Handi Quilter National (and International!) Educator

Jane has been piecing quilts for about 17 years. It wasn’t until 2009, when she discovered longarm quilting, that quilting became her passion. She started free-motion quilting on a domestic machine, then an HQ Sweet Sixteen® and then an HQ Avanté®. She still enjoys using all of these machines.

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Jane is a self-taught longarm quilter who specialises in custom free-motion quilting. She is an award winning quilter who loves to share her knowledge of quilting with other quilters. She enjoys teaching as a Handi Quilter Educator and on her own at quilt shops and national quilt shows.

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Jane’s philosophy is that no matter what type of machine one uses, domestic, short-arm or longarm, anyone can learn to custom quilt. Her goal when teaching is to equip each student with as much information and knowledge as possible.

Jane resides on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

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Jane has recently featured on Handi Quilter Live and we are delighted that she is joining us for Festival of Quilts 2018.

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This is the HQ Live on Element of Change some of which Jane can take you through one-on-one on a session.

You can read more about Jane and see her quilting at www.stitchbystitchcustomquilting.com

Handi Quilter Ambassador and Educator

Lynda has been a Handi Quilter Educator in the UK since 2014. She was made a Handi Quilter Ambassador in 2017.  Her skills as a quilter have been confirmed by the many awards and accolades that she has achieved. She also quilts for others at her Studio near Sheffield as Capricorn Quilting and works as an Educator and Demonstrator at various shows in the UK.

Most recently she was awarded Overall Champion and Overall Runner up as well as 7 other awards or ribbons at The National Patchwork Championships. She shares her knowledge in various forums, blogs and on our Facebook Group Longarm Learning Curve where she frequently assists other Handi Quilter quilters on their longarm journey.

More about Lynda by Lynda.

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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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You can read more about Lynda on her website - Capricorn Quilting

Demonstrator and Quilter - Cut and Alter

Abigail quilts professionally for others as cut&alter using her Handi Quilter HQ18 Avante Longarm machine. She has won awards for her quilts at various competitions. Since we began Pinhole Quilting in January 2017 Abigail has been demonstrating at shows and assisting with teaching at classes where her insight and experience are invaluable.

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"Whilst I do not like labels the following words do describe me pretty accurately:

a daughter, a wife, a mother, a former home educator, a sewer, a quilter, a longarm quilter, a dressmaker, a crocheter, a baker, a recycler, an upcycler, a maker, a mender, a reader, a puzzle solver and lots more besides .....

I bought my Handi Quilter Avante, a longarm quilting machine, in July 2015 and haven't looked back!  A month after it was delivered I had my first entry in a Quilt Show and was delighted to receive Judge's Merit for that quilt.

Whilst the girls were home educated I slowly began to take on customer quilts and since the girls went to school, in January 2017, things have blossomed  My journey is taking to me to lots of unexpected but truly wonderful places and I am loving it!
 

When not in my studio I share the house with my husband, a Kiwi, my two daughters, one Kiwi and one Brit, and a little black and white cat called Smiggle."

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You can see more about Abigail on her blog.

Handi Quilter Ambassador for Pinhole Quilting

Hilde van Schaardenburg is an ambassador for Pinhole Quilting for Handi Quilter products and has represented Handi Quilter since 2013.

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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.

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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.

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Her work has been seen at many national and international exhibitions and competitions, where she has won several awards.

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Hilde is the founder of Art Quilt Fusion, a European group of art quilters. In 2015 she became a member of Textile Dyers Collective www.verfcollectief.nl

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In 2013 she completed the Quilt Judging Course, organized by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles.

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Hilde can teach in English, Dutch and German.

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Website: www.hildevanschaardenburg.nl

Handi Quilter Ambassador

Birgit Schüller discovered piecing patchwork and quilting by accident in 2001. With two very young children, she didn’t have time to take classes and thus taught herself the do‘s and dont's from books and magazines. Also, she didn’t feel comfortable having works-in-progress with lots of pins and needles laying around in her house, so she immediately started quilting her quilts on her domestic sewing machine. From the beginning, Birgit added her own twist to known quilting patterns, and as early as in February 2002, she was asked to teach classes at a friend’s quilt store. From these humble beginnings, Birgit has been operating a successful longarm quilting business with an international customer base in Germany since 2005.

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Since Birgit is located at the edge of the longarm quilting world, self-teaching continues to be her key strategy.

Over the last nine years, she has won numerous awards in major U.S., European, and international shows (such as MQS, MQX, HMQS, MMQS, OEQC, FoQ, AQS Lancaster, Vermont Quilt Festival, AQS Grand Rapids, AQS Lancaster, Northwest Quilting Expo, QwM, AMQ Festival, IQFOI, British Stitch & Quilt Village show, Quilts UK, the Scottish Quilt Chamipinships). She has received Best of Show, Solitaire, and Viewer’s Choice awards for both her quilts and quilted garments.

Birgit designs, pieces, and quilts all of her show quilts and garments herself. Her piecing designs are based on traditional patchwork but she challenges herself to take these traditional roots to contemporary levels.

While she likes bold colors and high contrast in her designs, Birgit’s quilting style combines playful and elegant elements. She likes to take a theme from the fabrics used in a top and to continue this theme in her quilting. Her goal is to enhance every top without overpowering the piecing.

Wherever possible, Birgit prefers free-motion quilting which allows her to let her creative juices flow – and it shows! Learn more about Birgit at www.creativebits.biz.

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Birgit can teach in German, English and French. We are delighted to have Birgit join us on the Festival of Quilts Handi Quilter stand in 2018.