Home-schooled Connor has been a student of Catharina’s Vintage Stitches for six years, among the first to take advantage of the tri-weekly classes offered by the Allan St business’s owner/operator Catharina Sudholz.
Connor’s skills are not confined to quilt making, for which he was honoured recently with victory in the secondary schools section of a Victorian Quilters Association competition.
His multi-pronged education curriculum also includes a gardening component where he cares for succulents, responsibility for two rabbits and two chickens, along with some woodwork.
He was originally convinced to become involved in quilting by his mother, but now requires no encouragement to participate in one of his favourite pastimes.
“Mum wanted me to come here to learn a practical use for maths,” he said.
Planning the layout and the design of a quilt requires significant mathematical skills, which Connor said had been chiefly responsible for his improved maths results.
He initially started at Catharina’s after school, but for the past 12 months has been coming during the day.
The business offers sewing lessons three nights a week for children, with Connor one of the first to move into competitive quilting.
He has now made pillow cases, cushions and a variety of other products that adorn the lounge room and bedrooms of his house.
Catharina’s students range in age from six to 17.
“Several have been coming for six years,” she said.
Connor’s win in the annual event is a first for the Kyabram business, one of its other students receiving a highly commended four years ago.
He worked on the prize-winning quilt for 12 months and it will hang for the next month in the window of the business, which is almost next door to the Kyabram Town Hall — the site of several quilting exhibitions in recent times.
Quilting groups in Shepparton, Girgarre and Kyabram are among many in the Goulburn Valley that conduct competitions.
Connor explained his next quilt would be for the Royal Children’s Hospital, as part of its Very Snuggly Quilts program.
Victorian Quilters Guild president Marie Lee started the program for sick children and now every child that stays overnight at the hospital walks away with a quilt.
Connor’s next big event will be in April next year, at the Australasian Quilt Convention.
