Bursting onto the quilting festival scene in 2014, her quilt “From Bethlehem to Lone Star" was placed first at the IQCA at Emperor’s Palace. In 2015 she won the Contemporary Small class with “Hide and Seek”, second with “African Fusion” as well as the first and third positions in her group quilts with Linda Oerlemans and Shanida Arnoldi at the SAQG National Quilting Festival and became a master quilter. She also won, the first in 3 consecutive SAQG Festivals, the award for Best Machine Work. In 2016 World Quilt Competition her work "Hide and Seek" won the award for Best Machine Quilting. At the Festival in 2017, she won First in the Wall Quilts Geometric Standard with “Titanic” in the Master Class. She followed up in 2018 with another win at the World Quilt Competition where she was awarded Best Machine Quilting with “African Sunset”. In 2019, she matched her first prize in the Wall Quilt, Masters’ Class with “African Sunset” at SAQG Festival and added the third prize for “Summertime” in the same category.
“African Sunset” won a Third prize in the 2020 Virtual Quilt Show (USA) as well as a Second Prize at 2020 Road@Home Show (USA).
Claire chaired the Jacaranda Quilters’ Guild Committee in 2014 and 2015 and was part of the 2019 SAQG Festival Committee – exhibition. Her series on machine quilting saw the light in 2015 and 2016 in the magazine “Stitches” . She currently publishes a monthly online VLOG for machine quilters at https://handiquiltersa.com/videos/
Her absolute dedication to quilting, and specifically machine quilting, quietly and humbly changed the quality of machine quilting in South Africa.
Region/Guild - Jacaranda Quilters’ Guild
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