We are fortunate to have Jennie joining our teaching team this year on a regular basis. Jennie has been quilting since the early 1980’s in a community hall and was very proud of her first efforts. She dabbled until the early 1990’s when she decided to  take a few more serious classes, however it wasn’t until 1999 when she started to design her own work. She has been teaching and designing ever since, her forte now is needle turn appliqué.

Jennie has previously taught at Berrima Patchwork and is a member of our Magpie Sewing Group and will be joining us throughout the year to teach twice monthly a range of exciting and new projects. Jennie’s class will be fun and exciting where you will be able to learn in a friendly and nurturing environment.

Chris is a new teacher for us this year and will be joining our teaching team for the second half of the year. Chris lives in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney and has been quilting for 25 years and started teaching 8 years ago. Her work encompasses all styles with an emphasis on a strong colour palette and a preference at the moment for foundation piecing.

She has won several prizes for her quilts and is a great advocate for machine quilting on a domestic machine. In 2006 Chris won first prize in the Best Traditional Quilt category at the Australian Quilt Show for Mariner’s Garden. “Foundation piecing has been my favourite technique for quite a while because of it’s accuracy and the ability to make unusual designs. Come to a class and learn the technique of foundation piecing – you’ll be amazed at the complex designs you can create and friends will think you are SOOO clever with all those perfect points!”

Kim has been quilting and patchworking for over 25 years however the demands of rearing five boys meant that necessity sewing took precedence. Originally from New Zealand Kim arrived in Australia 7 years ago and it was arriving in Australia that gave her the opportunity to pursue this dormant hobby with a passion. Kim  purchased 2 longarm quilting machines and a couple of embroidery machines and it has just rocketed from there. She has quilted for customers from all over the world!

Kim has won awards at the Darling Harbour show and also the Victorian Quilt show and this year was lucky enough to have a piece juried into Houston  after much prodding from Jenny Haskins. Kim has her own website with embroidery designs, as well as having released computerised longarm designs for professional quilters. Her embroidery patterns have been published in Creative Expressions and also in Machine Embroidery and Textile Art. Kim has been  lucky  to have been picked up by Bernina as a 'friend' and will be on their stands through 2008 at many of the quilting and sewing shows.

Kim is  passionate about her quilting and also about teaching others the patterns that she is excited about and demystifying the often feared step to quilting your own quilt.  Kim is very keen to pass on the 'colour shading' technique that can make your quilting or appliqué come alive. "Derwent" {the colour pencil company} the Parent company in the UK and their subsidiary in Australia have  used her  quilts in their advertising.

Growing up in unspoiled New Zealand,
Kay developed a strong love of nature, which is a constant source of inspiration for her. There she finds endless variety of shape, texture and colour. Her quilts are often intricately realistic in detail, and require a lot of research.

After living in several European countries with her Norwegian-born husband Bard, she moved to  Pennsylvania, USA ,- the start of her quilting journey. For almost 20 years, she developed her craft, initially inspired by the nearby Amish community. She soon evolved from traditional quilts to landscapes and pictorial quilts, miniatures and contemporary quilts, exhibiting prize winning quilts in shows in the USA, Canada and beyond. In 2002 she entered yet another phase, with her family move to Australia, where she now lives and teaches, her work is now mostly with Australian landscapes, and she has been submitting her work to Australian shows. Her quilt ‘Free Flight’ won second place in the 2004 Sydney show, and in 2007 ‘A different View’ won 1st place in the pictorial category and Viewers’ Choice

In her quilts she uses mostly hand and machine appliqué  for the main image, and then completes the quilt with a variety of embellishments, each technique often simple and manageable, but in combination they create a rich, realistic end result.   As a Guild Accredited Teacher at the Quilters’ Guild of NSW she now thoroughly enjoys giving back to the quilting world some of what it has given her, getting quilters to share her enthusiasm about making landscape and pictorial quilts, helping them look at nature and fabric in a whole new way. You can find more of Kay’s Work on her website at www.kayhaerland.com .

In 1980 Lyn commenced her small business, Melanie Jane, designing and sewing for quality baby and children’s boutiques around Australia. As the winner of Australia’s first international smocking competition in 1989, the opportunity arose for Lyn to continue her passion for smocking and fine machine sewing by changing her business focus towards teaching. Lyn and her husband resided in Illinois for eleven years, following a business move in 1995 and returned to Australia in 2007.

In 2000, after achieving her certificate with honors in Fashion and Design, Lyn produced her first pattern for commercial sale and, to date, successfully markets a range of ten patterns for baby, children and adult wear. In 1993 Lyn was instrumental in founding Australia’s first Smocking Guild, joined the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA) in 1994 and became a charter member and inaugural President of the Midwest Heirloom Stitchers SAGA chapter in the Chicago land area in 1997. As well as being an active member of several other sewing related groups, Lyn’s time during the years in the USA was spent preparing and conducting workshops around the United States and focusing on presenting challenging and exciting classes at the SAGA National Convention each year.

Lyn has been published numerous times in Australian Smocking and Embroidery, Inspirations, Sew Beautiful and Creative Needle magazines. She has won awards in SAGA’s Design Show and Show and Share competitions, including a People’s Choice award for heirloom sewing.

After a career in commercial textile printing, Deborah began her own quilting business from home, using a domestic sewing machine. After five years and quilting more than 500 quilts, she has worked out the best ways to use a domestic sewing machine to its greatest effect.

Deborah has produced award-winning quilts, is frequently published in magazines and has now developed a comprehensive course which she teaches extensively. Her classes are fun and informative.

Many of you will know Tamsin from her work in the shop and in the background of Berrima Patchwork. Having grown up around fabric, sewing has been part of her life since an early age. Her philosophy of quilting is to use a machine to make an interesting quilt with ease. The workshops Tamsin is teaching this year are achievable by all levels of quilters and you will have either a finished or near finished product by the end of the class.