BERNINA - Amanda's blog

I’m so excited to be teaching at BERNINA University this July in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Yes, it is hot there in July, but I guess that means we will just have to stay inside and sew – it is a hard life!)

So, for all of you BERNINA dealers out there please come join me because I have a lot of special things planned for you guys. My first class is “Quilting BERNINA Style: Inspiring Your Customers” and in it I’ll give you slew of ideas on how to market the Q Series to your customers – from special store events and quick in-store projects to eye-catching displays.

In my second class, “Quilting BERNINA Style: Free-Motion”, we will explore loops, pebbles, ribbons, fishbone, paisley motifs and many more all on the new BERNINA Q 24 with Frame. Participants will be the very first to receive and quilt a panel I’ve designed designed exclusively for BERNINA to teach these free-motion skills. The training panel will be available for purchase later in the year by BERNINA dealers for their customers.

Wanna see a sneak peek?

Please join me in Arizona to explore the Q 24!

Gosh, I had better get quilting!

Have a marvelous Memorial Day weekend!

Amanda

Hi everyone!

I hope you are having a lovely spring. Things have been so busy over here my head is spinning! But in a good way – I’m pinching myself on a daily basis. I’m excited to share that I am a new Quilting and Long Arm Spokesperson for BERNINA. That’s right – that means the new Q 24 has arrived!!!! I absolutely could not be happier with how this machine sews and in the upcoming months I’ll be sharing some of my favorite features and tips for working on the machine with you right here and also over at BERNINA. Being a spokesperson basically means that not only do I love quilting – I actually love just talking even talking about quilting (ask my family), so it is nice to have the opportunity to share tips and tips right here with you. So, if you have any specific questions or things you’d like to see me talk about, please leave a comment or send me a note and I’ll try to blog about it in the upcoming months. (And, as an aside, if you new to this blog and are not on my email list, please sign up to receive updates.) And, in the meantime, if you’d like a sneak peek of the Q 24 in action head over to my Instagram account! I’ll be posting more frequent pictures there

Here are some photos from the video shoot…

MixandMatchShoot_Blog02 — This is the makeup artist, Ann Marie, who made me look WAY better than I normally look every day. I’m awful at makeup so having her there made me feel truly pampered.

MixandMatchShoot_Blog03 — This is Brian MacDonald of Wonderkind Studios and his crew talking with me between shoots. They were wonderful to work with! Cara, Connie, and Andrea from BERNINA of America and Roxane from C&T Publishing ensured everything run smoothly, from start to finish… (Cara, these ellipses are for you!)

And this is me getting down to business and quilting! Quilting is easier than talking!

If you are a dealer looking for ideas on showing your customers some of the unique possibilities on the Q 24, please sign up for my classes at BERNINA University in Arizona in July. I designed a special yet-to-be-announced teaching tool for you guys and your customers!

Tying into all this is my new book for C&T Publishing – the Free-Motion Quilting Idea Book. It is an “encyclopedia of quilting ideas” indexed by both block type and design family and will come out this summer. The really exciting thing about this book is that it is also an app! That means you will actually be able to see animations of the designs and, in some cases, even see video of motifs being executed on the BERNINA Q 24!

Also, I’m excited to announce my first line of fabric with Benartex. It is called Carina, which means “dear one” or “sweet”. The colors are so vibrant and happy which makes it a joy with which to sew, plus it has a ton of blenders which makes it great to splice. Thanks, Benartex! I’m releasing 4 news patterns for Market with this line… here are some sneak peeks. (And, yes, for those of you who emailed me, the header on my newly revamped website is a feature print from this collection.)

Carina_SneakPeek2 — “Bouquet” quilting, my first quilt on the BERNINA Q 24!

If you are going to be at Market, please visit me in booth 2310 – or I should say please visit my quilts because that is really what we all do at Market anyway – visit quilts!!!

I’m off to work on my Block-of-the-Month – “Heart’s Delight”. I have 6 days to “finish” (ahem, actually “start”) it. Nothing like working under pressure right?

Hope everyone has a productive and wonderful week!

Amanda

One housekeeping note: In an effort to be able to share some more types of content with you (videos, etc.) I’ve migrated this blog over to WordPress. Any bookmarks to specific pages you might have on this site might be lost – so sorry! But all the content is still here in the archives. If you are looking for anything specific you can’t find, feel free to contact me.