Pauline Rogers first exposure to patchwork and quilting occurred when she attended a class to help make up numbers. She has come along way from the insecure beginner, with a few needles and a pair of scissors, to a professional tutor whose quilting expertise covers the full range of techniques from appliqué to machine piecing and quilting.
Pauline travelled throughout Australia and New Zealand for over 20 years, teaching the art of patchwork and quilting. She has been a featured tutor at the “Australasian Quilting Symposiums” and the “Stitches and Craft Shows”, and an integral part in the creation of numerous community quilts, several of which are in the Australian National Quilt Register.
She operates an award winning shop, Country Fabrics and Quilters, in Toowoomba, Queensland. The shop provides not only quilting supplies, but hosts many events geared towards quilters. The Patchwork & Quilting Academy, which provides a full educational program, evolved from the workshops and classes co-ordinated by Pauline through her shop.
In 2000, at the Queensland State Quilt Conference, Pauline received recognition for “outstanding services to the establishment and promotion of patchwork and quilting in Queensland”.
The dynamic Pauline developed a national quilting challenge, “Margie’s Quilts of Hope” in 2004. Quilters around Australia were encouraged to make a block or mini quilt to donate to MQH. The quilts are than raffled and auctioned, to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, in support of research into the prevention and cure of breast cancer.
MQH has raised over $45 000 so far, to assist in ensuring the future health and well being of women all over the world. In November 2005, Pauline accepted, on “behalf of all quilters who have participated in the challenge”, the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s “Pink Ribbon Award for Community Involvement”.
As an enterprising business woman and devoted quilter Pauline Rogers has been responsible for inspiring hundreds of women, many children and even some men, to discover their creative ability through the art of patchwork and quilting.