Our Wonderful Tutors

Maryia Waters Mariya Waters is an international and Australian award winning quilt maker and teacher. She currently specialises in hand appliqué and machine quilting but has also won international awards for contemporary art and innovative quilts.  Mariya began quilting in New Zealand in 1990 and her first quilt was selected for a juried quilt show and then published in a book.      In 1994 while living in England her third quilt won the prestigious Ascot Trophy at the national championships.    Since then Mariya has specialised in making quilts for exhibition with most taking a year or more to complete. Many quilts completed since 1994 have won Australian and international awards. In April 2012 Mariya's miniature quilt "Mini Magic" was awarded Best Miniature at the AQS Paducah Kentucky USA Quilt Show. Margaret McDonald Margaret quilts because she just has to, like sleep, food and exercise; stitching has always been a part of her life. Her driving interest in quilting is in using fabrics to explore patterns and illusions, frequently using complex and precise piecing. She uses a wide range of colours in unexpected ways. No colour is banned from her collection and in fact the more the better.   Margaret’s work and designs are grounded in her traditional experiences in garment construction, traditional quilting and other textile pursuits, beginning her career as a textiles teacher. She will always hold an enthusiasm for quilting, ready to explore any aspect of colour and design. She has a never-ending passion for textiles and fabric (of any sort) and absolutely enjoys the teaching aspect of her quilting career. The students in her classes are inspired from a commitment to establish what they as an individual want to learn. She has a growing number of patterns in publication and enjoys the challenge of entering quilt shows. She has a collection of national and international awards for her work. Her quilts are held in collections in Australia, China, and the USA. Her latest award was in 2012 in USA.     Deb Layt   Deb Layt is a Textile Artist living and creating in Watsonia, Victoria. Deb teaches classes to all levels of students in the art of machine patchwork and quilting. She is a regular exhibitor and spends many enjoyable hours working away at a variety of projects in her studio. Many of her quilts have won awards in both Australia and America. Deb won an award at the Victorian Quilters Annual Showcase in Melbourne in July 2012. Deb was the owner of The Patchwork Gallery Store located in Watsonia, Victoria for 10  years. She chose to close in 2008 to focus on teaching and designing.    She spends a lot of time designing original quilts while also using blocks that are in  the public domain to create designs for all skill levels.    She is always on the lookout for different techniques to adapt to her way of working. The Patchwork Gallery has developed into a place to go for knowledge and a high  standard of patchwork and quilting classes. Deb actively participates in quilt exhibitions and enthusiastically encourages Australian content and a development of our own quilting identity.   Bev Frank Bev discovered quilting through a friend about 14 years ago, and she could not comprehend the appeal of cutting fabric up into pieces and sewing it back together again!  Needless to say she was hooked and has been making quilts ever since!  She has also done lots of appliqué and stitchery quilts too.  She loves brightly coloured fabrics, bold prints and uses a lot of squares and rectangles in her quilts.  She loved using the ‘quilt as you go’ technique as she was able to finish a quilt herself without the difficulty of quilting with a regular sewing machine or by hand. In 2012 she bought a Gammill long arm machine and started Hopscotch Quilting and has really enjoyed quilting for others. She doesn’t make any ‘quilt as you go’ projects any more, but still enjoys teaching the technique.   Nicky Tepper  Nicky has been a Crazy patchworker for the past 20 years.  She discovered patchwork when her son was born and she became a stay at home mum. Becoming addicted, she eventually opened a store that has given her the perfect excuse to stitch her little heart out. She has a devoted husband Peter, who works in the shop with her and is the leadlight half of the dynamic duo, but who is also pretty good with the fabric selection too. They have two children, Joshua 21 and Holly 18.  Both are currently at university in Melbourne, so they will be working for a while yet!  Nicky will set her hand to any project or technique and loves trying something new and sharing it with whoever wants to listen.  She has no formal qualifications, just lots of life experience.   Leesa Chandler Leesa was introduced to quilting over 25 years ago and has enjoyed running her patchwork business, Chandler's Cottage, for the last ten years, which has both a studio shop in Beaumaris, Victoria and a website. She has also published over 100 quilt and handbag patterns which are now available worldwide and also designs fabrics for Robert Kaufman including her Under the Australian Sun collection. Leesa loves to travel and teach quilters far and wide, and is especially looking forward to coming back to the Scquilters Retreat at Bendigo! Emma Baumann Emma Baumann has been an avid sewer and embroiderer for more than 25 years.  She loves to quilt and embroider, and has a passion for smocking and for sharing her talents with other like minded people.  Emma specialises in rotary cutting, machine piecing, machine appliqué and hand embroidery. She enjoys nothing more than to sit with hand embroidery, whether in front of the TV, at a friendship group, or travelling in the car; never is a moment wasted.  She can be found working and teaching at Chandler’s Cottage in Beaumaris.  Emma and Leesa’s quilt “One in Every Crowd” - featuring machine piecing, hand appliqué and 3D smocking work - won a Blue Ribbon at VQ in 2007. Bronwyn Van't Hof Bronwyn has been interested in sewing and crafts, learning to sew on a Singer Featherweight at the age of six, and starting her first (never completed) patchwork quilt at the age of seventeen. In 1994, she moved to Melbourne and, in order to meet people, she joined the craft group at her daughters’ school. It was here she met the friends who soon re-introduced her to patchwork. By 1996 she was 'hooked' and gradually all of the other crafts took a backseat to her new obsession!   In 2003 she took an opportunity that arose to work part-time at her local patchwork shop (The Stitching Post in Beaumaris) and began teaching. She has taught everything from beginner’s machine and hand piecing to machine quilting and machine appliqué. In 2005 several of her quilts were entered into the Victorian Quilters Annual Showcase and won 2nd and 3rd place in the ‘2 Person Traditional’ category, and in 2007 her  Double Wedding Ring quilt ‘Love Amongst the Briars’ was juried into the American Quilters Society Annual Quilt Show at Paducah. In 2005 she opened a small home-based patchwork business, making quilts for others and since 2008 she has concentrated predominantly on turning it into a patchwork-piecing service.   Bev Stayner Bev has been embroidering for almost all her life. She started off learning on her Nana’s and Mum’s knee as have a lot of embroiderers.  When her children came along it was a time out necessity that was much valued. She appreciates her stitching time to this day, really enjoying learning new techniques and using the most wonderful threads that we have available here in Australia.  She has been teaching and learning with friends and students for many years now and finds it very rewarding to be able to share the abundance of  information she has gathered and the joy of stitching and creating with others. …. And then there’s patchwork!   Lee Vause Holding qualifications in nursing and quality and business management, and after many years working as a Health Administrator / Registered Nurse, Lee has retired from full time work. This has enabled her to re-focus her endeavours, tap into her creative side and move into the exciting world of art and craft. With a clear goal of establishing a business that was creative, characteristic and of a contemporary nature, 'Threads and Tangles' was formed in November 2011. The business is now underpinned by Lee's art quilting and teaching activities. To strengthen this aspect, Lee sought and gained qualifications as a Certified Zentangle@Teacher, a Jenny Haskins Accredited Tutor and a Victorian Quilters Accredited Teacher. Areas Lee loves to teach includes Zentangle in its paper form and in thread, along with machine embroidery and free motion quilting. Lee embraces a contemporary art design focus and mixes thread painting, fabric painting with inks, crayons and pencils along with free motion quilting to create innovative art quilts.