Ricky Tims all day seminar!

We are thrilled with the response to our first full page advertisement in Quilter’s Companion magazine in November. Lots of people have emailed, phoned & joined up to our newsletter in order to hear all about news for Festival in 2012.

So this is a very public announcement that we are opening registrations on 15th December 2011 for

RICKY'S BEST KEPT SECRETS - all day seminar!

being held on Friday 28th September 2012

Join Ricky Tims as he shares some of his most sought after quilting secrets in a day-long event that will leave you amazed and wanting more. Enjoy entertaining and informative live lecture and video demonstrations as Ricky shares his favourite tips, techniques and a ton of fantastic quilting information. No sewing and no supplies but you'll take away the equivalent of at least six hands-on classes and you'll leave with knowledge, inspiration, and a spiral-bound notebook full of detailed instructions to start those projects when you get home. Topics include demystifying machine quilting, quick and easy bindings, his award-winning Rhapsody technique and Caveman, Convergence, and Kaleidoscope techniques. It's the class everyone will be talking about and you don't want to miss it.

Cost: $175- includes the following: more info on website

• 6 hrs with Ricky
• 56 page full colour spiral bound notebook
• Morning tea - endless tea/coffee/expresso & biscuits
• Lunch - Sandwiches and baguettes with assorted fillings, Fresh whole fruit, Orange juice and mineral/spring water. Continually refreshed until lunch break ends.
• Afternoon tea - endless tea/coffee/expresso & biscuits.
• Entry into Vendor Mall & Quilt show with Award presentations & Official opening on Friday evening 6.30-9pm

Registration desk will be open from 7.30am to collect your seminar bags! There are no other classes scheduled for this day to enable everyone to attend this wonderful opportunity.

Ricky will have time during the breaks to chat to attendees & will also have a range of his products available to purchase. He has asked for some volunteers during these times to assist in selling his products. Two will be needed for each break. We will put out a request for volunteers closer to the event via our newsletter, so keep an eye out for that to get in first!

On Saturday Ricky will be in the vendor mall & will be available to chat or sign books, whilst also perusing our wonderful Quilt show & vendors.

Also as our 'Special Event' we have Ricky performing his concert during our Banquet Dinner on Saturday evening prior to our Alzheimer's Benefit Quilt Challenge Auction.

Registrations for the Banquet dinner will be opened on April 15th 2012, the same day as all other class registrations will open.

RICKY TIMS: A QUILTER AND HIS MUSIC
Join award-winning musician, quilter, and story-teller extraordinaire, Ricky Tims, for an evening of music, laughter and inspiration that will keep you spellbound and laughing. Ricky took his first piano lesson at the age of 3 and continued his musical profession until quilting came along, lighting a creative fire that allowed him to combine both his passion for music and his passion for quilting into one very unique career. Spend an evening with him as he plays his favourite and most recent compositions with visual display, and listen as he shares what inspires and motivates him in his work and life today. It's a perfect evening of music, wisdom and humour that will tickle the funny bones of quilters and non-quilters alike.

 

The Ricky Tims seminar is co-sponsored by

Now to help us spread the word even further we are going to have another competition/giveaway!

We have some more beautiful Quilter’s Companion 2012 diaries to give away to the first 10 people who leave a comment on this blog post and who ALSO do their own blog post helping us to let everyone know that Ricky is coming to Australia! Please put your blog address in your comment for verification. I will contact the first 10 to get your mailing addresses to send your diaries to you before Christmas!

Until next time….

Tracey & Sharon

AMQA Show 2012

AMQA Inc have finalised all the categories for their next show being held at AMQ Festival next year.

You can find the terms and conditions for their AMQA Show 2012 on their website.

A summary is provided here but please visit their website for ALL the details and the online submission form to enter your wonderful quilts. The AMQA committee is working hard to obtain some fantastic prizes for their show being held at AMQ Festival, so please consider entering your quilts!

Categories

Note: Perimeter is determined by totaling the measurements of ALL sides. Please measure your quilts once completed to ensure correct measurements as this is needed for category choice and exhibition planning.

1. INNOVATIVE CUSTOM Large: Minimum of 240”, maximum of 480” perimeter. Heirloom/Show quilts have been specifically designed as quilt show entries and/or not intended to be used as functional bed quilts. Fibers, fringe, crystals and embellishments of any other kind are permitted.

2. INNOVATIVE CUSTOM Small: Minimum 60”, maximum 240” perimeter. Heirloom/Show quilts have been specifically designed as quilt show entries and/or not intended to be used as functional quilts. Fibers, fringe, crystals and embellishments of any other kind are permitted.

3. WHOLECLOTH: Minimum of 100” perimeter, maximum of 480” perimeter. The entry must be a single piece of fabric or minimally pieced from the same fabric to increase size only. The Wholecloth piece should be designed to highlight the many quilting techniques of today’s machine quilters, including, meandering or background quilting, straight lines, feathers, continuous line and non-continuous line designs. The quilting must be the dominant feature of the Wholecloth and the quilting should encompass the entire quilt. Painting or other embellishments are not permitted in this category.

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.

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.

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.

AWARDS TO BE PRESENTED

Best of Show

Runner up Best of Show

1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd in each category if applicable (as per above)

Novice Award – This is an additional award given to a quilter who has begun quilting since October 2010, either on a Domestic Sewing Machine, Short or Long arm and have NOT entered any other exhibition.  This award is applicable to a quilt entered into any of the above categories. Please indicate on entry form if you wish to be considered for this award.

Note about quilts that are machine quilted with a Computerized Quilting System (CQS): Any quilt that is machine quilted with a CQS may be entered into the categories except for the edge to edge category. Utilization of a CQS is not a guarantee of perfection since stitch quality, stitch length, design choice and proper design placement are important factors for ALL machine quilters.

So we encourage you to start planning your quilts to enter the show for next year. We thank you in advance for making this an amazing exhibition of machine quilted quilts.

Until next time…

Tracey & Sharon

Quilt Challenge

The fabrics have now been received for the Alzheimer’s Benefit Quilt Challenge which is being held in conjunction with AMQF 2012.  The fabrics are lovely and we can’t wait to see them transformed into your memories.  The packages of fabric will be posted out by Wednesday 7th December.

We’d like to thank everyone that has registered to take part in this great initiative to raise money for alzheimer’s research and a special thank you must go to everyone that donated extra money to this charity.

Please circulate this information to your friends, quilt and sewing groups so that we can raise a grand amount for this very worthwhile cause and get to look at more inspirational quilts!

Accommodation

The accommodation at the Oaks Embassy is steadily filling so be quick to ensure you don’t miss out!  There are one and two bedroom apartments available with a fully equipped kitchen; information is available on the website.

Transport

We’ve had a few enquiries regarding transport and this is a little difficult if we don’t know exactly where people are thinking of staying.  However, the Adelaide Convention Centre is in the heart of the CBD – right on North Terrace.  The central train station is separated from ACC by the Intercontinental Hotel – it’s that close.  It is also directly on the tramline which runs from Glenelg to Port Road, Hindmarsh.  If you need any help in deciding if the area you are looking at is close to transport you are welcome to send me a brief email and I’ll do my best to let you know if it’s near the ACC or appropriate transport, sharon@amqfestival.com.au.

Vendors

It is exciting to  see some new vendors joining  us  in   2012.  As  vendors  commit  with their deposit they will  be listed  on  the website so  that you can  see  who  will be  there.  If  there is  a  particular  item  you  wish to  see or  purchase you  can  let  them  know  to  bring it  along  with  them  to  Festival!

That’s it for now and we hope to bring you more information in the near future.

Until then…..keep on quilting!

Sharon & Tracey

Congratulations to the winners….

I’ve finally found my camera & downloaded its contents to be reminded that I actually had this!!

Sharon & I are immensely pleased to sponsor the Best In Show – Runner Up 2012 for the SA Quilter’s Guild. Their quilt show was held a week & half ago now. I managed to get down there for one day & also the award presentations at Burnside.

The full list of winners can be located here.

Unfortunately the only photo I have is not great quality BUT both of us were thrilled to present Rachelle Denneny (BOS winner at AMQF last year) with her cheque for BOS Runner Up!!

Her quilt is simply amazing as always & it also received the Domestic Machine Quilting award as well.

Pure Joy 130cm x 130cm

Congratulations also to the Excellence in Longarm Machine Quilting award winner – local longarmer – Elaine Kennedy!

Her quilt was called Cream Feathers & Scrolls 250cm x 250cm

Until next time….

Tracey & Sharon

A Challenge for everyone to remember!

We have been working hard to obtain some better priced accommodation near the Adelaide Convention Centre. Inspecting all the rooms at various places was even fun!

We have negotiated an AMQF special rate at the Oaks Embassy & Oaks Horizon hotels that are situated 1 minute (just across the road) from the Adelaide Convention Centre. We would recommend that you book soon to hold a room as they are not ‘holding’ rooms for us but will provide a conference rate instead whilst rooms are available.

Of course there are LOTS of places where you can stay in Adelaide & still find easy transport by bus or train right into North Terrace where the Convention Centre is located, but for those that want to be within a minutes walk away from classes & vendors this is ideal.

Please visit the website for more information and you need to download their booking form & fax or email it back to them to obtain your room.

Next is our exciting news about a CHALLENGE!

Introducing the AMQF Alzheimer’s Benefit Quilt Challenge

AMQ Festival is proud to join with Lloyd Curzon Textiles and Dayview Textiles to present to you a challenge to assist us in raising much needed funds for more research for Alzheimer's Australia. All proceeds will be donated.

Quilt Challenge Theme “Memory”

Let your imagination run wild and think of a special memory that you have and then transfer that vision into fabric. A memory that is special to you, a childhood memory of a ride on a carousel, a place that you’ve visited, a person that holds special memories, a favourite quilt block the list is endless and remember how blessed we are to have our memories and be able to participate in this initiative.

Each entry is to be accompanied by a story of the memory no longer than 250 words.

All quilts are to be donated and auctioned with full proceeds going to Alzheimer’s Australia. The top thirty finalists will be selected for display at AMQ Festival 2012 with the top 10 being auctioned at the Banquet dinner at Festival. The remaining 20 quilts will be up for silent auction at Festival; all others will be auctioned online within 30 days.

A printable copy of the rules & application form can be found here.

There is also an online application form that you can complete to order your challenge kit as well.

There would be many of us that have experienced the pain & sadness of a loved one that is afflicted with this terrible disease. We feel it is a valuable challenge to remind us all to be thankful for our memories & to raise much needed funds for Alzheimer's Australia to continue their amazing work for those afflicted with this disease. We hope that you will take up this challenge & to also encourage others to take this up to see how much we can raise!

YES there will be prizes donated by AMQ Festival for the top three winners! You have to be in it to win them and everyone gets a ribbon for participating and assisting to raise funds.

First Prize:

Bursary to attend AMQF 2012. Includes: Attendee Package, Registration to Ricky Tims full day Seminar, Ticket to Banquet dinner & up to 8 hrs of classes + Fabric pack Value $750-

Second Prize:

Bursary to attend AMQF 2012. Includes: Attendee package, Ticket to Banquet dinner & up to 8 hrs of classes + Fabric pack. Value $600

Third Prize:

AMQF 2012 registration bag & up to 4hrs of classes + Fabric pack. Value $250-

Until next time…

Tracey & Sharon

Diary Giveaway competition

Thanks to all that left a comment and also listed our blog on your own blogroll!

I have today sent emails to those that I don’t have your mailing address & also to a couple that replied but have forgotten to list us on your blog with a link.

Once I’ve heard back from you all with mailing addresses & confirmation of links the diaries will go out. Hopefully by the end of this week?

Keep an eye open for future giveaways! We have been fortunate and been given a few more of these to enable us to reward you.

Until next time…

Tracey & Sharon

Technology at its best!

Yesterday we were thrilled to let you all know about our MAJOR SPONSOR – Handi Quilter!

Today we have now created a Facebook Page as well… we would love for you all to visit and ‘like’ us. Leave a comment or make suggestions as well?

All the tools at our disposal are many when online. We have numerous jobs to get done & they prove invaluable to assist us in this great adventure to create a fantastic festival for you all to attend & participate in.

We have recently changed our newsletter service to Mailchimp so if you happen to get a duplicate message in the next few days please disregard this as we are having a couple of initial teething problems. Hopefully we will have it sorted soon & all will be perfect!

We also have some give-aways for you! Thanks to Universal Magazines we have 10 of their gorgeous 2012 diaries to give away.

These are in the newsagents for $19.95 each!

So the first 10 people from Australia to make a comment on our blog as well as list AMQ Festival blog in their blogrolls on their own blogs will be sent a beautifaul diary. We definitely welcome everybody to list our blog on yours at any time of course…

We will contact the first 10 people after confirming your blogs to get your mailing addresses.

Until next time…

Tracey & Sharon

AMQF Announces Major Sponsor

We are excited to announce that HandiQuilter will be the Major Sponsor of the Australian Machine Quilting Festival 2012. HandiQuilter will also be providing   Sweet 16’s for one of the classrooms and this classroom will be known as the HQ Sweet 16 Classroom for the duration of Festival.

There are many other sponsorship packages available and these will be released over the next few weeks.

Teachers

The applications for Teachers closed at the end of September and the response has been fantastic. We are currently going through the applications to ensure that we have a great balance of classes for quilters of all disciplines and levels.

It has been a misconception that AMQF is only for longarm quilters or professional quilters but this is quite simply not the case. AMQF is for anyone that uses a sewing machine of any kind to piece or to free-motion quilt.

Over the next few months we will be releasing as much information as possible on our teachers which will enable you to make class choices so that you get the maximum benefit to further your education and skills.

Accommodation

We have been working hard to get the best accommodation deals that we can. I’m sure you can appreciate that prices for accommodation in the CBD are a little more than those in the suburbs but believe me we’re trying our best and will have this information available in the next 2 weeks.

Until next time,

Sharon & Tracey

Teaching Opportunities closing soon…

This is a reminder that you only have just over 2 weeks to submit  your classes to be considered for Festival next year! 

The inaugural Australian Machine Quilting Festival was held in Adelaide in October 2010. It was a resounding success thanks to all who attended, lectured and participated in the classrooms, vendor mall and quilt show.

The attendance far outweighed our expectations for our first Festival with 200 students, 1200 class registrations, 19 vendors and 19 teachers at this event. We also had approximately 2000 general public attend over the 4 days, attending the quilt show and going shopping.

We have already outgrown our first venue and 2012 AMQ Festival will be held at the prestigious Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia - from Friday 28th Sept to Monday 1st Oct 2012.

For this next event we have created an online teacher class submission process to enable anyone interested to submit a class. We KNOW there are many talented machine quilting teachers out there on both longarm & domestic machines, but we don't personally know you all to approach you. We are also very interested in those that can provide education on using their domestic machines on a frame setup as well! So instead of personal invitations we want to hear from those that have been teaching in this area that want to
further their experiences by teaching at a National level at Festival.

Please visit the website to submit as many classes as you
would like to teach. We are keen to sit down to work through them all to determine a balanced mix of classes to present at next year's event.

Please note that we anticipate a substantial increase in attendees &
students next year. We are featuring a full day seminar on Friday 28th Sept. with RICKY TIMS that is sure to delight everyone!

Until next time…

Tracey & Sharon

Vendor applications open

We are thrilled to let you know that vendor applications opened a couple of weeks ago & we are already 1/2 full!!  If you know of anyone still thinking about coming to Festival as a vendor then encourage them to submit their application sooner rather than later to obtain their spot!

We have personally sent invitations to many businesses this past week that service our industry and thank those that are coming on board for machine quilters to spend their money with. If any others want to be added to our list of vendors for these communications then please join our mailing list for vendors.

Teacher Class submissions are also coming in with an amazing variety of classes being offered. There is still time to submit your classes if you are keen to share your knowledge! Class submissions close on 30th September & then we will have the challenge to choose the best classes to ensure variety, inspiration & so much learning for us all. This is the reason we created Festival – to provide education & inspiration to all machine quilters!

We are also thrilled to announce that Bernina Australia and Otto & Penny’s Sewing Centre, Walkerville, SA have agreed to be co-sponsors of the Ricky Tims Seminar!

This year with Ricky Tims, along with some other amazing teachers of both domestic & longarm quilting – we will totally amaze you with choices.

Sharon has been very busy inspecting & negotiating options for accommodation near the Adelaide Convention Centre for everyone. Stay tuned for all the details coming soon….

Until next time

Tracey & Sharon

Teacher class submissions now open!

We  invite all teachers who are interested in sharing their knowledge with others to submit their classes online for us to consider for 2012.

Please ensure that your class titles are accurate & interesting to attract students! Your description will need to be clear and enticing to assist in marketing them.

Submissions will close on 30th September 2011.

All proposals will be considered to enable us to create a balanced &  exciting schedule of classes for attendees. Teachers will be advised by 30th November 2011 which classes have been accepted.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any problems with completing the online form.  Include as much information that you can & provide photos where applicable.

Vendor applications for booth space will open mid July.

Until next time….

Tracey & Sharon

Progress Report

Almost 9 months have passed since we held the first Australian Machine Quilting Festival, a little bit of time was used to catch our breath but that was shortlived. We have been working away in the background putting plans in place for AMQF 2012 and one of the first things we had to do was find a new venue.

After many hours of searching and many kilometres of driving we are really happy to announce that AMQF 2012 will be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide. Since AMQF 2010 we have had many approaches from vendors, students and sponsors and it became apparent very early that we'd need a larger venue to meet our requirements.

We are also very proud and excited to announce that Ricky Tims will be attending AMQF 2012! Ricky will be holding a seminar all day on Friday 28th September and then performing at the Banquet Dinner on Saturday 29th September. If you have any spare time and would like to see Ricky "live" go to Youtube and put his name in the search engine, his music is amazing never mind his quilting! Ricky Tims is an incredibly talented quilter and musician, he is inspiring, fun and best of all you'll have a chance to meet him in Australia.

Expressions of interest will be sought from teachers for AMQF2012 and this information will be on the website, hopefully, by the end of the week. If you think you have something to offer the machine quilting fraternity we'd love to see your proposal.

Sponsor and Vendor information will be available during July. If you are interested in sponsoring or would like to have a booth then please send an email and further information will be sent to you as soon as it is available.

Until next time, Keep on quilting!

Sharon & Tracey

Update on Quilting Roster

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your generous offers of help and support in our effort to establish a quilting roster database. The aim of AMQF is to manage the database and if the need arises in the future we will be able to put machine quilters in touch with individual organisations that may require tops quilted. This will be of a great help getting the quilts to those in need as quickly as possible. There are quilters on the database from most states of Australia and at this stage, as far as I have been informed, all the quilts that we have been notified of have been allocated and/or completed; the quilts have been allocated according to "logistics" where possible. Australian Patchwork and Quilting contacted us on hearing about the roster and an article will be published in the June edition of AP&Q so that as many people as possible will be aware that this service is available. Thanks once again, it has made us proud to be part of such a generous community. Sharon & Tracey

Quilting Roster

The past few months has seen many disasters unfold in our Country and others in our near regions. It is almost too difficult to comprehend and I'm sure we have all been horrified as we've seen these tragedies unfold in the various medias that are available to us.

Time moves on and so does the media and the areas that have been so tragically affected are left to try to re-establish their lives. Many individuals and organisations do their very best to help where they can and are to be commended for their efforts.

Whenever a situation arises, quilters are always one of the first to respond and pool together to get as many quilts made as quickly as possible and distributed to those in need.

It is with this thought in mind that we would like to put together a roster of machine quilters that would be prepared to help where they can. The way it would work, if you are interested, would be to contact us via email, we will then collate the information and create and maintain a database.

We would advise the various Guilds that we have a list of machine quilters that are prepared to help and would then pass on contact details should the need arise.

When the Queensland Floods hit and the fires in WA, I contacted our State Guild and advised them that there were a few "longarmers" prepared to quilt a number of quilts should they like to take advantage of this service. The first of those quilts have now arrived and been allocated and it would be greatly appreciated if more quilters would come forward to "lighten the load". The aim is for this roster to be Australia wide and be a central point in case of these disasters.

We look forward to your help and participation in this initiative.

Thanks so much, Sharon & Tracey