BLESSINGTON - Key Persons
Bree has been sewing for as long as she can remember. Her first project was a stuffed toy named "Bung" and in her words ‘it was laughable, but if you start at the beginning you can only improve.' From here Bree helped her mother with dance costumes, sewing on her own Girl Guide badges and eventually making her own street clothes.
Two years at TAFE taught her basic construction, pattern drafting, art finishing, costume history, fashion drawing and much more. After TAFE she ended up in a succession of knowledgeable positions including working at a high profile fabric and haberdashery business. It culminated with Bree buying her own business. The learning curve got steeper as Bree learnt about the form and function of sewing machines, including techniques and servicing procedures, with her becoming a qualified sewing machine repairer.
Bree made her first Cosplay in 2016, being her Victoriana Ganandorf costume and has gone on to make more since.
Cath Quinlan has been designing and teaching for more than 10 years. Her talents lie in digitising, free-motion quilting, machine embroidery and education.
She has co-authored two internationally distributed machine embroidery books, published many projects in Australian craft magazines and digitised and sold numerous embroidery designs and patterns.
Her passion remains in education and the ability to share what she knows with anyone willing to listen. Cath's teaching style is fun and relaxed, and she truly believes that ‘anyone can do it'.
Job Titles:
- AccuQuilt Product Manager
Debbie started her career working in a fabric store at the age of 20. She quickly moved into selling machines and teaching. After working with VSM for a number of years, she travelled to many craft shows around Australia teaching a variety of classes including the new love of her life, quilting and patchwork.
Now working at Blessington as AccuQuilt Product Manager, Debbie's passion is to pass on her knowledge and inspiration onto other quilters. She loves seeing the enjoyment and excitement when customers purchase AccuQuilt and tell her about the quilts they will make. Debbie lives on the Central Coast with her husband and two teenage daughters.
Having gown up in the sewing industry and I have always been a passionate sewer. My interest in quilting was sparked when I was about 24 years old. Prior to this I never thought I would see myself making a "Nanna" quilt. My favourite style of quilting is modern free motion. I quilt a lot of wholecloth quilts because it means I can get straight into the quilting without the time spent on piecing. Like many quilters, my journey started out on my domestic sewing machine before moving on to a frame mounted quilting system. I am currently quilting on both a stationary machine the Handi Quilter Capri 18 and on a longarm frame system the Handi Quilter Infinity 26 with Pro-Stitcher. So I feel that I have all my quilting bases covered. I am a very passionate free motion quilter, and it is wonderful to see that we have now evolved beyond stippling with the advances in machines, tools, fabrics, etc. so that now almost anything is possible. Quilting should not be stressful and perfect; it should be fun and full of character! I am self-taught, and just love experimenting and thinking outside the box. I love to teach in a fun and casual manner and to share my experiences with fellow quilters, whether they be experienced or those just starting out on their quilting journey. I have had the honour to be invited to teach at AQC (Australian Quilt Convention) a number of times and many quilting retreats in my own State and around Australia. I have had the privilege to quilt customer's and my own show quilts for high profile quilt shows around Australia and have had my work recognised with several highly prestigious awards.
Letitia Moore has been involved in the sewing industry for over 20 years. Like so many of us, she loved sewing and was a good customer in her local sewing machine shop in Melbourne. The owner soon realised what a gem Letitia was and employed her in the business. She quickly moved on from there and started working for VSM, training and educating using the embroidery software.
Letitia now works for Blessington as a Sales Manager, looking after VIC, SA, and TAS. She is also in the education department and works at many craft shows around the country.
She loves working on her Handi Quilter Infinity frame and being a technology guru, making the HQ ProStitcher her favourite program. With our retailers, Letitia is known as the resident expert in Art & Stitch. She even showed the HQ Educators a couple of tricks. Letitia has a no-nonsense approach to teaching and provides excellent notes to follow along in class and at home.
In her spare time, she horse rides and actively competes in cowboy dressage and mountain trail competitions. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two adult sons.
From a very early age Sharyn developed a passion for sewing and craft which has allowed her to combine her love of sewing with her passion for helping others.
Accredited with many patterns that she has written, her areas of expertise range from, quilting, embroidery, dressmaking to costume designing.
Sharyn is very passionate about those in need and is the founder of ‘1000 Cranes for Peace', where she has delivered thousands of quilts to women's refuges all over Australia for women and children effected by domestic violence.
Sharyn has also raised over $20,000 through quilting to build an orangutan enclosure in Sumatra for orphaned orangutans who have lost their habitat through palm oil plantations.
Once a week Sharyn volunteers at a wig and turban clinic in a Brisbane oncology unit where she works closely with women effected by breast cancer; fitting them with wigs and giving them turbans that she has made to make them feel beautiful again.
As an animal lover, Sharyn also volunteers her time overseas in Costa Rica working with sloths and in Sumatra with orangutans.
Sue came from a long line of seamstresses but it was quilting that really ignited her passion. A chance encounter at quilt store advertising classes began the journey over 30 years ago. First it was the precision of piecing that drove her but as she became more confident and the quilts became larger she became frustrated with the quilting and longed for more than "stitch in the ditch" and crosshatching.
It was at the Sydney Quilt Show that she first saw Handiqulter Avante and knew that was her future.
Despite working full-time as a Intensive Care Paramedic she started making & selling baby accessories to fund her goal and in 2013 bought a Handiquilter Avante with Prostitcher from her local dealer. Having already mastered machine embroidery she knew this is where she needed to be. A year later she started quilting professionally.
In 2018 she was selected by Blessington to become a Handiquilter educator and travelled to Handiquilter HQ, Utah, USA to undertake training in all the Handiquilter models specialising in ProStitcher and more recently Prostitcher Designer.
Sue's studio has a Handiquilter Amara on a 12ft Studio2 frame with ProSticher and is looking to introduce the new Amara ST to help her become more confident with freemotion on a stationary machine.
Currently living in Bathurst NSW with her husband and three dachshunds, she continues to quilt professionally and you will see her at various Quilt shows demonstrating and teaching Handiquilter.
Ever since she can remember, Terri has loved to sew and create. In the early years, dressmaking was her passion, whether making from scratch or unpicking her mother's old clothes and revamping them into something new! It wasn't until her early twenties that she was introduced to patchwork but through the busy years of raising a large family and running her own business as an Occupational Therapist, not many quilts were started or finished! In those days, her sewing time was often spent mending or creating costumes for school dressups.
Terri loves to share her knowledge and love of sewing with others, and as the owner of a fabric and machine sales store from 2013, she was able to do that with regular classes in patchwork, dressmaking, pattern drafting, quilting and machine embroidery. Being an Occupational Therapist who has always worked with children and people with disability, Terri was grateful to be able to offer kid's classes and to work with disability groups in her store. Terri believes that everyone can create and she gets great joy in inspiring and motivating others to "have a go". She loves nothing better than seeing their delight and boost of confidence after creating something.
A lifelong learner, Terri is always looking for ways to expand her skills. She is currently exploring and enjoying the world of art quilts and has moved on to convening workshops with visiting tutors, so that other quilters can experience the joy of learning new skills in this area. Her newfound love of fabric collage has resulted in several awards for one of her quilts. As an educator with Blessington, Terri is excited to continue inspiring others to find their creative voice and learn new things.