entries in this category.
Challenge yourself.
7.
MACHINE EMBROIDERY: Minimum of 240” perimeter and maximum of 480” perimeter.
The quilt must incorporate machine executed embroidered blocks or machine
embroidered appliqués or motifs as a significant design element. Hand
embroidery, while beautiful, is not allowed in this category. Specialty threads
and embellishments are allowed. The quilt will be judged equally on the
quilting and machine embroidery.
8.
EDGE-TO-EDGE: Minimum of 240” perimeter, maximum of 480” perimeter. An
all-over-the-quilt pattern which is continuous-line derived from a pantograph
or freehand quilting. The quilting design must cover the quilt completely from
one edge to the other. Painting on fabric is permitted in this category
.
The
show is a wonderful way to show off your quilting and also as a personal
challenge. The first quilt I entered was
in the Edge to Edge category and I am challenging myself to try to enter as
many categories as I can over time. Also, I really love to see my quilt/s
hanging where so many can see them.
This is your
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.
Best wishes for those who have children heading back to
school. Most will have started by the
time you are reading this. Have fun kids!
Happy Quilting
Raylee Bielenberg
Attached is a photo taken with members of the Royal Flying
Doctor Service on the day the raffle was drawn. A lady in Innisfail won
the quilt and she was quite overwhelmed. Over $10,000 was
raised with this quilt, which we and the RFDS were quite pleased about.
In the photo the lady at the front in jeans is the fundraiser for the RFDS and
she herself has raised $50,000 in one year alone for the RFDS her name is
Ruth. I’m in black and white on the opposite side.
I have been threatening to hold a Longarm Quilters get together for a LONG time, and have also been discussing this get together with Sharon French from "Morning Star Quilting" for a LONG time.We finally got our act together and Sat. Feb. 8th 2014 was the chosen date, held on the Central Coast of NSW at Charmhaven where I run my quilting service "Red Shed Quilting".... in a factory bay.
I had no idea how many people would attend as I simply threw the invitation out there and did not ask for RSVP's....wont do that again. Sharon and I were worried that we might be the only ones attending....eating scones on our own....wishing we had worn our stretchy pants....
As you can see we had a pretty good turn out. I wanted to create an opportunity for those of us in our area to get together and network, and just get to know one another better.
We were lucky to have Kaye and Bruce Brown attending from "The Finishing Touch" and also Joanne Knott from "The Quilters Quilter" showcasing some of her beautiful digital designs that she sells on her website. If you are not familiar with Joanne's work, take a look...
We had show-n-tell....
Leanne Harvey
Sharon French
Jan Wand
Cath Midsen
Clare Fairless-Lewis
Kay White
Kaye Brown
Beth Foster
Not everyone had show-n-tell....and that's OK...
It was a really positive experience, a lovely day with lots of discussion and way to much food.
We have decided to hold the get together's fairly regularly, changing the venue each time.
Sharon French is the host for the next get together. It will be on the Central Coast once again. May 3rd is the next date. I will post an invitation here with more details.
We will be asking for more show-n-tell, having a discussion on improving your facebook page, and a discussion on how to put a value on your time.
Jan Foster
.........................................................................................................................................................
Australian Machine Quilting Festival 2014
All the Tutor's and classes are listed on the website....grab a cuppa and take a look...
Two more tutors for you..
Jamie Wallen
Classes Offered by Jamie Wallen
Mystical Florals,
Leaves and Vines
4hrs
Demo/lecture
4hrs
Demo/lecture
Quilters can find as
much diversity in surface quilting with florals as there is with feathers.
"Mystical Florals" covers florals, leaves, and vine variations that
will make your quilts take root in creativity. You will learn a myriad of
designs using these elements for your customer and personal quilting and apply
them to edge-to-edge, custom blocks, border, and sash designs. This class
applies to all levels of Long-arm, Mid-arm, Short-arm or Hand Quilters.
4hrs
Demo/lecture
Join Jamie and
explore all feather forms including traditional, non-traditional, and stylized.
Then discover how to use these options in allovers, and any custom shapes you
run into in your client and personal quilts. This class is exclusively
dedicated to feather work. If you've wanted to learn and apply a myriad of new,
as well as classic feather styles, then this is the class for you!
Mystical Grids
4hrs
Demo/lecture
4hrs
Demo/lecture
This Class covers
Exciting new designs with the focus on Jamie's incredible Point-to-Point
"Mystical Grid Designs". You will learn a myriad of designs using
these elements for your Customer and personal surface quilting and apply them
to Edge to Edge, Customized Blocks, Borders and Sash Designs to speed up your
earning potential while making your surface quilting stand above the rest. This
class applies to all levels of Long-arm, Mid-arm, Short-arm or Hand
Quilters.
Thread Fusion
4hrs
Demo/lecture
4hrs
Demo/lecture
Come prepared to
learn a mouth-watering array of techniques and designs that will make your
projects sing. In this class we will uncover exciting new textures and apply
them to new set-ins, borders, blocks, and allovers. Participants will also
learn "Outrageous fillers" to showcase these Unearthly Delights.
Dragonflies, Lacey Hearts and so much more. Come experience the concept of
"Threadfusion."This class applies to all levels of Long-arm, Mid-arm,
Shortarm or Hand
Quilters.
Care & feeding of
your A1 Quilting Machine
2hrs
Demo/lecture
2hrs
Demo/lecture
Jamie will show you
how to you keep your A-1 running at optimum performance. Jamie covers Daily
Maintenance, Quarterly Spa Treatments, Behind the Back Cover Care, Behind the
Faceplate Care, Machine Operation, Tension and more.
.............................................................................................................................................................
Vicki Jenkin
We are thrilled to welcome back
Vicki Jenkin
Vicki
started quilting in 1996 and quickly developed a love for both needleturn
applique and machine quilting. She quilted on a domestic machine for 14 years
and then in 2010 bought an A1 Elite, giving up her day job and taking the
plunge into professional machine quilting, she now gets to indulge her passion
every day! Vicki believes in getting out of your comfort zone and having a
go...you don't know what you can achieve until you try.
Vicki has won a
number of awards at state, national and international level. These include a
Best of Show and Excellence in Domestic Machine Quilting at Victorian Quilters
Showcase, Honorable Mentions at Houston and the World Quilt and Textile Show.
Longarm awards include ribbons at MQX and MQS and 2011 Rookie of the Year award
at MQX
Classes Offered by Vicki Jenkin
A
Flock of Freehand Feathers
2
hrs
Demo/lecture
Feathers are fun,
they look great and there are variations suitable for many styles of quilts.
Learn the basics of feather anatomy and you will soon be stitching beautiful
flowing feathers with minimal pre-marking! Heirloom feathers, frilly feathers,
hooked feathers, batwing and axehead feathers, a pretty feather filler and
more! Most of them don't even have any backtracking! Handout includes a
workbook of all designs
Making Feathers Fit
2 hrs
Demo/lecture
Demo/lecture
Part
of the beauty of feathers is they can be tailored to fit many different shapes.
This class looks at fitting feathers in squares, circles triangles and other
shapes as well as options for borders.
Primarily an ideas and design class suitable for
both longarm or domestic machine quilters
Let's do Circle Work
2 hrs
Demo/lecture
2 hrs
Demo/lecture
Circle
rulers/templates are very versatile and can be used to create many different
block border and background designs. We will start with the basics of simple
block and border designs, move onto curved crosshatch and more complex designs
and finally combining with other motifs for those drop dead gorgeous border
designs.
There are
lots of ideas for all levels of custom quilting and the handout is a 20+ page
workbook of designs to take home for inspiration!
Suitable for beginner, confident beginner!
...............................................................................................................................
Did you Know that AMQA has its own face book page?....take a look and 'Like' the page so that you can keep up with the latest news....AMQA Inc.
..........................................................................................................
Do you have anything you would like to include in the next newsletter?
I would love articles and photos concerning anything quilting related in your area.
Send to editor@amqa.com.au
