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| Australian Tutors |
Caroline Sharkey
http://www.carolinesharkey.com/
 A Fashion certificate in 1989 was the beginning of Caroline’s journey into fashion and textile art that has been her passion ever since.
Raising the profile of textiles and quilting is part of what Caroline is about and travelling to exhibit and teach is how she helps show people her artworks and quilts. She has been a judge at the Sydney Quilt Show, is an award winning quilter and has had many solo exhibitions at galleries throughout Australia.
Some highlights for Caroline have been
In the year 2000 Caroline started selling Australian landscapes at the Sydney Opera House Markets. This experience gave her knowledge about selling her artwork with very positive feedback giving her confidence to become a full time Artist.
In 2001 Caroline was invited as Artist/Craftsperson in Residence at Ayers Rock Resort in Australia’s Red Centre at Uluru and has been invited to exhibited there every year since.
2001 Caroline was awarded 1st prize in the miniature section at the NSW Quilters Guild Show with a quilt titled “Australia’s Majestic Rock”
2005 Bernina Australia commissioned the quilt “Dawn of a New Day” for the launch of the new Aurora sewing machines in Australia.
Caroline’s designs are influenced by her love of the Australian Landscape. She is driven by colour and strives to find that special combination that has the WOW! Factor.”
Caroline is a regular contributor to quilting and embroidery magazines.
Teaching for many groups and communities all over Australia the surface techniques that she uses in her artwork has become a favourite part for her, Inspiring students to play outside the lines and relax the rules is so exciting and to see the satisfaction in their work and on their faces. Many friendships are made in the process and Caroline says she is really in awe of the woman she comes into contact with, their life stories and experiences.
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Dianne Johnston
http://www.diannejohnstonproducts.com.au/
 Dianne was born, educated, and trained as a florist in Melbourne, and moved to Queensland 40 years ago, where all her children have been born and raised.
Dianne’s patchwork started 27 years ago, when she found herself house bound with three young children, and frustrated with not being able to express her creativity through her floristry.
Some friends introduced her to patchwork, and she found that she could work at home with the children, and yet explore the design and technical fields of the craft from within the home.
A suggestion was first made that Dianne should start teaching, and from then onwards it has become a full time career. Her main expertise is in the field of hand appliqué, and design, and with the exception of one class (Baltimore), all the other designs are original. Dianne’s training as a florist combined so well with the field of appliqué.
Because of her knowledge of colour, composition, and balance, it was easy for her to draw up appliqué designs, which have proved to be very popular.
Most of her quilts are large full sized bed quilts, which look equally wonderful as wall hangings.
Every one of her major works has won an award at exhibitions up and down the eastern coast of Australia
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Gloria Loughman
http://www.glorialoughman.com/
 Gloria Loughman lives by the sea on the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria , Australia. Married with three daughters, she is a trained secondary teacher having worked mainly in the literacy and special education faculties. Her initiation into the world of patchwork occurred approximately 20 years ago when she was recovering from surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer. After completing some studies in design and colour as part of a diploma of art in 1996, she began to make large vivid landscape quilts depicting the Australian bush. These quilts have won many major awards, in Australia , Europe, Japan and the United States. Her quilt ‘Kimberley Mystique' was the winner of Australia 's most prestigious national quilting award in 2003.
Gloria loves sharing her knowledge and skills with others. Known to take people outside their comfort zone, Gloria is adept at pushing boundaries while still managing to instil confidence. Gloria's commitment to teaching was acknowledged in 2009, when she received the Rajah Award, for her outstanding contribution to quilt making in Australia .
As well as being in demand as a teacher, Gloria has curated nine exhibitions of Australian quilts to the United States and has had the privilege of judging at many major quilt shows. Her quilts have been featured in many books and magazines. She has also written two books, Luminous Landscapes and Quilted Symphony, both published by C&T.
What began as a therapy developed into a passion and has given Gloria the opportunity to travel the world exhibiting her quilts teaching classes, and meeting many wonderful people. |
Jocelyne Leath
http://www.jocelyneleath.com/
 Jocelyne is an Accredited Quilt Teacher and Artist from Perth, Western Australia, who loves to work with colour, fibres and textiles. She appreciates the precision of traditional techniques whilst enjoying the freedom of a more contemporary style of work.
To achieve her objective, her pictorial and portrait quilts often include a variety of materials and multiple techniques, incorporating both hand and machine work. Her threads and needles allow her to draw and to paint onto fabric, adding detail, dimension and perspective.
Teaching allows Jocelyne to share her passion and her knowledge, to guide others so that they may feel confident to experience the pleasure of creating something beautiful, while striving for technical excellence. Jocelyne loves to teach and hopes that she can inspire others.
Jocelyne has exhibited quilts across Australia, in Japan and the USA, winning numerous awards including Best of Shows, Special Awards, Viewers Choice and the very prestigious Royal Flying Doctors of Australia’s 80th Anniversary Challenge in 2009.
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Kay Haerland
http://www.kayhaerland.com/
 A native New Zealander, Kay has lived in many countries and cultures and developed a deep appreciation of the diversity of the natural world around us. This constant source of inspiration has resulted in many quilts, often intricately realistic, the result of much research.
In 2002 she moved to the Central Coast of NSW, just north of Sydney, after 20 years of living and making prize-winning quilts in USA, and she is now very much part of the Australian quilting community. Her quilts are frequent prize-winners at the Sydney quilt show, and several have been chosen to represent NSW in the Melbourne quilt show, where some of the best quilts from each state in Australia are displayed.
Pictorial quilts remains her main body of work, even though Kay continues to experiment with contemporary designs, techniques and materials, with new projects always on the go on her design wall. Her work has been exhibited in Europe, USA Canada and Japan, and is regularly published in premier quilt magazines in several countries.
She thoroughly enjoys teaching, and inspiring quilters to share her enthusiasm about making and embellishing landscape and pictorial quilts, helping them look at nature and fabric in a whole new way for them.
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Lisa Walton
http://www.dyedheaven.com/
 Lisa Walton has been quilting for nearly 20 years and dyeing her own fabric for about 8 years.
Starting with traditional quilt techniques she soon developed the urge to break the rules.
She is widely published in the major Australian quilt magazines with her contemporary designs using her hand dyed fabrics.
She is also very enthusiastic about using texture in her work and her beaded embellishment is now a common feature in her work.
She has won major awards in Australia and overseas including American Quilt Society in Paducah USA and Festival of Quilts in the UK. Her workshops are relaxed and fun and are very popular in Australia, New Zealand and England. In 2010 she has been invited to return to the UK to teach as well as France and Italy.
She has also been featured in two DVD workshops, which have been very popular.
Lisa also specialises in exciting hand dyed fabrics and has developed her very successful business Dyed & Gone to Heaven.
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Mariya Waters
http://www.mariyawaters.com/
 Mariya Waters is an award winning quilt-maker and teacher. As a New Zealand expatriate wife Mariya began quilting in New Zealand in 1989 and was juried into the first New Zealand National quilt competition with her first quilt. In 1994, while living in England, her third quilt won the prestigious Ascot Trophy at the National Quilt Association competition.
Mariya has specialised in designing and making quilts for exhibition. All exhibition quilts completed since 1994 have won local and international awards. Many of her quilts have appeared in magazines, books and advertisements and her quilts have been acquired for public and private collections. Mariya specialises in hand appliqué, turned edge machine appliqué machine quilting and trapunto in both large and miniature formats.
In 1999 Mariya moved from England to Melbourne, Australia. Four years and approx 17,000 hours later her latest masterwork quilt called Renaissance Revival the quilt was awarded the Best of Australia award for 2007 and won the prestigious Founders 2007 award at the International Quit Association Show in Houston, Texas. In April 2009 Renaissance Revival won Best of Show at the American Quilters Society Quilt contest in Kentucky and the quilt is now in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum of the USA. Mariya’s latest miniature won Blue birds in Paradise won 2nd place at the IQA show, 3rd in the American Quilters show in Kentucky and has been purchased for a private collection.
Mariya’s philosophy on quilting is “If it can be drawn it can be constructed –somehow!”
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Pam Furniss
 The pleasure of teaching is what inspires most of the quilts that Pam makes today.
Her aim is always to provide a relaxed and enjoyable learning environment, encouraging confidence and creativity in the students in the classes that she teaches.
Pam believes that if they are taught properly how to master a skill, the students too will share her view, “It’s easy”.
Building on and exploring the initial design is what gives Pam pleasure in the creative process. She has a great love for design and with the many visual inspirations leading her into the next projects, her love of patchwork and quilting will always endure.
Pam’s quilts fall into two categories:
Hand appliqué using a freezer paper method.
Quick and easy, machine appliquéd, pieced and quilted, sometimes quilt-as-you-go projects is the other great joy for her.
As well as teaching regular local classes, Pam teaches in other Australian states.
Many of her quilts have been published in Australian magazines and two of these have been featured as front covers.
Some of her larger queen sized, hand appliquéd quilts have won prizes at the New South Wales Quilt Exhibition in Sydney and the Victorian Quilt Showcase in Melbourne.
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Sue Dennis
http://www.suedennis.com/
 Sue is an award-winning textile artist recognised in Australia and internationally for her distinct, colourful, original art quilts that incorporate numerous innovative surface design techniques and stitch, to create texture and tell a uniquely Australian story. Since she began quilting in 1990 while living in Mt. Isa Queensland, Sue has exhibited widely in invitational, juried, solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America, Great Britain, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East.
In 2001 Sue’s quilt “WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE?” was the winner of Australian Quilts in Public Places and acquired by the Immigration Museum, Melbourne. Her work is represented in international touring exhibitions and private collections in the USA, New Zealand and Australia and has been published in Fiberarts, Craft Arts International, Textile Fibre Forum, Down Under Quilts, Quilters Companion and Australian Patchwork and Quilting.
Sue is a well-respected, experienced teacher who loves to pass her quilting knowledge to her students and is a Quilters’ Guild of NSW Accredited Teacher- Special Techniques.
Other professional activities include judging & jurying Quilt shows, Curator of STATE of the ART quilt 09, Australian coordinator World Quilt Competition, Chair of Queensland Quilters Art Quilts, Professional Artist member of Studio Art Quilt Associates [SAQA] and member of International Quilt Association, Queensland Quilters Inc, The Quilters’ Guild of NSW Inc, Ozquilt Network Inc and Sunnybank Quilters.
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Sue Wege
 Sue enjoys teaching, passing on tips and techniques, knowledge and enthusiasm, for patchwork and quilting. Sue was a teacher of senior Mathematics in South Australian high schools for 24 years before retraining and working as finance officer for 10 years. Since retiring she has been able to spend more time on her passions of embroidery and patchwork.
As a very young person Sue’s grandmother introduced her to embroidery. Since 1985 she has been continuing these creative skills as an active member of The Embroiderers’ Guild of South Australia. She tried every other craft fad that came along, from painting, macramé, even silver jewellery making, until 1983,when with her husband, she moved to the Barossa Valley, the world renowned wine producing area, about 80 km north of Adelaide. Here there was a sewing shop which offered classes. After just a couple of the patchwork classes she was hooked! She has never looked back, continually trying to increase her skills and knowledge while teaching a wide variety of different styles and techniques.
Sue’s mathematical background leads her to like geometric and symmetrical patterns using quick easy methods and machine piecing. Additionally Sue is currently on both the Valuation Panel and Judging Panel of the Quilters’ Guild of South Australia, judging locally as well as interstate.
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