July Update

Over the past few months we have been visiting groups to spread the word about the Australian Machine Quilting Festival and have met some absolutely wonderful people throughout our travels.  Tuesday saw our last group presentation and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hospitality and generosity and we hope that you are as excited about AMQF 2014 as we are. 

Our Teacher Profiles for this Newsletter are Anita Ellis (Aus) and Patti Hempen (USA)

Anita's quilting studio is based in the leafy suburb of Warrandyte, around half an hour from the centre of Melbourne and she has been quilting professionally for six years and loves to ‘draw with thread’.   Anita describes her style as ‘organic’, gaining inspiration from the fabric and design of the quilt and the desire to create secondary patterns with the quilting.  Teaching has been a natural progression for Anita as she loves to share the skills she has developed and gains great satisfaction from seeing others succeed.  One of her favourite classes is “Tricky Quilts, simple steps to make them work” and she makes this so easy to understand so that you should never have a problem again when presented with those types of quilts.  Anita covers technical aspects on how to deal with quilting issues but the best bit is the role play where the class gets to act out the process of receiving a less than perfect quilt and managing the expectations of the client.  This often results in a few laughs and reinforces the fact that not all quilts are perfect.  Teaching is a change of scene from quilting for others. To see a full description of Anita's classes click here

When custom quilting Anita often uses many different thread colours, which can result in a much more pleasing end result as the quilting doesn’t take away from the piecing so much.  She always says to her clients that the quilt belongs to them and not to her;  she likes their piecing work to shine through. 

Once Anita has finished teaching at AMQF 2014 her and her family are planning a trip the incredibly beautiful Kangaroo Island.

Patti lives in the United States in the very large state of Texas and has been quilting since 1996 and has made over 100 quilts.  Although Patti loves piecing over the years she has fallen in love with fusible machine applique because there are so many possibilities and different directions to take it.

When asked where she gets her inspiration Patti said that she finds everything in life inspiring – what a wonderful outlook!  If she had to choose just one thing she would choose colour…..brilliant colour, the more the better!  Patti has been teaching classes since 1998 and although she used to take on commissions she no longer does this as she finds it more pleasurable to self-design, create and teach her own original pieces.  Patti has a lot of fun in her classes and one in particular, Floral Kaleidoscopes, it has become tradition that the moment each student has 2 flowers put together, I have them all stand up and hold the flower circles on their "chest" and do what I call "The Booby Shoot!"  For a full description on Patti's classes click here

 Patti is hoping that she can get to see as much of Australia as she possibly can during her time here – that may be a big ask as there are just so many incredible things to see in our huge country. 

Until next time, keep quilting........

Sharon and Tracey