Telene’s mother taught her to sew when she was very young and her obsession for quilting stems from her passion for sewing.  She completed a BTech Degree in Interior Architecture and during her studies became involved in her parents’ sewing machine dealership where she taught a variety of basic sewing lessons. During her time in the corporate world, she started quilting.

 

In January 2011 she began teaching basic quilting classes which developed into quilting for clients, specializing in custom free motion quilting and teaching nationally at quilt shops, guild groups, South African National Quilt Festivals and HQ Machine Quilters Boot Camp.

 

Fast forward 8 years and Telene specialises in free motion quilting and pattern designing. She was appointed a Handi Quilter International Ambassador in 2018 and taught at the HQ Academy 2019 in the USA. 

 

You can see more of the style of work she'll be bringing to the UK Academy on her social media pages: 

FB: @ladyjanequiltingshop

IG: @telene.ladyjanequilting

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Helen Godden has been quilting for only 15 years but has been an artist all her life. As a Handi Quilter International Ambassador, Helen combines her love of free-motion quilting and her teaching degree to inspire all quilters to approach their quilting from a different perspective. Helen uses her Aussie flair, humour and her art to inspire all to new ways of thinking and empowering students with confidence in their free-motion quilting and creativity.

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When teaching face to face or online to the wide world of quilters, Helen always focuses on Education and Inspiration.

Lynda comes from a family where many are crafters and the ladies have always made things with their hands.  Her Mother taught her to sew when she was young and she hasn't stopped since, be it dressmaking and tailoring or bag-making and quilting.  

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After 30 years serving the public in the Police Force, during which she continued her love of everything sewing related, she retired from the post and worked in a small fabric store which sold both dressmaking and quilting fabrics.  One task there was to make the samples for display in the store and she soon became hooked on quilting and wanted to do more than just the basic required in the store.  Lynda wanted to be creating those beautiful feathers and ruler work, and so began her freemotion quilting journey.

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Lynda left the store and bought a HandiQuilter Avante. She fell in love with both the machine and the freedom of creative expression. She started her business Capricorn Quilting(.co.uk) in 2013 and shortly after in 2014 was asked to become the Educator for the UK Handi Quilter Distributor.  The computerised quilting system Pro Stitcher was added to the Avante. A Handi Quilter Infinity was added in 2017 for hand-guided quilting.

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Lynda says - "I love interacting with the students and seeing those ‘ah-ha’ moments, and how they progress and grow as a quilter, having confidence to try new techniques.  I am admin for the HandiQuilter 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 was proud to have been asked to be a UK HandiQuilter Educator and even more proud to have been asked to be a HandiQuilter Ambassador. 

 

I have been fortunate enough to have won Best of Show and be placed in a number of competitions in the UK and in the World Quilts Show including Best in World in 2018. I 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 and creating something unique.”

“From my Studio to Yours . . ..  Happy Quilting. MK 😊”

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MKs goals.

 

On the professional quilting side of the house:  to help turn unfinished quilt-tops into finished beauties with custom, tailored, computerised longarm quilting services. 

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On the training side of the house: to help all Pro-Stitcher owners know and love their systems better.

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It's through her own experience of using the Pro Stitcher software, and especially her use of SIM (the simulation of Pro Stitcher using a tablet or laptop) that MK has become popular both domestically in the USA and throughout the world.

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MK teaches quilting and longarm classes through guilds, shops and sewing groups throughout the USA.  Her biggest area of growth has been with live classes across the world and recorded training videos.  MK Quilts is a national Handi Quilter retailer in the USA, but her focus continues to be on providing support and tailored Pro-Stitcher training to the growing Pro-Stitcher quilting community all over the globe. 
  

Annelize Littlefair taught herself to sew on her grandmother’s sewing machine that was left to her mother, who could not sew at all. She did a beginner’s patchwork course in 2001 and learnt to quilt on a domestic machine. Annelize’s children were little at the time so she didn’t have much time for her new hobby but hoped that in the future she would.  Things progressed and when the challenge of quilting a large king size quilt presented itself she realised there was no way she could quilt it on her small domestic sewing machine. It was at this point that she investigated longarm quilting machines. Her decision to purchase a Handi Quilter Avante and then a trip to Quilt Academy in 2012 in Salt Lake City consolidated her learning of her new skills in Longarm Quilting.

 

This is when her passion for longarm quilting really began. Now, 7 years later, she has a string of awards to her name including:

• Quilts UK Malvern Open in 2014 with Kutch Diamonds which won awards for machine quilting, innovative use of colour and striking design, theme winner, a Judge’s Choice and Overall Champion

• Quilts UK Malvern Open in 2015 with ‘Whistler: Fire and Ice’ which won awards for machine quilting and for piecing and best in category as well as Overall Runner-up and ‘When Rainbows Dance’ which won best in theme

• Mancuso World Quilt Show in 2015 - The trouble with Magenta, Hot or Not - Best in Britain

• Mancuso World Quilt Show in 2016 - Kutch Diamonds - Best Traditional Award

• Mancuso World Quilt Show in 2017 - Nostalgia ‘ Best Longarm Award

• Festival of Quilts 2017 - The Trouble with Magenta, Hot or Not - Best in Traditional

• Festival of Quilts 2018 - Nostalgia - Second in Traditional 

• MQX New England 2019 - Nostalgia - 3rd place Wholecloth 

• MQX New England 2019 - You’re kidding me! - 1st place New Traditions in Textiles 

• MQX New England 2019 - Oh Coquette, ruffling some feathers? - Best of “It’s better in leather’ challenge

• MQX New England 2019 - Call of the Siren - 3rd place Small Wallhangings

• UQSM 2019 - Nostalgia - Nostalgia - First in Wholecloth

• UQSM 2019 - Oh Coquette, ruffling some feathers? - Judges Choice Award and also an Honourable Mention

• National Quilt Championships Sandown 2019 - Rainbow Quilt For My Rainbow Child - Best in Show

 

'The trouble with magenta, hot or not’ and ‘You’re kidding me’ are both now on display in the International Quilt Invitational Exhibition 2019 at the Brigham Museum of Art and History

 

Annelize enrolled in the Quilter’s Guild Judging course in 2017 and achieved the qualification in 2019. She has already participated in jurying quilts for exhibitions and shows and has been asked to judge at upcoming shows.

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The next step in her longarm journey was to enrol on an online course with Cathy Wiggins, an American teacher with a passion and expertise in quilting with leather. The course was a “Teach the Teacher’ and she qualified as the first (and only European) certified teacher for quilting on leather.

 

Her focus is currently on creating a body of work on leather of wild animals for solo exhibition in a gallery and creating quilts for family members as well as making leather bags, having done a course in leather bag-making with Rebecca Jane School of Sewing in Lancing near Brighton.

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Annelize has taught classes at Knit & Stitch shows in the UK and hopes to encourage more to try their hand at quilting on leather through events such as the Handi Quilter Academy.