Family Bonus

Do you have a  member in your family that would love to do a class at AMQF?  Then we have the package just for you!

• A half price registration fee of $30.00 is being offered when a Registration Fee or Festival package has been purchased by another family member.

• This 'family bonus' registration will allow you to purchase one class only and receive a single entry ticket into the Vendor Mall, Quilt Show, Demo Area and Special Exhibition ***Registration bag and contents not included***

• Offer available to one per family

If you wish to take advantage of this offer please contact either Sharon or Tracey

Information Pack

Over the last month or so we have sent out over 700 Class Catalogues including flyers to State Guilds, Quilting Groups, Shops, Sponsors and Vendors.  If you are a member of a group and would like to receive this information please email Sharon and we'll get the information out to you.  Alternatively you can download a complete copy of the Class Catalogue here.

Teacher Profiles

This week we are sharing further information on Michelle Bouchier and Cristyn Merry.   AMQF2014 will be the first time these girls have taught for us and we hope you enjoy learning a little more about each of them.

Michelle is located in Greenwith, South Australia and was introduced to needle and thread at the age of three and has been stitching ever since.  She started with blanket stitch and has had a continued love of embroidery and hand-work ever since. Serious quilting began in 1998, when she spent a year in Auckland New Zealand as a result of her husband's employment; she was hooked!   Michelle's interests in quilting are many and varied. As the mood takes her, she enjoys piecing and appliqué (both hand and machine, blanket-stitch, needle-turn and free-motion).  She is currently trying to find enough time to indulge in landscape and pictorial quilts; she has a background in Art and finds this invaluable for her quilt designs and use of colour.  Michelle began as a hand quilter but laments how long it takes to complete quilting a quilt in this hot state of ours, and so she ventured into machine quilting.  In 2001, a long arm quilting machine was purchased Bloomin' Quilts was born.  Michelle loves the diversity of machine quilting and is passionate about educating other quilters and the public about its merits, both edge-to-edge and custom quilting.  Her teaching career began informally with the quilting groups she was involved with, and with the encouragement of friends she has ventured into professional teaching.  Michelle teaches beginner’s classes as well as original appliqué designs using the vliesofix method or needle-turn.  She has also taught dimensional flowers, machine trapunto and machine quilting.  Michelle and her family have travelled around Australia and are now enjoying revisiting places, particularly photographing landscapes with the variation in light that different regions possess. Hopefully, this translates into future quilt projects and we have the pleasure of seeing them!  Michelle's class can be viewed here.

Do you own an Intelliquilter or are thinking of getting one?  Then don't miss out on the chance to do classes with Cristyn Merry - if there is anything that the IQ can do I'm sure Cristyn knows about it.  I'm hoping to sneak into her classes.....don't tell Tracey!  Cristyn is originally from Alaska, and currently lives in Colorado. She spent 10 years in Houston, Texas, working in the Space Shuttle Program and learning how to quilt and has been making quilts since 1998 and bought her longarm machine in 2003.  In 2007 Cristyn had an IntelliQuilter installed on her longarm and in 2008 became an IQ dealer/installer/instructor. She has been teaching IQ classes at large machine quilting shows in the United States for five years and her favourite style of quilting is currently what is labeled as "modern quilting".  Cristyn finds that her style evolves as she learns and because of this she never knows what the future in her quilting may look like.  Her inspiration comes from many places, but mostly from blank spaces on quilts.  It's those negative spaces that prompt her to think up something new and that's when the magic happens.  Cristyn does quilt for customers, but sparingly as her main focus is on installing IQs and teaching new owners how to get the maximum out of their investment.  Cristyn gets great pleasure out of the light bulb moments... "OMG I didn't know it could do that"!  In addition to teaching at AMQF Cristyn is very much looking forward to learning about the Australian quilting culture and how things are done differently here to the US.   She hopes to see as much of Australia as she can - any and all of it including seeing our amazing wildlife.  Cristyn will be accompanied here by her cousin and if you have any suggestions for "must sees" please post them on our Facebook page.

That's it for this week - have a fabulous weekend and if you're thinking of booking classes there's never a better time to do it than now:-)

Sharon and Tracey.

Progress Report

Registrations opened with a bang on Tuesday 22nd April and have continued steadily since then, AMQF 2014 is set to be even bigger and better than 2012.  There are classes that have sold out and if your preferred class is one of them then please add yourself to the waitlist; if time and logistics allow we will do our best to repeat sold out classes. 

Teacher Profiles
In the lead up to Festival we will profile each of our teachers so that you are able to get a personalised perspective on them.   Following are profiles on Helen Stubbings and Rachelle Denneny, we thought you'd be interest in learning a little about them.  If you are interested in further information on Helen's or Rachelle's classes then click on their names above. 

Helen lives in Hobart, Tasmania which is the island at the bottom of Australia - she jokingly says she lives at the bottom of the inhabited world.  Helen has been quilting since 1995 after completing a 2 year Certificate IV in Needlecraft and before then she was an embroiderer; Helen is the owner of the ever popular Hug's and Kisses.  She loves anything at all to do with handwork, embroidery, stitchery, applique and paper piecing which she incorporates into all her designs along with her Colourque®.  At the moment Helen's schedule is such that she simply doesn't have the time to do hand quilting although it is something she loves.  Helen says she is never short of inspiration, carrying her camera when travelling and uses architecture, history and culture as a starting point.  As a mum of three girly girls and a love of gardens there is always something to get those creative juices flowing.   Helen loves teaching, which she has been doing since 1996 and her classes are full of entertaining moments as she generously shares her knowledge and techniques.  She is very grateful for all the wonderful, interesting people she has met during her teaching career which has taken her all over the world.  Although Helen has travelled extensively she loves Australia and would love the time to lay by a pool or on one of our beautiful beaches - not too hot, not too windy.  She thinks this could only be enhanced by having a personal butler serving her cocktails, Michael Buble crooning in the corner with nothing to do but lay and listen with needle and thread in hand.  Here's to you Helen!  To follow what Helen is up to then please visit and "like" her Facebook page - she is currently working on some super cute projects and here's a sneak peek.

Rachelle was absent from our teaching panel during AMQF2012 and we are delighted to have her back with us this year.  Since her AMQF debut in 2010 Rachelle has won some of the most coveted awards in the quilting world.  Rachelle lives in the lovely suburb of Glenelg which is located south west of the city of Adelaide near one of South Australia's most beautiful beaches.  She has been quilting for 13 years and has been entering her glorious work into shows since 2006.  Rachelle loves all the processes involved in making a quilt but her love of designing and the actual machine quilting of her quilts is her most favourite part.  She loves the way the texture of quilting can completely transform a flat piece of fabric and the results never cease to amaze her.  Rachelle gets inspiration from many different places and once again architecture features strongly along with textile designs from various countries including India, Japan and the Middle East;  look out for the ideas she is currently exploring influenced by Russian designs.  Rachelle has been teaching since 2004 and this has continued up until this day, early on she had to juggle this commitment with the

raising of her young family.  Her extraordinary talent has been passed on to her 3 children who also regularly enter shows.  Rachelle doesn't quilt for others but has not discounted the option of doing a commissioned piece in the future.  If you wish to follow what Rachelle is up to and see more of her magnificent pieces please visit her Facebook page. 

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend wherever you are!

Sharon and Tracey