Our HQ Ambassadors are specially selected quilters who use and promote our Handi Quilter brand and machines. They are amazing quilters and leaders in the art. We are proud to be associated with and work with them in their creative pursuits.
Lynda Jackson
Handi Quilter Ambassador and Educator
I come from a family where many are crafters and the ladies have always made things with their hands, be it knitting or sewing. My mother taught me to sew when I was young and I have never stopped since, be it dressmaking and tailoring or bagmaking and quilting. Though at first quilting never seemed to make sense, – why take perfectly good material and cut it into tiny little pieces just to sew it all back together again. Dressmaking and tailoring became the main pastimes with other needlework hobbies nipping in and out over time.
At 19 I became a servant to the public (Police Service) which I did for 30 yrs but continued my love of everything sewing related. When I retired from this post I began work in a small fabric store which sold both dressmaking and quilting fabrics. One of my tasks there was to make the samples for display in the store and I soon became hooked. The quilting on them was basic and I wanted to do more, I wanted to create those beautiful feathers and ruler work, and so began my freemotion quilting journey.
Leaving the store saw me buying a Handiquilter Avante and falling in love with both the machine and the freedom it gave me to express myself. I started my business Capricorn Quilting(.co.uk) in 2013 and shortly after in 2014 was asked to become the Educator for the UK HandiQuilter distributor. This is when I had the Pro-stitcher added to the Avante. I added the Infinity in 2017 but only use it for hand-guided quilting.
I love interacting with the students and seeing them have those ‘aha’ moments, and then progress and grow as a quilter, having confidence to try new techniques. As well as having my own facebook page, I am admin for a dedicated facebook group called Longarm Learning Curve which was started to support UK and EU owners, but has now grown to included owners from across the world. This means I can continue to see students grow and become more confident.
I have been fortunate enough to have won and be placed in a number of competitions in the UK and in the World Quilts Show during this short time, and love the challenge of creating something different for each one. Although I have the Pro Stitcher my heart will always be with free motion hand-guided quilting.
The Netherlands
Hilde van Schaardenburg is an ambassador for Pinhole Quilting for Handi Quilter products. Since 2013 she was ambassador for The Cotton Patch, Birmingham, United Kingdom and The Cotton Patch Ambassador for Handi Quilter products.
Hilde uses a Handi Quilter HQ18 Avante Longarm Quilting Machine. She can be seen demonstrating her techniques at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August.
In 2015 she became a member of Textile Dyers Collective www.verfcollectief.nl
http://www.hildevanschaardenburg.nl/
Scotland
Pauline has been a Handi Quilter Ambassador since 2012. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and purchased by the major museums of the UK and major USA collections.
Every year Pauline and her husband Charlie Poulsen, who is a sculptor, have an Open Day at their Studio in Allanbank, Scotland, To find out more visit Pauline's website.
Hilde comes from an artistic family. Before dedicating herself to quilting in 2002, Hilde’s artistic endeavours extended to music, painting, floral art and jewellery design. All her previous experience came together when she began working with textile, minerals and paint. She uses a bright range of colours and a large diversity of materials and techniques.
Her work has been seen at many national and international exhibitions and competitions, where she has won several awards.
Hilde is the founder of Art Quilt Fusion, a European group of art quilters.
In 2013 she completed the Quilt Judging Course, organized by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles.
Website: www.hildevanschaardenburg.nl
Hilde van Schaardenburg
Pauline Burbidge has long been recognized as one of the United Kingdom's premier textile artists, and she also is one of the few European artists who have been an important force in the American art quilt movement.
Over her forty-year career, Pauline's work has been exhibited worldwide and examples have been purchased by a number of major museums of the UK, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museums of Scotland, the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum in Belfast, the Whitworth Art Gallery, in Manchester, the Shipley Art Gallery, and the Glasgow Museums. She is also represented in major collections in the USA, including the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the John M. Walsh III Collection of Contemporary Art Quilts, and has won numerous commissions, grants and awards, including the British Craft Council's John Ruskin Craft Award and a major grant from the Scottish Arts Council.
Pauline herself describes how she turned to quilting - "Take one person, who at the age of twenty five, was moved when viewing an exhibition of antique quilts, and mix it with her art school practice of drawing, colour, line and abstraction. Stir in a passion for cloth, stitching and making, together with a love of the rural landscape, the natural world and the spirituality of a special place, and you begin to get a picture of my textile artwork now. Many influences have come and gone, however, years on, quiltmaking still moves me!!"
I make unique, special, ‘one-off’ individual quilts – creating my own visual language in fabric.
Pauline uses a Handi Quilter HQ18 Avante on a Studio Frame
Location: Berwickshire, Scotland
Email: info@paulineburbidge-quilts.com
Website: www.paulineburbidge-quilts.com