Welcome to my website! I am passionate about quilting, especially English paper piecing and fine hand applique. My favourite fabrics are reproductions from the 19th century and my style is often inspired by antique quilts. More recently I have been working with Tilda fabrics to create projects in a fresh, floral style.
I have lived in Sydney, Australia all my life and have been making quilts since 1992 and teaching my own designs for the past 22 years. I enjoy machine piecing samplers as well as intricate paper foundation pieced designs. Often these quilts are drafted on the computer and the colours of the different segments are manipulated to create secondary patterns. These designs on paper are then translated to fabric. I love to add machine applique to soften the straight lines of the piecing.
Jane Austen Quilt Collection
I have combined my love of history, literature and sewing in my original Jane Austen Quilt Collection. My signature quilt, Pemberley, was inspired by my fascination with an English coverlet made in the 1790s.
“Jane Austen” quilts have been my most popular workshop samples. The Collection now includes 13 bed sized quilts featuring lots of English paper piecing and hand applique elements of vines of flowers and leaves, stars, dresdens, clam shells but especially hexagons. Hexagons are definitely my favourite shape of all!
Many of my students have returned each year to start my latest instalment in this Collection. I feel very excited to see my students experiment with colour and add amazing fussy cutting from fabrics of all types to my design concepts.
Awards
My quilts have won numerous prizes at local quilt shows and the QuiltNSW Quilt Show held in Sydney every year. Some of the most recent ribbons I have received are:
- 2015 2nd Place in the Special Red and White Commercially Quilted category of the Sydney Quilt Show for “Winchester”
- 2016 Judges’ Commendation in the Commercially Quilted category of the Sydney Quilt Show for “Wentworth”
- 2017 1st Place in the Professional Quilt Top, Quilted by Another category of the Sydney Quilt Show for “Hartfield”
- 2022 1st Place in the Professional Applique category for “Anatolia”
- 2022 3rd Place in the Entrant’s Quilt Top Quilted by Another Professional category for “Delaford” with magnificent quilting by Leanne Harvey of Mount Vincent Quilting
Teaching
I teach full time in various shops across Sydney and I have taught at many major quilting retreats and events in Australia and New Zealand. These include the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, Quilt Encounter in Adelaide, Misty Mountains Retreat in Dorrigo, for the Star City Quilters in Broken Hill and the New Zealand Quilt Symposium in Palmerston North. See my Teaching Schedule.
I am proud to be an accredited teacher through QuiltNSW in Special Workshop Techniques. Over 60 of my projects have been published in every major quilting magazine in Australia and my quilt “Ashbourne Mill” has been on the cover of Quiltmania magazine published in France. I very much enjoyed presenting two popular instructional DVDs with Quilters Companion magazine.
Tours
Quiltmaking has provided me with many unique experiences via speaking engagements and travel opportunities. In September 2015 and May 2017 I travelled to the United Kingdom to accompany and tutor on a tour based in Bath called The Life and Times of Jane Austen, organised by Whitecroft Traditional Tours. These trips provided a fantastic opportunity to share my love of history and textiles with my students.
The best part of my job is helping women gain a love of creative stitching. It is therapy for me and I am honoured when I am told I have changed someone’s life for the better.
I hope you enjoy browsing my Quilt Gallery and perhaps purchasing from my extensive portfolio of patterns, many of them now available as instant downloadable PDF files.
I am passionate about quilting, especially English paper piecing and fine hand applique. My favourite fabrics are reproductions from the 19th century and my style is often inspired by antique quilts.