AMQF DVD’s are now available!

Emma, from Belle Photography, has worked hard to get all the photos edited & sorted for us all to have to remember the great time had by all at 2012 AMQ Festival. All pre-orders were posted out last Friday, so should be arriving soon in your mailbox if not there already.
During this time period she has also managed to get herself engaged!! So much to plan in the next 12 months before the wedding as well. I do appreciate it NOT being in a Festival year vbg.

2012 AMQ Festival DVD’s can be ordered here
2012 Australian Machine Quilting Festival DVD $25-00 includes:

Postage  +

High Resolution Pictures
Close-up photos
Award Winners
Gala night
Alzheimer’s Benefit Quilt Challenge Quilts
Classes + more

There are also the 2010 AMQ Festival DVD’s still available if you would like some amazing inspirational quilting at your fingertips!
Some sneak peeks of nearly 1000 photos follow:

		AMQF 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Both Sharon & I wish to also take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe & blessed Christmas & trust that you manage to find some time to do a little stitching, a lot of eating & have a lot of family time!
See you in the New Year…
Tracey & Sharon

AMQF 2012 Wrap Up

It’s taken us longer than anticipated to get things finalised from AMQF and no doubt to get everything in order will take a few months more.  We’d like to thank everyone involved in AMQF 2012 whether you were a sponsor, vendor, presenter, teacher, student, volunteer, visitor or a member of the public.  This couldn’t have happened without you all and we thank you sincerely for all your efforts and involvement and hope you come back to us in 2014; the dates for AMQF 2014 are 2nd – 6th October.

Special thanks must go to our major sponsor, Handi Quilter, and their fantastic staff who have been an absolute dream to deal with since the outset.  Please know that your support and easy going attitude has made our jobs so much easier and we simply can’t thank you enough!

Bernina Australia were behind us all the way with co-hosting Ricky Tims and coming to the party when we really needed help, thank you so much!

We are currently doing all the administration work finalising all the details and getting letters of thanks out to everyone but we wanted to touch base and just give a brief update.  AMQF 2012 grew so much from our first festival held at Endeavour College in 2010 and we are optimistic that it will continue.  The interest in 2014 already has really surprised us and we feel very honoured to have this support shown to us.  Our blogs now will be much less frequent and if you know of anyone that is interested in AMQF 2014 the best way to stay in touch is to register online for the Newsletter.

Alzheimer’s Benefit Quilt Challenge

The success of the Alzheimer’s Benefit Quilt Challenge is nothing short of amazing – a total of $6,575.55 was raised for research into Alzheimer’s and this will be presented to Alzheimer’s SA once the payments are finalised.  We are still organising invoices/payments, wrapping and posting quilts and this will all be finalised this week.  If you’d like to see the list of winning bids please click here.  Thank you to everyone that participated in this initiative with special thanks going to Tim Myers from Lloyd Curzon and Bill Day and Lisa Jones from Dayview Textiles. 

Lucky Draw Prize and Alzheimer’s Draw Winners

1st Prize in the Lucky Door Prize, donated by EME Floriani, was a Floriani Total Control Professional Software Package valued at $4398.00 and was won by Danyell Bruton of Andrews Farm, SA.  2nd Prize donated by Sue’s Sewing World was a Janome 1600P Sewing Machine and was won by Kay White of Jerrabomberra, NSW. 

1st Prize in the Alzheimer’s Draw, donated by Horn Australia, was a Craft Plus Table valued at $699.00 and won by Helen Podgorski of Valley View, SA.  2nd Prize donated by Mulberry Millie was an Upright Quilt Basting Frame valued at $285.00 and won by Helen Dobby of Warradale, SA.  3rd Prize, donated by Sydney Sewing Supplies, was a 3 Piece Trolley Bag Set valued at $199.00 and won by Leanne Greenhalgh of Maryborough, QLD.

Thanks to EME Floriani, Sue’s Sewing World, Horn Australia, Mulberry Millie and Sydney Sewing Supplies for their generosity.

To those that haven’t yet received their prizes please note that these will be couriered to you this week. 

That’s it from us for now, stay tuned!

Keep Quilting!!

 

Sharon & Tracey

Teacher in the Spotlight - Kerrie-Anne Riles

Well the days are ticking by and it won't be long until we are all buzzing around the Adelaide Convention Centre enjoying our fabulous festival!

We have one last teacher to meet and it is Kerrie-Anne Riles.

Kerrie-Anne is a wonderfully accomplished teacher who has travelled extensively, honing her skills as a quilter and fibre artist by studying with masters all over the world.

At Festival Kerrie-Anne is offering two classes and both sound like heaps of fun!  The first is Shiva Stick Inspirations, this is a technique based workshop to learn how to enhance textile art with shiva sticks.

The second, Honey I Shrunk the fabric, is a fun class to practice your quilting but with a twist - you will be quilting on special shrinking fabric.  The added bonus is that in this 4 hour, hands-on class you will be working with HQ Sweet Sixteen Machines!

For more information about Kerrie you can visit her website and you can click here to find futher details about the classes and class requirements.

Remember you can still sign up for classes at the festival!  See you there!

Lucky raffle winner for Ricky Tims seminar !

Helen Boyle from Gateway Quilters at Elizabeth was the lucky winner of a ticket to the Ricky Tims Seminar.  We hope you have a great day Helen and thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket in support of Alzheimer’s SA.

Motorised Transport  

There will be two motorised…….let’s call them “hotrods” for those that get tired walking around quilt shows and shops and need a little assistance.  If you would like to hire one to cruise around the show please contact us  and we will add you to the booking sheet.  There will be a $5.00 hire charge with a maximum limit of 2 hours.  If you don’t pre-book, then the “hotrods” will be allocated on a first come first served basis. 

Some more vendors to entice you!

Dale and Ian from The thread Studio will be bringing their wonderful machine and hand embroidery threads – their colourful range of hand –dyed fibres and fabrics and their exciting Moonglow Sprays as well as lots of textile art supplies – in fact as much as they can squeeze on their palettes.

Widebacks Australia

Brenda will be with us this year with a double booth to show off her huge range of wide backing fabrics & pre-cuts. 

Widebacks specialise in high-quality wide-width fabrics measuring 2.75m-3m (108-118in). With more than 300 fabrics currently in stock – and more on the way – it has one of the largest selections anywhere in the world. So come along & chat with Brenda & her team of helpers at Festival next weekend.

Tulis Textiles are thrilled to be coming to Adelaide to see all their SA customers & many more. Kerry travels from New Zealand with her amazing specialised fabrics to tempt us all.

These exciting and affordable fabrics are available direct to New Zealand customers at competitive prices. All our fabrics are chosen by an experienced quilter, with an eye for quality, versatility and vibrancy! From exotic hand painted Pradas, and exquisitely woven Ikats to give your quilts that unique accent, to the affordable modern Batik prints for vibrant contrasts, our fabrics are the finest quality 100% cotton, rayon and silk in a range of colours and patterns.

Intelliquilter

Come & see the amazing Intelliquilter system in action on the A1 Horizon 31” longarm quilting machine. We have the wonderful Crystal Smythe here in Australia sharing her extensive knowledge on getting the most out of your Intelliquilter & she will be on the booth answering your questions when not teaching. Along with Crystal will be Barna Kasa (Zoltan’s son) who will be keen to show you what the IQ can do for you! Introducing the new budget BasIQ system along with the traditional ClassIQ system this year, you will be tempted to need one of these for sure.

A1 Quilting Machines

A1 Quilting machine dealers, Michele Turner from Sydney and Megan Best from the USA will be on the booth to demonstrate & answer questions on both the A1 Elite 923 and the A1 Horizon 1031 machines that will available to test drive. They will also be introducing the brand new Joey – baby Elite sit down 23” machine that sits in the most beautiful table that will open up to 40” x 77” for when you need the support for those larger quilts. Be the first to test drive this upgradeable machine at AMQ Festival 2012.

Show specials valid for one week only over Festival dates will be available on all A1 quilting machines.

Early May Designs/Floriani Australia 

Here you will find all the FLORIANI Stabilizers, FLORIANI Threads, FLORIANI Software, FLORIANI Specialty Products, PLUS RNK/Jenny Haskins Magic Range of Stabilizers & Quilting Products, Quilting Software and Jenny Haskins' Threads; EME Machine Embroidery Design Collections, and a whole lot more. Come along & see all the products available at Booth#36.

Hetties Patch

We are pleased to have Lorraine & the girls from Hetties’ Patch once again at Festival. They supported us at our first event in 2010 & are back again with all their beautiful fabric & goodies this year. Hettie's Patch opened in August 2005. They have 3000 plus bolts of fabric. Hetties also stocks embroidery supplies and giftware.

Right next door to Hettie’s patch in the vendor mall will be

Always Quilting/ Aurifil Thread

Jenny will have all her colourful thread that is divine to use in all machines & for hand work on display.

John Watts Sewing

Need that new sewing machine, or the right quilting tool. Then you will find all you need at John Watts Sewing & Quilting Booth#11.

 

Only 3 days to go until everything starts! Sharon & I have been working very hard & I leave home tomorrow to travel down to Adelaide to start setting everything up. We would like to express our appreciation to our wonderful Volunteer Co-ordinator, Val Towill,  who has had the mammoth task of sorting & allocating all the wonderful volunteers that really make an event like this run smoothly.

See you all VERY soon!

Tracey & Sharon

Teacher in the Spotlight

Hello everyone.  Only 6 more sleeps!  Remember that you can still register for classes at Festival and one you might like to consider is Sharon French's Perfect No Sew Zones class.

Sharon is an award winning quilter from New South Wales and at Festival she will be holding a class for Intelliquilter users.  In her class she will teach you how to perfect the No Sew Zone fetaure to use it for blocks, appliques and even cross-hatching.  Acheive perfect results under Sharon's tutelage - no more stitches falling short of their mark!

We only have one more teacher to introduce, Kerrie-Anne Riles, so stay tuned!

Teacher in the Spotlight - Helen Townend

Hi everyone,

Online class registrations closed today, but remember you can still register for classes in person at the Festival. 

Tonight's Teacher in the Spotlight is Helen Townend.
 

Helen is from New Zealand and has been sewing since she was a child. Helen does amazing trapunto work and she is joining us at Festival to share her talents in this area.

Helen's class Trapunto for Everyone is mainly in a lecture format with a small hands on component.  You can join Helen to learn the gorgeous art of trapunto.  The class will cover design, which background styles to use to enhance your work and how to trim around the trapunto.  You can read more about the class here.  But for now we'll let the photos of Helen's work do the talking....

 

  

 

It's very tempting isn't it?

Teacher in the Spotlight - Myrna Ficken

I can't believe it's only 10 days until Festival!  There are still 5 teachers to introduce so without further ado, I would like you to meet Myrna Ficken.

Myrna is coming to us from the States and while at Festival will be teaching a whopping 9 classes!  I promise we'll be letting her out for meals!  Myrna is a very experienced teacher with an infectious enthusiasm for machine quilting and you will be sure to be very inspired by her classes.  We will only be featuring four of her classes here so be sure to check out the rest on the website.

The first class I want to talk about is Creating Spaces.  As the name suggests Myrna will be teaching you how to create new spaces within the quilt and fill them with quilting to add new dimensions to the quilt.  This design class is for intermediate and advanced quilters.

You can learn how to use specialist rulers in Myrna's Hot Curves Ahead class to quilt fabulous curved cross-hatching which always looks so elegant and timeless, again this is and intermediate class.

Personally, I love background fills and in the Fill 'Er Up class you will learn many background designs and how to tweak them to give them your own flair.

Lastly, in Samplers, Samplers, Samplers Myrna will teach you how to analyse different blocks and use them as a foundation for creating quilting designs to enhance sampler quilts or quilts made of traditonal blocks.  Myrna encourages you to bring your own samplers to class to get specific ideas.

You may like to check out Myrna's website for more information and to see her range of DVDs and rulers.  If you are tempted by Myrna's classes, don't delay booking in - you have only got until Wednesday to do so!

Registrations Closing

Class registrations were to close on September 14th but we’ve decided to extend it until Wednesday 19th September, after this date there will be no online registrations accepted.  If you still wish to attend you will need to complete a manual registration by coming to the Reception Area at the Adelaide Convention Centre once AMQF2012 has commenced.

Collection of Registration/Festival Packages

The Registration Desk will be open from 2pm on Friday 28th September for those that would like to collect their packages and will remain open during Festival.  No packages will be handed to students/attendees before this time. Each package will include a list of classes that the attendee has registered and a Neck Wallet and Name Badge which are to be worn during classes.  This will be your admission pass into the Quilt Show/Vendor Mall and Demonstration Areas.

Gala Dinner Tickets

These tickets will be included in the Registration/Festival packages for all those that are attending classes.  All others will be posted this week.  There are still tickets available for the dinner, which promises to be a great night!  These can be booked online up until Wednesday 26th September.  If you haven’t notified us of any dietary requirements you can do this by emailing Sharon.

Ricky Tims Tickets

There are a limited number of tickets left now for the Ricky Tims Seminar so if you’ve been sitting on the fence it’s time to get off now and book.  Shontelle and I have been doing what we’ve affectionately named the Ricky Roadshow and we will be doing the last ones this week.  We have been raffling a ticket to Ricky’s Seminar, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s, at these presentations and this will be drawn next weekend.

See you all soon!

Sharon & Tracey

Teacher in the Spotlight - Rick Haggerty

Tonight's teacher in the spotlight is Rick Haggerty. 

Rick is a dealer for Gammill and Statler at Elizabeth Machines Co in  Melbourne and he will be joining us for festival and working in the Gammill booth - so be sure to drop by and say hello and try a machine for yourself.

For those who already own a Gammill, Rick is teaching a comprehensive maintenance class to show you all the tricks to keeping your machine running beautifully.

Registrations close in a couple of days so be sure to have one last look over the catalogue and book into your classes before it's too late!

Teacher in the Spotlight - Helen Godden

Hi everyone!

Today's teacher in the spotlight is Helen Godden.

Helen is an incredibly artistic quilter who has won many international awards for her work.  Luckily for us she is also an accessible, down-to-earth teacher!  She has a knack for unlocking the secrets of machine quilting for her students, so you'll be sure to have a lightbulb moment in her class where you finally "get it".

At Festival Helen is teaching two very popular classes, the first of which is Liberation From the Ditch.  In this 2hr, hands-on class you will be using Handiquilter Sweet 16 machines (that in itself is something to get excited about!) and you will learn Helen's three key secrets to successful free-motion nachine quilting.  No more just stiching in the ditch and struggling with the quilt during the process!

Helen's second class is the very cool Free-Motion Funky Flowers class which will see you incorporating raw edge applique with bobbin work, again using the wonderful HQ Sweet 16 machines.  The class fee includes the kit for this project and just look at what you'll get to make!

 

Talk to you soon!

Some more vendors to visit with!

Westalee Design: Stand 18
If you make your living quilting or enjoy quilting your own work, we have something for you. We are launching a new range of tools for Long Arm, Mid Arm and Sewing Machine Quilters, even Hand Quilters. Leonie will be demonstrating the new products on our stand and would be pleased to talk patchwork and quilting with you.
We now manufacture more than 200 products with the Westalee Brand and over 100 for Quilter’s Rule from the USA (under license)
If you are after custom templates for yourself or your Shop, talk to Bill. If you can draw it, we can make it.

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Nolting Longarm Quilting Machines - Nolting's Longarm standard equipment will be the best investment for your workroom. You will be impressed with its light weight yet durable construction.
Sit down, Relax, Enjoy... with the traditional quilting hoops by Hinterberg.
Flip la K- Slash - Flip - Press & SEW. Flip la K is a series of templates designed specifically to slash – flip and appliqué fabric. It is a fantastic technique enabling you to utilize your stash and give it a bit of WOW factor.  Ever had trouble picking colours that go with each other? Flip la K allows you to audition your fabric – this helps make that choice so much easier.
Glide. The World's Most Advanced Top Thread. Fil-Tec Glide™ with Advanced Trilobal Technology will maintain consistent tension throughout each and every spool. The results are high quality, consistent stitch formation, fewer thread breaks, and fewer machine stops.
The Original Quilting Camera System- A Quilter's Eye shows you a close up and magnified view of your stitching as you are quilting! Now you can see any irregular stitches, loops, tucks or fold on your back, even locate a label or "no quilting" area. Glancing at your Quilter's Eye monitor will give you peace of mind while you are working because right in front of you is a view of the back!
Groz-Beckert Industrial and Domestic sewing machine needles.
The Wonder in Appliqué - Applique Magic Plus, repositionable fusible webbing. And our own stabilizer range.

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Kim Bradley Creations

Kim & Dave hope to have a range of sizes of Innova machines, an Autopilot computer control system and the new Pantovision that was first released at AQC this year. Kim will have some colouring product, patterns and quilting goodies for everyone to drool over as well.

Lorien Quilting Patterns 

Hermione will be with us on Kim Bradley Creations booth to show us all her amazing quilting designs available for shortarm & longarm machines.

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We are really getting spoilt with the variety of products that we will have to choose from at Festival 2012!

Please remember to bid for your favourite Alzheimer’s benefit quilt online or look for the quilts on display at Festival where you will find bid sheets to put in your bid. If you want one of the top 10 quilts then you might want to consider registering for our Bernina Australia Gala Evening on Saturday 29th Sept to bid at the LIVE auction for these special quilts.

Another initiative by AMQ Festival is to have an Alzheimer’s Donation Lucky Draw which is being run at Festival itself. We have had many generous sponsors and this has enabled us to showcase their generosity by inviting everyone to donate at least a gold coin donation to receive an entry form into a lucky draw. All donations will be forwarded to Alzheimer’s Australia along with proceeds of the sale of all the challenge quilts being auctioned.

1st Prize: Donated by Horn Australia

Craft Plus Table valued at $699-

2nd Prize: donated by Mulberry Millie
Mulberry Millie™ Upright Quilt Basting Frame valued at $285-

3rd Prize: donated by SSS Pty Ltd
valued at $199-


We are still looking for some volunteers to be teacher angels, so if you have some spare time could you please email our volunteer coordinator & let them know exactly what times you are available for this? More information on volunteering is available on our website.

Only 15 days to go so I do hope everyone has thought about what they are packing & leaving enough room to take home all your new goodies!
Until next time…
Tracey & Sharon