Meet the Team
Ambassadors
Tracey Sims
PFAFF
Educators
Bev McClune
Narelle
Morris
Helen is the Ambassador for Handi Quilter in Australia She is a very popular teacher and uses humour as a relaxed style, to encourage all students to find a new creative path with their Free-Motion Machine Quilting. Helen teaches and demonstrates her love of the Sweet Sixteen all over Australia, USA and NZ.
In 2014, she was guest international Teacher and Speaker at Handi Quilter Academy in Salt Lake City Utah, and again in 2016 in Layton, Utah. She is very proud to teach at the Australian Academy Down Under, to share her Love, Passion & Knowledge of all things quilting. See more on her website.
Tracey has written seven successful decorative painting books and many articles and projects for painting magazines in Australia and the United States. She is one of three Australian artists commissioned twice to paint a project for the Decorative Arts Collection Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Tracey draws inspiration from nature. She sketches, and photographs flowers, plants, birds and insects. Tracey uses this pictorial records for her paintings. An introduction to Urban Zundt Design, nine years ago had influenced Tracey’s life. Urban digitises her artwork, thus creating beautiful embroidery collections. Tracey creates stunning projects with these designs and to date had published nine project books and numerous patterns which reflect her talent with colour and design. In addition, she has designed fabric ranges for Northcott Fabrics. Many publications in Australia, the USA, and the United Kingdom have featured her quilts, embroideries, and artwork. Tracey has presented at the Australian Quilt Market, Houston Quilt Market, and Quilt Festival, as well as Spring Market in the USA. Combining her passion for painting and machine embroidery, Tracey has created many mixed media projects which are unique, fun, and innovative. Also she offers workshops, trunk shows and lecture/demos which highlight amazing embroidered designs and projects, quality threads and associated products. Tracey has joined Urban and assisted Zundt Design expand in the exciting world of creative textile art and digitized embroidery.A well respected icon in the sewing machine industry. She has not only tutored in Australia but also has International experience.
Her passion in the industry started over 30 years ago when she had her own very successful garment and designing business. From there she moved onto Managing a local sewing shop and quickly became the top sales woman.
Cheryl received an award for her amazing selling skills! She was then employed by another sewing machine wholesaler where she worked in a sales role. It was during this time that VSM saw her potential and snapped her up as an Area Manager.
Cheryl soon discovered her love for software and became the “software” guru. She is a favourite with both the retailers and customers alike, as she readily shares her wealth of knowledge.
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.
Caroline is the current Product Co-ordinator for Handi Quilter in Australia. She has been sewing from a young age and discovered her love for making quilts and quilting in 2011, after donating to the QLD flood relief and winning a quilt kit.
She loves modern quilting and is currently a member of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. Caroline owned and loved her HQ Sweet 16 before she started at Handi Quilter and has attended classes from many Australian and International Tutors and was a guest at the recent Handi Quilter Quilting Elevated Academy in the US.
Caroline has developed skills using all of the Handi Quilter machines particularly with ProStitcher and Art and Stitch. With the introduction of the HQ Simply 16 early this year, Caroline has been responsible for showcasing this versatile compact frame at various Craft and Quilt shows around Australia.
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.
In Debbie’s words “I would love to double the hours in every day, just to be able to get more quilting done!”
I made my first patchwork quilt in 1997 and quilted it in the ditch with my humble PFAFF.
I was very keen on this “quilting thing” and I just had to know how it all happened and how it was done. There wasn’t anyone teaching domestic machine quilting in my area at the time so I was down to finding out everything I could from books and anything else that I could find …..that was my beginning!
In 2000 I quilted my first quilt for a customer on my domestic machine and I haven’t stopped quilting for people since then. In addition to quilting for customers, I taught my first Domestic Machine Quilting class also in 2000. I continue to teach both machine quilting which I absolutely love and the making of patchwork quilts.
In August 2016 I purchased my longarm machine – Handi Quilter Fusion. I am having the best time with my long arm and I am a passionate hand guided free motion quilter and enjoy ruler work.
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.
Other interests include, dancing, skydiving, kayaking, gym, travel, zip lining and anything with adrenalin!
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.
Narelle has been a dedicated quilter for the past eight years following a move from Sales and Education with Domestic machines over to HandiQuilter Longarm Machines. She has an extensive background in TAFE Fashion Teaching which compliments her role as an Educator with HandiQuilter.
Prior to employment in the sewing machine industry she co-owned and operated a successful fabric and machine sales store for many years in a country town. Narelle loves sharing her skills to motivate inspire and educate quilters of all levels of ability and to start them on their journey with HQ longarm systems!
Modern Quilting is her passion along with free motion quilting and ruler work and Narelle has proudly held the position of President of the local Modern Quilt Guild for three years.
I was raised as a child in a creative home, surrounded with machines, thread, pins and fabrics, and my earliest memories include sewing.
As an adult, I have followed many career paths. Creating, learning, designing, experimenting and making have always been my passion. Sewing machines were always a necessary part of the furniture in my home, and a much loved and used tool.
Over twenty years ago I became totally hooked on patchwork. It came as a natural transition to buy the local fabric and sewing shop when the opportunity arose.
For ten years, I owned and operated my store, and loved every day in my colourful, textural, sensory environment. With various tutors, I was able to absorb any knowledge they gave, expanding my repertoire in sewing, embroidery, handwork and stitchery, and yarn crafts. It was an absolute privilege and I tried to learn something new every day, apply this knowledge, and ‘pass it forward’.
I taught hundreds of patchwork and embroidery classes during this time, helped many people troubleshoot their issues, and particularly enjoyed playing with colour and design.
When the opportunity arose to join Blessington as an Educator, the door had really opened to ‘pass it forward’ and I look forward to teaching many more people in the future.
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’.
Michelle has over 20 years of experience in the sewing industry. Her knowledge, experience and understanding has been built through the extensive levels of employment she has experienced during that time.
“I had always been attracted to spending time in sewing centres from an early age. My grandmother taught me to sew at 4 and we moved over the road from a sewing centre when I was 6. I would regularly call in and say hello on my way past and see what the ladies were up too. Yes…. I was that pesky child customer! My passion for the Sewing Industry began way back then.”
Beginning her career in Central Queensland as floor staff, she learned what the industry was all about and loved it! Michelle went on to manage sewing centres, sales and education to owning her own store. It was the education and sharing her knowledge throughout all of this that really developed as her passion.
