The New Zealand Quilting Conference

Brought to you every second year by Quiltique, the next  Machine Quilters’ New Zealand Conference is to be held in Cambridge, New Zealand, from 25-28 July 2010. This is getting closer so you need to get organised – get these dates in your diary and book to come along to the Quilting event of the year! Print off the Expression of Interest form to ensure your place at this important event.

Venue and Date
Cambridge Town Hall, cnr Queen St and Victoria St  backing onto the Information Centre. KFC on one corner, Shell on another, SuperLoo on third.    

Overview:
In previous years the main part of the conference has run for two days only. This year we’re extending the event to three days. The public showcase of longarmers’ work was so successful in 2008 that we will be repeating the idea on Sunday 25th followed by the usual opening/welcoming ceremony. The attendance fee covers these things plus conference dinner, three lunches, and five am/pm teas.

For those attendees who would like more input from our tutors this year, private hands-on classes have been scheduled on the days leading up to the conference proper. These will be at an added cost to anyone wishing to attend - please see the programme.

 

Detail:
Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th July 2010

             Private hands-on tuition at the Town Hall and/or Quiltique studio

Sunday 25th July

  • Display of machine quilted pieces, open to the public from 10am to 4pm. Excellent sponsored prizes!!
  • Private hands-on tuition at the Town Hall and/or Quiltique studio
  • Registration for attendees: from 10am at the Town Hall
  • Meet & Greet: from 4:00 pm, wine & nibbles
  • Official Opening, introduction of tutors 5:00pm

Monday 26th July

  • Four x 90-minute sessions: 9am to 5pm, with breaks for morning and afternoon teas and lunch

 Tuesday 27th July

  • Four x 90-minute sessions: 9am to 5pm, with breaks for morning and afternoon teas and lunch
  • Conference Dinner

Wednesday 28th July

  • Three x 90-minute sessions: 9am to 3pm, with breaks for morning tea and lunch
  • Closing and farewell 3pm

Tutors and Sessions

We are pleased to announce that the following tutors will be offering classes: (click here for more detail)

Pam Clarke, Pam Clarke, Pam Clarke is coming!!

Pam Clarke (Spokane, Washington, USA) is an internationally acclaimed tutor who will be our leading light at this year’s conference. Pam has been machine quilting and teaching machine quilting, piecing and appliqué classes since 1988. She is the owner of Homes Stitches - see www.homestitches.com/index.html. Her work can be seen in several published magazines and books. In 2009 Pam was voted Teacher of the year at the Home Machine Quilt Show in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are just so rapt to have secured her services.

 Australian Tutors

Nic Bridges (Sydney, NSW) is well-known for her work as a top Australian longarmer and quilt artist. Involved in patchwork and quilting since 1992, she became a professional longarmer in 2002. In addition to her longarm quilting business and artistic endeavours, Nic has established herself teaching contemporary quilt making techniques. Nic’s website www.nicquiltz.com is well worth a look.

Jenny Scott (Melbourne, VIC) has, sadly, become unable to make it this time. The programme will now show some adjustments to cater for this and also the rush of interest in other classes.

We are just so thrilled to be able to offer lots of really talented New Zealand tutors this time. It has been our hope and aim over ten years to "grow our own" local tutors. Much as we love having overseas tutors come and will always try to get internationally-recognised names, New Zealand longarmers are coming of age and are well able to feed something back into our industry.

Jenny Allen (Omokoroa) runs a thriving business in longarm machining and supply of wide backing materials. She also sells well-known brands of templates and rulers. Jenny teaches wannabee longarmers on her second machine with the object of hiring it out once they learn the skills.

Sharon Bradley (Te Kuiti) is relatively new to longarming but hasn’t let that hold her back. She has recently moved her machine out of the lounge and into a fantastic new studio where she can indulge her passion for innovative patchwork and teaching.

Diane Caskey (New Plymouth) worked in partnership with Colleen Burr for many years until Colleen moved to the Waikato. An attendee at all previous conferences, Diane will share her long experience of longarming with us.

Carol Fearon (Onehunga) is another of the same stamp as Sharon Bradley but has had her longarm since 2004. Specialising in wearable art, her vibrant works have won major recognition.

Ross Munro (Hastings) will run a course on maintenance/trouble-shooting for Gammill machines. He will also demonstrate the Statler computerised quilting system.

Lori Neels (Cambridge) picks up the important topic of pantograph quilting - something of interest to all starting quilters and owners of home quilting frames.

John Nielsen (Baylys Beach) has been captivated by the powers of PreDesign Studio software for the production of patterns. John operates an IntelliQuilter on his machine and is offering an overview of PreDesign.

Cynthia Read (Cambridge) has an awesome bag project to share with those attendees who would like some time-out from all those longarm classes.

Clive Sandham (Auckland) presents a session on the use of Home Quilting Frames. Working with a Juki machine on his latest SwiftQuilter frame, Clive will demonstrate techniques to get the best from such set-ups. If you own a SwiftQuilter or similar and use it for quilting with a domestic machine, you won’t want to miss this!

Sally Smith (Auckland) will get you thinking about freehand quilting patterns in her class called "Breaking Boundaries".

Helen Townend (Taupo) has been entranced with Karen McTavish’s trapunto technique - especially on whitework. She will be presenting a double session starting with design of a wholecloth quilt and moving through to  trapunto and background fillers.

Julie van der Putten or Puddle as she is known (Cambridge) is one of New Zealand’s best known demonstrators of craft work. At this conference she will be telling us all abount chenille work and mesh work.

Donna Ward (Hamilton) taught quilting skills for the domestic machine at our first conference way back in 2002. Already then a legend in NZ quilting, she now has her own shop and longarm machine and another eight years’ experience. She will be presenting skills and techniques for both shortarm and longarm machines.

Linda Young (Hamilton). Linda has been doing some amazing work with her threadplay. Inspired originally by Libby Lehman’s book "Threadplay", Linda’s style of quilting is now much in demand. Linda will also be offering a class on Feathers.

Cost

The attendance fee of $385NZ ($310AU) covers all tuition, wine/nibbles at the opening ceremony, five morning and afternoon teas, lunches for three days, and the conference dinner. Attendees are expected to make their own arrangements for accomodation and meals other than those stated.

Day rate of $110 includes morning/afternoon teas and lunches. Class rate of $35 covers morning/afternoon tea immediately before/after your session. Lunch $10 extra. Extra dinners at $60.

Class sizes will be limited to 20 students. From July 1st 2010 payment in full is required. Payment of dues must be settled before the conference starts. Direct credit with identification is our preferred method of payment. The NZMQ Conference account is 03-1568-0220510-00. Australian attendees may make payment to BSB 063-108 account 1043-5632 to avoid difficulties with exchange. Please ensure that it is clear who the payment is coming from and advise us by e-mail as well. Cheques are acceptable. We do not have Visa facilities. There is no GST component.

Networking

There will be opportunities for attendees to network with other attendees and with tutors and session leaders. It is a prime opportunity to spend some time with other quilters, share ideas and swap techniques! This has been a major source of satisfaction to attendees at all our previous conferences. Unless privacy is requested, your contact details will be made available to other attendees after the conference.

Merchants

Several longarm-related businesses have expressed interest in having a stand at the 2010 conference. See merchants selling thread, patterns, templates, books, accessories, right up to longarm systems (with or without computer guidance) and most things quilting in between.

Accomodation

There are several excellent options in and around Cambridge. The Cambridge Information Centre website www.cambridge.co.nz provides full coverage. It is really quite a good resource. Contact by e-mail at info@cambridge.co.nz or phone +64 7 823 3456. There are also some local patchworkers who would be interested in hosting attendees on a B&B basis.

Proximity of Motels to the Venue
No 1 on Victoria (823 1467) - across the road
Cambrian (827 7766) and Captain’s Quarters (827 8989) - 2 blocks
Cambridge Mews (827 7166) - 4 blocks
Colonial Court (827 5244) - 6 blocks
Riverside (827 6068) - 6 blocks
Leamington Motel (827 4057) - 2.5km

Quilting Show and Competitions    

Our 2010 showcase will be open to the public on Sunday 25th July from 10am to 4pm. This is our chance to show the passing public just what longarm machines can do. We aim to raise the profile of our industry by  emphasising the ease, speed, and cost-effectiveness of using a professional quilter. We are interested in displaying all styles of quilting from the simple mechanical holding-together of three layers to the works of art that several talented people are producing. Pantographs - plain or complex, hand- or computer-guided - freehand feathers, fillers and flounces - blocks, borders and more. The success of this venture will depend very much on what quilts conference attendees present. 

As an incentive for you to display your work for judging we are offering sponsored prizes in two categories - a Viewers’ Choice of the general competition quilts and a Challenge Quilt which will be judged by our overseas tutors. There will be an Overseas Tutors’ Exhibition, a special exhibition by Linda Young, and a display-only section of work not presented for judging. No one quilter will receive prizes in both competitions. Display items can be accepted only from those attending the conference. Large quilts should have a strip of looped velcro (the soft side - not the hooks side) attached to the top edge.

Linda Young has kindly offered to take charge of everything to be hung. Items for display should be forwarded to her in the week of 19th to 23rd Juy. Alternatively ... we will be setting up the hall on Saturday 24th and should you wish to bring along your own quilts that day, please let Linda know by phone or e-mail beforehand. All display items should have the quilter’s business card attached to allow viewers the opportunity of identifying who does the sort of work that appeals.

Linda’s contact details:
2619 River Road, RD 1, Hamilton 
Ph (07) 829 9106
j-lyoung@xtra.co.nz  

 

Prize Sponsors - $200NZ cash each ...

  • Nolting Manufacturing Inc of Cedar Rapids Iowa USA
  • Kasa Engineering Services (IntelliStitch/IntelliQuilter) of Dublin Ohio USA