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:
- President: Raylee Bielenberg president@amqa.com.au
- Vice President: Position Vacant
- Secretary: Barbara Cutmore (temp)* secretary@amqa.com.au
- Minute Secretary: Val Towill minutes@amqa.com.au
- Treasurer: Gayle Dayman treasurer@amqa.com.au
- Membership: Gayle Dayman membership@amqa.com.au
- Newsletter Editor: Vanita Roychoudhry webdiva@amqa.com.au
- Webdiva: Vanita Roychoudhry editor@amqa.com.au
- Publicity Officer (new position): Position Vacant
- AMQF Liason: Tracey Browning
- General Committee:
Julie Nixon
Vicki Jenkin
Juliett EdwardsSharon French
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
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.
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.
