Latest News from Sue!

Watch my sister- Pat Holly's episode on
The Quilt Show starting April 12th!
Episode 608 "Mastering Machine Appliqué"

Welcome to my website! Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy browsing.

The past year has been very busy with lots of teaching and travel. It was a pleasure to meet with so many quilters, teaching machine techniques and talking with you about my favorite thing: Quilting!

This year will be just as busy and I look forward to seeing you on the road ...

In December I filmed a DVD that will be called “Successful Machine Quilting on the Home Sewing Machine with Sue Nickels”. Bonnie McCaffery came to Ann Arbor and we set up things at my sister Pat’s house and filmed for 3 days. Bonnie was wonderful and I am excited to see the final result. It will cover all aspects of how I approach machine quilting on the home sewing machine. Watch for more on this and look for the DVD to be available on my website this summer.

Currently I am booking workshops for 2011 and 2012. I am pleased to say 2010 is completely full and I look forward to visiting many you this year! Please look at the updated schedule under Sue’s Schedule for availability. If you have me scheduled to visit your group please check that all the information is correct and if you don’t see your group listed- contact me immediately!

I want to let you know there are still openings in a couple of wonderful retreat conferences I am teaching at this year. I will be teaching the multi-day workshop called “The Perfect Finish”. This workshop focuses on my machine quilting techniques for the home sewing machine and options for finishing your quilt with unique bindings and edge treatments. It is always a wonderful opportunity for students to explore techniques in depth by spending 4-5 days with the same teacher. Please join me at one of these beautiful locations:

March 14-10: Quilting Adventures- Hill Country Style in New Braunfels, Texas
May 9-13: Quilters Escape in Eureka, California. My sister, Pat Holly, will be teaching Miniature Machine Appliqué at this retreat!

I have also updated my workshops page, retiring a few workshops and adding a few new ones. Please check these out and if you have any questions let me know. I have also updated most of the supply lists with mainly small things that I hope will make them more accurate for you- the student! My biography and fees and requirements have minor updates.

I continue to use a camera and projector in the classroom for demos and it is a fabulous teaching aid. Because of this I have a few extra requirements in the classroom, please be sure to read this under classroom requirements. I have achieved my goal of having my lectures in power point. So for all my lectures, I will bring my own projector and computer and present my images using power point!

My shopping page has my two books (including the newest “Stitched Raw Edge Appliqué” co-authored with my sister, Pat Holly). My patterns are also available and remain very popular items. Ialso carry some of the quilting items I use and sell when I am on the road teaching. My thread line- King Tut “Tone on Tones” from Superior Threads is available from- www.SuperiorThreads.com. Iam not currently selling these threads on my website. I am now using a paper backed fusible web product called Soft Fuse for my technique of machine appliqué and I will be selling this on my site soon. I love this product- it is easy to use and never separates from the paper!!!

Please visit my Gallery of Quilts page which features a sampling of my quilts. I have the newest quilt my sister, Pat Holly and I collaborated on called “Tea at Tenby”. It won many awards in the past year- the most exciting was “Best of Show” at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham England! I have included information about some of our other award winning quilts- “The Beatles Quilt” and “The Space Quilt” as I am often asked to explain the details of these collaborative quilts. My sister, Pat has been creating beautiful miniature quilts- look for her page in the “Gallery of Quilts” that showcases some of her work.

I am working on my 2010 goal of creating new quilts, so look for these soon! Another goal of mine for 2010 is to start a blog. I want to share my quilting life with you! This will include stories from my travels, new products and information on machine techniques and my thoughts on quilting on my new Bernina 830 which has made things so easy for me. Watch for this new blog to start in the next few months!

I have included photos of my April 2009 trip to New Zealand with my sister in my travel photos. It was a trip of a lifetime. We taught for a wonderful group of quilters in Coramandel on the North Island and then Paula Nadelstern joined us as we traveled to the South Island to tour before teaching at the Quilt Symposium in Wellington. Thanks to all the wonderful quilters who hosted us and helped make this trip the best. We hope for a return trip in the future.

One of things I am most proud of from the past year is my involvement in the 1st annual World Quilt Federation Smackdown Event to support the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. My quilt “Golden Feathers” earned over $1,500.00 for this initiative. Look for news about this years smackdown soon!

My family is still doing great! My youngest daughter, Ashley has returned from living in Spain for the past 6 years and is now in San Francisco. She is teaching Spanish at the San Francisco Friends School. We are very excited to share the news that our oldest daughter Jessi and son-in-law Ryan will become parents in late May. This means my husband and I will become Grandparents in 2010 and my Mom will be a Great-Grandma (she has been waiting patiently for this for years)!

Our yellow lab, Rubi, is still the best dog ever and her bestfriend- Bailey the yellow lab, Jessi and Ryan’s dog is very excited about the changes coming to her house!

I hope to see you on the road this year, doing what I love to do- teaching machine quilting and machine appliqué. Thank you for visiting my website and please come back soon…

Fondly,
Sue Nickels

I am proud to be participating in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, a program raising awareness and funding research for Alzheimer's disease. It has two parts: a traveling art quilt exhibit interpreting Alzheimer's in fiber art that will tour the U.S. for three years, and an on-going sale of small art quilts. All proceeds will go to Alzheimer's research. www.AlzQuilts.org