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| New Zealand Tutors |
Ailie Snow
www.ailiesnow.com
 Ailie has been working with textiles for more than thirty years now, regularly exhibiting and teaching around New Zealand, and more recently in Australia, Britain and the United States. Her work is held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, America, and Japan, and has gained a number of national awards.
In Ailie’s stitched work, she combines a wide range of cloth, also paper, print, and found objects, to convey an idea or feeling. Most of her materials have passed through another’s hands, or have lived through another incarnation, accumulating significance and another intangible dimension along the way.
Ailie has a great respect and liking for cloth such as this, imbued as it is with stories of the past.
Another passion is hand made books and journals. Her books and textiles share a natural affinity, in material and concept, tactile experience, and use of visual language
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Anne Jolly
m.anne.jolly@xtra.co.nz
 En route through a lifetime exploring pottery, china painting, dyeing, shibori and machine embroidery, Anne has now entered the" world of collage".
This offers exciting visual effects and lends itself to spontaneity and creativity where she emphasizes colour and texture.
Anne hopes to inspire pupils and lead them to an exciting path of discovery in a relaxed atmosphere. She has been a tutor, judge and prize winner for many years which she believes stands her in good stead
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Ashleigh Ward
www.donnasquiltstudio.co.nz
 Ashleigh Ward from Hamilton, New Zealand has been exposed to patchwork and quilting from a very young age, having been inspired and influenced by her mother, Donna Ward and her grandmother, Meryl Caudwell. She currently is working full time at “Donna’s Quilt Studio” working with customers, teaching and machine quilting. While working in the Studio, she has developed her own style and has designed a range of patterns.
She has always taken an interest in helping her mother Donna with her workshops in the studio and over the past few years has been conducting children’s workshops during the holidays at the Quilt Studio.
Ashleigh’s quilt “Love Affair” was accepted to hang at Wellington Symposium 2009 while “My Piece of Pacifica” which she jointly made with Donna won Best Group Quilt at the same Symposium.
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Cheryl Comfort
http://www.quiltgallery.co.nz
 Cheryl Comfort lives in Christchurch has been quilting for more than 25 years mostly making wall quilts of her own design. She has won numerous local and national awards and has exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Known most recently for her black quilts, she is an abstract artist, preferring colour, line and texture to express ideas, rather than literal objects.
She likes to quilt heavily (she says it feels so good) and is currently exploring other ways of ‘mark making’.
She likes students to explore new ideas and to use what she shows them in whatever way suits them. She believes that the best quilts are made when you remain true to yourself and likes to help students find their artistic voice.
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Chris Behersing
thebehersings@xtra.co.nz
 Chris has always loved making things since a child (making Jackie bands) and has been quilting for over 20 years. She has been teaching for over 15 years in Adult Education and also teaches for different groups and shops. She is passionate about all aspects of quilt making, knows all the little things that make a difference and likes to pass these onto her students. She has a “can do” approach that lets every student get what they need from a class and extend themselves. Chris has won 3 Best of Show Awards at Calico Christmas and several other prizes for her machine quilting. Her quilts have also been exhibited nationally and internationally
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Chris Kenna
kenna@xtra.co.nz
 Chris Kenna is a quiltmaker from Wellington, New Zealand. She has a business degree and worked internationally as an accountant, auditor, and management consultant for fifteen years before leaving in 1996. Since then she has focussed her time on raising her two daughters with her husband, and getting more and more immersed in the world of quilting.
Her quilts have been exhibited nationally and internationally in a number of galleries and shows, and published in New Zealand and international quilt magazines and books. Her quilts have won a number of national and international awards, including Best of Show at New Zealand’s National Quilt Symposium in Manawatu in 2007, and a number of awards, including “Best Use of Colour” at Quilt Wellington Symposium in 2009.
Chris has taught quilting in the Wellington region and nationally for the last five years and absolutely loves the challenge, responsibility and joy of teaching quilting to others.
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Clare Smith
http://www.claresmith.blogspot.com
 Clare originally trained as a Radiographer then completed a BSc in Zoology. There being little call for either of these qualifications at the time, she then completed teacher training and an Advanced Diploma in Visual Arts. Clare currently works as a quilter, quilt teacher and as a First Aid instructor.
Her collage quilts combine painted, printed and dyed fabrics and often have a nature theme. She has recently been fascinated by grass and windmills and have made a series of quilts inspired by wind turbines, but the latest quilts are inspired by the weather.
Clare began teaching adult education classes in surface design, applique and Japanese bookmaking at the beginning of 1998 . She teaches adult education classes for quilt guilds and arts groups across New Zealand and Australia. She has taught at New Zealand Quilt Symposia since 1999 and in South Africa, the UK and Australia.
Recently , one of her quilts was selected for the book, ‘500 Art Quilts’ by Lark Books and she has also made quilts for TV advertisements which are currently showing in Australia.
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Debbie Williams
www.quiltfever.com
 Debby Williams is a trained educator and an experienced quilter/tutor with twenty years in the craft. She began textile work at the age of eight on a treadle sewing machine, creating her own clothing patterns by age twelve (and graduating to an electric machine!)
Hand stitching on a quilt on a huge frame as a child biased Debby against quilting in general, but the birth of her first child saw that prejudice changed. Through the following years Debby became formally addicted to the craft with several of her quilts winning awards at both local and national level. Her quilts have been selected for tours and exhibitions in the USA as well as New Zealand.
Debby’s eye for design and desire for simplified methods led to the development of the STARWHIZ™ Mariner’s Compass Star drafting tool which is currently in use in several countries.
Debby has taught textiles from her kitchen, in shops, to clubs and even in the deep jungle of Vanuatu. Her classes have a reputation for positive, yet relaxed thorough instructions punctuated with plenty of laughter.
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Donna Stewart
www.thewoolpatch.co.nz
 Donna started quilting in 1996 and after trying about every kind of patchwork there was she made a wool quilt and immediately became hooked. She could combine her love of wool fibre with her favourite hobby. Donna also enjoys researching old quilts and appliqué methods and experimenting with different methods of stitching to find the best effects for the least effort. Most of the quilts she makes are traditional in style and three of her quilts have won a first place at national level.
Most of Donna’s work is inspired by living on the beautiful West Coast, she is close to nature, with fantails flitting through her house, pigeons on the kowhai at her front door. Her garden also has lots of flowering natives.
Donna wants to overcome the myth that wool is difficult to care for and expensive, in reality she hasn’t found this and the beauty of wool and ease of stitching far outweighs any downsides, which is not being able to purchase it readily. Because she wants to give people the opportunity to experience the joy of working with wool, she puts together kit-sets so students can have a very relaxed stress free class
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Donna Ward
www.donnasquiltstudio.co.nz
 Donna Ward from Hamilton, New Zealand began quilting more than 20 years ago as a self-taught hand quilter, however today all her quilts are machine made. She loves working with bright clear colours, combining precision piecing and raw edge appliqué with detailed machine quilting using decorative threads. These have become a trademark of her quilts. At present she is working with quilts inspired by the colours and patterns from the Pacific.
Donna has won a diverse array of national and international awards. In 2003 she was awarded the Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship for International Quilt Teachers, enabling her to exhibit and attend workshops at the Houston Quilt Market and Festival.
In February 2006 she opened “Donna’s Quilt Studio” in Hamilton, a patchwork and quilting retail store with exhibition area and workshop facilities where she spends most of her time inspiring others.
In September 2009 Donna held her first solo exhibition “Jewels Of The Pacific” at ArtsPost Gallery in Hamilton which featured small works constructed in batik fabrics with raw edged appliqué and heavily machine quilted featuring pacific style designs.
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Griet Lombard
wilgret@xtra.co.nz
 Fabric and threads were part of Griet’s life for as long as she can remember.
As a young girl she learnt how to embroider and crotchet and these crafts remain an integral part of her work.
Her work in South Africa was influenced by nature, the abundance of wildlife, the vast plains, the browns and grays.
In 2008 Griet and her husband moved to New Zealand to be with their children and grandkids. This new way of life and the support of the many new friends, read quilters, will in time be an influence to incorporating the splendid greens of this country in her work.
Griet’s experience and knowledge is mostly self taught through experimenting and the inspiration that she gets from art and design books; she enjoys teaching and sharing it with others.
In South Africa she has taught classes for many years and had work exhibited both nationally and internationally and won a number of awards.
Paul Klee says: “drawing….is taking a line for a walk”,
Griet would rather say “take the line for a DANCE”
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Hazel Foot
edzel@xtra.co.nz
 Hazel first became interested in quilting while living in Hong Kong and Manila. On her return to NZ in 2002 she joined the Auckland Guild and quickly became immersed in quilting, trying many styles and techniques and developing a passion for free motion quilting and embroidery.
Hazel enjoys working with colour and creating designs that reflect Auckland’s Pacific flavour and the places she has lived in and visited. Her other passion is gardening and floral motifs are a recurring theme.
After a career in teaching, Hazel now enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and skills with other quilters and aims to give students the confidence to draw on their own creativity when creating their designs. Students receive a lot of individual attention and guidance as they do this.
Hazel has exhibited at the last two Symposia and won awards at both. She has won numerous awards at Calico Christmas including Best of Show, and had her work exhibited at Mansusco Show USA and in France as part of the Made in NZ II exhibition.
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Judith Ross
http://www.judithrossquilts.webs.com
 Textiles have been part of Judith’s life since her childhood in Christchurch. She was taught to knit and sew before she went to school and has always been a craft enthusiast.
Judith first started quilting in 1978 while living in Southern California and has been 'hooked on it' ever since.
Over the last thirty years her work has developed from traditional hand stitched pieces to original machine pieced and quilted wall hangings and garments.
She has always been fascinated by silk, and now uses it almost exclusively. All her work is of original design, primarily machine patchwork and quilting. She often incorporates other fibre techniques - machine embroidery, fabric flowers, fabric dyeing, beading and construction.
Many of Judith’s designs originate as a result of her travels, particularly to India and other destinations in the East, and are sold privately and at exhibitions.
Most of the classes she teaches also focus on silk and the 'tricks of the trade' for using it effectively in quilting.
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Juliet Fitness
fitness.jrbs@clear.net.nz
 Juliet discovered machine piecing 26 years ago. She is mostly self-taught from books apart from 2 important workshops - Afro-American quilts with Sue Weston (1994) and paper-foundation piecing with Donna Ward (2000). Juliet likes working small, loves bright colours, black, the wonderful New Zealand fabrics, and collects and uses names on fabric selvedges - a true recycler! While Juliet continues to enjoy making traditional wallhangings, nowadays much of her work is arty or innovative, often attaching art quilts to artists’ canvases.
A quilt competition junkie who particularly likes using a challenge fabric and the ensuing challenges, Juliet works best to a deadline. She has entered nearly 70 competitions to date, with numerous entries in the Hoffman Challenge, National Traditional Design Quilt Challenge, World Quilt and Textile in the States, the last 4 Symposium Exhibitions, and several wearable art competitions, winning prizes in quite a few, most recently Best Contemporary in this year’s Hoffman Challenge.
Juliet loves passing her quilting information on to others and has been teaching various techniques since 1998. She taught at the last 3 Symposia, as well as Parallel 41 in Picton. She currently works part-time and teaches at Patchwork Passion. Fun is an integral part of her classes.
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Karen Broderson
kazjac@kinect.co.nz
 Karen is a textile/fibre artist living in sunny Nelson.
She is a member of a co-operative of fibre artists who own and operate the shop Fibre Spectrum in down town Nelson where she sells her work.
Karen loves stitching of all types both traditional and contemporary and she always has two or more projects on the go at one time.
Around 17 years ago she started teaching crazy patchwork classes but soon progressed to beading and contemporary classes of her own techniques and designs.
All of her classes have original designs and full instructions.
Karen’s love and ability to use a variety of products, techniques and designs make her class's fun and packed full of information and techniques that can be carried through to other projects.
She teaches regularly around the Nelson area and around the rest of NZ as requested.
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Karen Walton
karyn.walton@gmail.com
 Karyn resides in Dunedin and graduated at Otago Polytechnic with a Certificate of Couture, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Masters of Fine Arts.
As an artist, Karyn has used her extensive research and study, to further experiment with developmental work to constantly explore ways to use textiles as an artistic medium in an exciting and experimental way
She has worked extensively with several designers on fashion based projects and has exhibited both locally and overseas.
Her work encompasses a variety of media relating back to person, place and time during a particular time frame of historical reference. Karyn enjoys working with collage techniques combining digital imagery with her painted and dyed fabrics to produce mixed media pieces that have a multi layered surface.
She enjoys a transient approach to her work together with sharing her ideas and methods with others through teaching techniques and design.
As a teacher she encourages her students to work with design techniques that encourage creative expression, originality and to grow within themselves and express themselves in a friendly sharing environment.
Through her teaching, students enjoy an unlimited supply of knowledge and skills which will allow them to grow within themselves and express themselves in a friendly sharing environment.
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Mary Transom
www.marytransom.co.nz
 Mary loves pictorial quilts and her favourite technique is machine applique with machine embroidery.
Mary’s “Flower” Quilts have become popular classes and some are now available as patterns.
These quilts feature machine applique, embroidery, and often beading and couching.
Mary loves to make her quilt classes accessible to quilters of all levels of ability. Each quilt features a new technique.
Mary has been making quilts for nineteen years and teaching quilting for sixteen years. She lives in Ohope in the sunny Bay of Plenty
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Merrilyn George
www.merilyngeorge.com
 Merrilyn was born under the mountain Ruapehu and has lived there most of her life, growing up and living in bush settlements of Horopito, Minginui and Ohakune. She came to quilting after working with many forms of art and completing an award winning history on Ohakune (published 1990). She is currently teaching at Ruapehu College.
Teaching allows Merrilyn to share her passion and her knowledge for both textiles and design. She has lived and worked in Maori communities, and enjoys seeing her students gain confidence to reach their own creative potential. Her style is not to have a pattern to follow, but ideas to work with, so that each student creates a unique work of their own.
Merrilyn’s own work is contemporary, centred on her environment, and how we relate both spiritually and temporarily, using symbols and words to explain the visual message. Contemporary issues are often included in her work in this mountain dominated landscape, steeped in Maori history. Her quilts have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and are in collections in New Zealand and many other countries. She has had work reviewed in many publications.
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Meryl Caudwell
merylcaudwell@xtra.co.nz
 Meryl has always been a keen dressmaker so her progression to patchworking and quilting was always on the cards. She has been quilting for over twenty years and has won several awards, especially for her miniature quilts. Meryl loves the precision work involved in doing these. She really just likes playing with fabric. She has also had a bed quilt exhibited at the Houston Quilt Festival in the USA.
Meryl believes a good understanding of the basics involved in patchwork is a very necessary part of quiltmaking and she always makes sure the participants in her class understand these. She thinks learning should be fun.
With a daughter who is a well known quilter and who owns a quilt shop, and a granddaughter who is involved in quiltmaking, quilting is a large part of her life.
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Natalie Murdoch
http://www.nataliemurdoch.co.nz
 Natalie began quilting and teaching 20 years ago. Initially scrappy quilts took her fancy and it was with these that she honed her eye for colour and line.
More recently Natalie has been exploring contemporary and art quilts but acknowledges that without the application of good basic patchwork, many of her ideas would not translate into quilts.
She is still discovering how far out of her comfort zone she can venture and delights in stretching her students to their limits too. Seeing ‘the light come on’ in their eyes is just reward. Along the way Natalie continues to learn and pass on this quiltie information.
Natalie’s quilts have been juried into each of the past seven symposia and into other major New Zealand and American shows. Several now hang in private collections overseas.
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Noeline Johnston
http://www.quilts.co.nz
 Noeline began quilting 21 years ago after the birth of her youngest child.
She had always done many textile crafts and she soon became addicted to patchwork, attending every workshop and exhibition that she could.
It wasn’t long before Noeline was talked into machine quilting other quilters tops on commission, then later she opened “Catlin Quilts” a patchwork shop in Owaka, South Otago which she operated for 10 years.
She organised and ran the very popular and successful N.Z. Hoffman Challenge.
She has also taught patchwork and quilting extensively through out New Zealand, including a number of our Symposiums. Because of her love of teaching, she is no longer operating the shop. This allows her the freedom to travel for teaching. She has taught overseas a couple of times in the last 2 years. She also now has time to design more of her own original quilts.
Her work is mainly traditional with a twist. And she is excited about what she hopes to achieve in the future.
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Raewyn Penrose
rpo@ihug.co.nz
 Raewyn became involved with the felt medium 15 years ago. The ‘one-off’ nature of felting, together with the opportunity it offers for creative and innovative design and technique was found to be extremely addictive. She is particularly interested in the potential of felt to inject a new dimension to high quality fashion garments and accessories.
Over the past 7 years, tutoring has played a major role in Raewyn’s life. Students love the instant rewards that felt offers – the surprise and excitement that they have created themselves.
In 2004 Raewyn opened a Felt Textile Gallery in Te Aroha where she has a studio and also runs regular workshops.
In 2004 Raewyn spent 5 weeks in Germany as an artist in residence at a castle in Neuhaus. Here she worked, exhibited and ran workshops. In 2006 she returned to the Village for the Autumn Festival selling her work and also running a series of workshops.
Since 2004 she has been tutoring in Australia on a regular basis.
Raewyn has been a recipient of many awards from NZ Creative Fibre and Fibre & Fleece.
She enjoys the opportunity to share her knowledge and skills of felting and hopes to continue to do so internationally as well as nationally in the future.
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Rita Teele
teele@mac.com
 Rita’s English mum was a dressmaker and taught her how to sew. Her family has wandering genes, and she began quilting in the 1960’s having arrived in the United States via Canada. Sadly, her first quilt—a one patch from dressmaking remnants--got put in the dustbin somewhere between moves. Work and family took over her life for a while but since coming to New Zealand in 1992, she’s had more time to sew.
Although Rita started in quilting with traditional American block patterns, she is proud to be considered a quilter/tutor from New Zealand. She admires the designs, colour palettes, and ingenuity of New Zealand and Australian quilters. Her own style could best be described as traditional with a twist. She likes to make quilts that tell a story.
She is currently involved in applying digital imaging techniques to fabric, for use in wall hangings. The classes that she is teaching feature projects that are fun to make, and good for using scraps of fabric that you can’t bear to throw away.
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Ronnie Martin
ronniem@ts.co.nz
 Ronnie lives in Nelson where she is involved with Arts marketing, teaching and producing a range of textile art pieces which she sells to several galleries and shops. She is on the executive of the Nelson Arts Council , which is responsible for promoting and organising a wide variety of events to enhance and develop the Arts in the Nelson region.She is the organiser and selector for the highly regarded annual 'Changing Threads' exhibition which aims to encourage fibre and textile artists to produce art works which challenge the public perception of this medium.
She is an enthusiastic and motivated tutor who delights in encouraging her students to extend themselves and learn new skills .
She is passionate about the promotion of textile and fibre art and believes strongly in helping people to discover their creative selves.
Ronnie has won many awards for her work, and has exhibited both in New Zealand and overseas.
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Shirley Goodwin
www.tillia.co.nz
 Shirley has been quilting for nearly 20 years and has always been interested in creating her own designs. In 2003, she purchased Tillia Dyes & Fabrics which has allowed her to indulge her love of experimenting with colours and patterns.
Since then, Shirley has extended her knowledge of dyeing and surface design through international groups such as The Australian Forum for Textile Arts and the Surface Design Association, as well as online groups like Complex Cloth, Dyer’s List and QuiltTeach.
Shirley taught dyeing and surface design at both the 2007 Symposium in Palmerston North and the 2009 Symposium in Wellington. She has exhibited her quilted work in local art shows, and her exclusive range of fabric has been sold in Australia, the UK and America.
Shirley is also known as the “List Mother” of Kiwiquilters, a large online group for the NZ quilting community that she started in 1999. As well as her Tillia Dyes website, she has had a blog for the past 5 years which provides a photographic record of her craft work.
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Sonya Prchal
prchals@xtra.co.nz
 Sonya has enjoyed painting and sewing from the age of 9.
Living in rural areas while growing up, Sonya developed a love of nature which she expresses in her pictorial quilts.
Her passion is capturing the realistic details of native birds, fish and the magnificent scenery from the Northland Region where she lives.
Sonya is enthusiastic about fabric painting after discovering how simple producing her own vivid skies and underwater fabrics can be.
She loves sharing her knowledge and inspiring others. Her enthusiasm and fun loving nature encourages participants’ personal expression and creative experimentation. She gains great pleasure from seeing her students excel at their newly acquired skills.
Sonya has been teaching machine techniques for the past 10 years, and tutored classes in appliqué, quilting, free hand sewing and fabric painting throughout New Zealand.
Sonya won three awards at the 2009 Symposium: Best First Time Entrant, Merit Award and 3rd place for Viewer’s Choice. She was also received Best First Time Entrant award at Quilts Aotearoa 2009.
She is looking forward to teaching at the Queenstown Symposium and meeting new people.
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Sue Wademan
www.suewademan.com
 Sue Wademan started using fabric collage as a medium to express the landscape in 1996. With a back ground in graphic design and her newly acquired knowledge of quit making she soon started teaching her unique ‘frayed edges’ collage technique around the world. At Houston in 1997 Japan 1998, Hawaii 1999, South Africa & the UK in the year 2000 & again in Europe, Ireland & the UK in 2004. Not to mention her local teaching in NZ and her homeland Australia.
More recently Sue has been concentrating on producing her magic landscapes for galleries and exhibitions.
One of Sue’s major quilt works, commissioned by the Queenstown local council, called ‘The Four Seasons’ hangs in the new Queenstown Airport. Last year her ‘Deep Blue Wakatipu’ quilt travelled to France with the ‘Made in New Zealand II’ exhibition and this year Sue is working on another large 4 panel landscape piece.
Last year Sue’s textile & textured acrylic paintings were selected for the
NZ Affordable Art Show in Wellington, and earlier this year her framed,
fabric collage landscape was a finalist in the ‘painting & drawing’ art awards of the Molly Morpath Canaday exhibition. Another collage landscape has just been published in the latest Lark (publisher) book called 500 ART QUILTS
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