Welcome Susan K Cleveland

Happy Easter break to all…

We WELCOME Susan K Cleveland to the Australian Machine Quilting Festival.

Known for her enthusiasm and clever solutions to quilting's challenges, Susan has enjoyed teaching her techniques and meeting quilters internationally. Her quilts, showcasing impeccable workmanship and eye-catching details, have received six awards at International Quilt Festivals in Houston and many other shows. Her books, tools, magazine articles, TV shows, and internet classes have been making tricky tasks more manageable for quilters for many years. She’s well known for her Piping Hot Binding technique and tool and also for her patented Prairie Pointer Tool. Don't miss out on an opportunity to learn and laugh with Susan!

When I asked her to describe her ‘style’ of quilting she said:

"My quilts are born from traditional designs and then I get just a little wild with color, settings, threads, and special details. Since free-motion quilting causes me stress, I've had to develop different techniques to quilt my quilts. (FM quilting is gorgeous and I admire what others do, but the skill escapes me.) It turns out my free-motion phobia has been a blessing as it pushed me to develop my own ideas to quilt a quilt. I enjoy ditch quilting everywhere then add decorative quilting with heavy threads by machine with my feed dogs up and/or with big stitch hand quilting. I love mixing hand and machine work to create more texture. Now, I have lots of options and I do what I enjoy and avoid the stress.”

You can read more about Susan’s quilt journey & achievements at her website. 
www.piecesbewithyou.com

Susan’s classes are in similar time slots to those previously being offered by Mark Lipinski. There are limited seats in the hands on classes, so don’t miss out on these! Online registrations are now open.

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More classes have filled this week.

Congratulations to the following teachers on filling these classes!

Friday 26th Aug    2-4pm
Lines, curves & texture - Custom quilting for beginners with Chris O’Brien

Saturday 27th Aug 8-12noon
Designs for Lines (And Other Shapes That Don't Rhyme) with Kathleen Riggins

Friday 26th Aug   12.30-4.30pm
One Ruler one quilt with Narelle Morris

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Please help us to spread the word to all quilters about all the class opportunities. We have something for everyone! Feel free to forward or share our newsletters with your fellow quilters.

Happy quilting…..

Tracey

Class updates!

We were very sad to hear that our invited teacher - Mark Lipinski - has been advised by his Doctors, that he cannot travel to be with us in August! We wish him lots of healing wishes & hope that he can recover fully from this awful infection. 

All classes purchased of Mark’s, have been fully refunded yesterday. 

We are extremely pleased to welcome Susan K Cleveland to AMQ Festival to present a number of classes. Please be patient until we finalise the details of these classes & get them online for you to purchase. You won’t be disappointed!

Once we have worked out Susan’s class details, I will offer seats firstly to those that had booked in to Mark’s classes, then open it to all.

We are also thrilled that Claudia Pfeil has agreed to present a Trunk Show at our Cocktail Party! Her quilts & quilting journey are simply amazing… more details to follow.

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Presenting Bronze Sponsor

Brother Australia

Brother Australia is excited to showcase the Persona PRS100 at this year’s Australian Machine Quilting Festival. For more than a century Brother has won recognition as a brand synonymous with delivering product innovation and customer satisfaction. The Persona PRS100 is another industry first innovation created to inspire you. For the first time, hobbyists and enthusiasts can buy a machine that combines professional level embroidery features with easy to use technology and an easy conversion to free motion quilting and stippling. At Brother we are committed to drive our technology to support you on your creative journey.

Visit us at stand 36 for your opportunity to test drive this amazing machine for yourself and don’t miss the opportunity to win a Brother Scan N Cut by participating in the “Around the Block” promotion. Brother would also like to acknowledge the support of the wonderful volunteers for this event with some great thank-you gifts.

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Classes are still selling well so I would encourage you to book them if you desperately want to get in!

There is one seat left in the following classes:

Narelle Morris - One ruler one quilt
Kathleen Riggins - Designs for Lines (And Other Shapes That Don't Rhyme)
Kathleen Riggins - Simple Steps to Stunning Quilting
Helen Rhodes - Waterlily Ballet
Chris O’Brien - Lines, curves & texture - Custom quilting for beginners on Friday 26th Aug

Until next time…. happy quilting!
Tracey

Online registrations are open!

After 2 days only of registrations being open, we already have classes FULL!

With very few having issues with purchasing I can now breathe a sigh of relief….

The following classes are now FULL. You can put your name on our Waiting List if you badly want the opportunity to do these classes. You can find this at the very bottom of the full list of classes. It will be dependant on cancellations.

Date actioned	Date/Time	Name of Class
14th March 2016	Sunday 28th Aug 1-5pm	Magic Medallions with rulers with Heather Hopkins
14th March 2016	Thursday 25th Aug 12.30-4.30pm	Machine Quilting with Rulers with Lee Vause
14th March 2016	Saturday 27th Aug 5.30-7.30pm	Circles of Mystery with Janet Collins

We have managed to secure some extra space to enable some shuffling of class locations, which means we can now repeat Janet Collins class - Circles of Mystery.

Registrations can now be taken for this class if you missed out! We are also offering to exchange the time slots from the Saturday afternoon class to the Sunday morning class time at no cost if it suits your schedule better. Please email me if you want to do this.

Date opened	Date/Time of Class	Name of Class
15th March 2016	Sunday 28th Aug 8-10am	Circles of Mystery with Janet Collins

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How can I become a volunteer?

As you know, all events need lots of volunteers in order to operate smoothly. AMQ Festival is no exception. Anyone may now sign up to volunteer. If YOU would like to be a volunteer, please let us know as soon as possible so that you may have first choice of jobs.

There are many opportunities to volunteer including:

• Judging assistance
• Scribes
• Quilt hanging and taking down for the show
• White glove host/hostess
• Door greeters
• Classroom assistance
• Demos
• Quilt award presentations
• Speaker assistance
• Passing quilts to owners who are present at take down
• Packing and shipping of quilts at take down

Teacher's Angel Volunteers

AMQF has an exciting way for you to volunteer this year. Our teachers need your help to greet the students, check off names, hand out and collect evaluation forms and class handouts and help when needs arise. These treasured helpers are our Teacher's Angels. The procedure for being a teacher's angel is as follows: when you are registering and paying online for your classes, answer the questionaire to inform us that you are interested in volunteering. Our volunteer co-ordinator will draw the lucky angel for each class when it is full or 2 weeks prior to Festival and you will be notified via email. Please consider volunteering as a Teacher's Angel, it's a great way to get to know our teachers and meet like minded students as well.

If you are interested in gaining some fabulous hands-on experience as a volunteer, contact us at volunteer@amqfestival.com.au to be added to our volunteer list or complete the online volunteer form which will is available here.

We have some lovely gifts for our volunteers to say a huge thank you for your time.

I’m off to Renmark for the weekend to meet & talk with 250 ladies for International Quilters Day! Looking forward to meeting you all…. I’ll have a special offer for all attendees.

Until next time… happy quilting!
Tracey

Countdown is on!

Only one more day until you can purchase your classes to AMQ Festival 2016.

To make the process a little quicker, I recommend that you go and purchase your Registration Fee now, so that you can create your account in the ticketing system.

Then after we open you simply have to login to your account and commence ‘buying’ your classes all in one shopping cart.

If you wait until the last minute you will need to complete the purchase of your registration fee and then login again to purchase classes.

For further assistance on navigating the ticketing system this document can be downloaded with screenshots to assist you.
REGISTRATIONS for classes will open at 12.01am CST (Adelaide, SA time) on 14th March, 2016

To make this really clear - here are the times in different time zones to refer to.

8.31am 13th March in New York, USA
2.31pm 13th March in Germany, Europe
9.31pm 13th March in Western Australia
11.01pm 13th March in Northern Territory
11.31pm 13th March in Queensland
12.01am 14th March in South Australia
12.31am 14th March in NSW, ACT, Vic, Tas
2.31am 14th March in New Zealand

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Have you booked your accommodation in Adelaide yet? We do have some hotels very close to the Adelaide Convention Centre that have provided special pricing just for attendees to Festival. Please find all their information on our website to be able to book your rooms to obtain these prices.

Please note that the Adelaide Railway Station is right next door and the Adelaide Tram stops right in front of the Convention Centre on North Terrace as well. If you choose to not stay in the city, then find accommodation within easy distance of a train or tram line & it will be easy to travel in each day.

The Adelaide Convention Centre is located on North Terrace in the city, only 10 minutes from Adelaide International Airport. There are airport buses that travel between the airport and the city to major hotels all the time. Details and contact information are on the Travel page of our website.

If you are planning on making a holiday out of your trip & arriving early or staying longer, then find out ‘What’s on’ in Adelaide & available tours that you can do here.

Now I certainly will have my fingers crossed that everyone can smoothly purchase tickets on Sunday! Please do not phone me if you have problems. Email me instead & I can work through them in order of receipt in the morning.

Happy planning & shopping!

Tracey

Do you use a ruler with your Domestic machine?

It has been on our ‘wish list’ for a very long time to be able to create designs with rulers like the longarmers do….

 

Now you can! 

Join us for classes on 16 machines supplied by Pfaff.

Join Lee Vause & Janet Collins in this classroom who will show you how to install a special ruler foot & use rulers to create stunning designs (supplied for this class – available for purchase after from Westalee Design)

We also have specific ruler classes on 16 x HQ Sweet 16 machines by Heather Hopkins and Narelle Morris.

Rulers used in their classes will focus on the Handi Quilter rulers, that will be available in the vendor mall.

For those wishing to learn the basics & just get started using a Bernina Q20 sitdown longarm machine then look no further than classes with Chris O’Brien. Only 6 seats available with a machine each to stitch on! One of her classes will also be using rulers on this machine.

Of course all rulers will work on all machines! We have lots of choices which is wonderful for us. So much talent & inspiration from our teachers on all sized machines at Festival this year. Even the demo/lecture classes on different longarm machines using rulers will provide you with more inspiration on how to create stunning designs on your quilts.

CLASS REGISTRATIONS OPEN 12.01AM 14th MARCH....

Happy quilting

Tracey

Do you 'Slow Stitch'?

Introducing the amazingly funny, talented and inspirational

Mark Lipinski

 

You will be hard pressed to find a more entertaining lecture and enjoyable quilting class than one taken with international quilt teacher and quilt fabric designer and creator and Executive Editor of Quilter's Home magazine, Mark Lipinski’s Fabric Trends and Mark Lipinski’s Christmas 365 magazines. Mark's no holds barred, brutally honest, riotous talks are half about quilting, half show & tell, and all stand-up comedy.
Mark introduced The Slow Stitching Movement to quilters in June 2014 with a twice record-breaking webinar, and with that success, expanded the concept of Slow Stitching to knitters, crocheters, and the needle arts in November 2014.
Currently, Mark hosts a series of “DIY quilting videos” available on CraftDaily.com, and has recently appeared on Iowa Public Television’s Quilts of Valor Special hosted by Marianne Fons, along with special guests, Eleanor Burns and Alex Anderson. That appearance led to a becoming a featured celebrity guest on Quilt In A Day’s webinar series and is featured in the latest Eleanor Burns book, All Star Quilts, featuring Marianne Fons, Nancy Zieman, and Alex Anderson. For the last six years, Mark has sat on the Board of Directors for the international Quilt Alliance.
As a designer, Mark's work has been seen in and on the covers of magazines such as McCall's Quilting, Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, Quilty, McCall's Quick Quilts, Just Cross Stitch, Quiltmaker, American Patchwork and Quilting’s Quilts and More, The Quilter, Irish Quilting, Fabric Trends magazines, various special interest publications, as well as patterned designs in all of his own titles.
Mark will be presenting a number of classes on domestic machines - some quite exclusive with small numbers to ensure a highly personalised experience. These will fill fast, so you will need to be prepared to sign up quick to ensure a seat!
Please share this news with all your friends so that they don’t miss out on the opportunity to meet and learn from the best of the best.

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AMQA Inc.

Australian Machine Quilting Association Inc. is again holding their quilt show.

This is a biennial event which showcases the immense talent of machine quilters across Australia and internationally. This is the only event in Australia dedicated to machine quilting.  There are wonderful prizes to be won and many categories to choose from.

Entry form :  You can enter online or download the form- AMQA 2016 Show Entry

Categories:

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. Fibres, 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. Fibres, 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 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.
9. MODERN: Maximum of 480” perimeter.This category is for those quilts which encompass the Modern Quilting style. Modern quilts are functional and can display features such as solid &/or bold colours, simplicity, minimalism or improvisational piecing. Features can include asymmetry, the use of reinterpreted traditional blocks, the use of modern prints and negative spaces. No embellishments permitted.

AMQA Inc. Quilt Show – 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 2014, either on a Domestic Sewing Machine, Short or Long arm and have NOT entered any other AMQA Inc 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.

We have immense talent here in Australia and I urge you to consider entering this competition to show the world our unique styles of quilting.

Happy quilting
Tracey