Floor talk with Helen Godden

Helen Godden & one of her pieces -Screeching Cockatoo

Floor Talk with Helen Godden 11.30 am, 10th June at the Quilters’ Guild of NSW Quilt Show at Darling Harbour. Helen will have several of her prize-winning quilts on display and will be talking about her design inspiration through to finished work.
Drawing, painting and designing have always been an integral part of Helen Godden’s life. Now that she has discovered that she can ‘draw’ with a sewing machine, her artistic life has developed a new dimension, taking her to unexpected heights. With a background in clothing design and production, Helen also completed commissioned paintings for clients. It was not until 2000 that Helen began her interest in quilting when her mother, Pat, asked Helen to design a stained-glass style quilt featuring Australian birds and flowers. Soon after, Helen discovered free-motion quilting and a whole new artistic dimension opened up to her. “A constant in my life has been the need to be creative and design on a daily basis. My mind is constantly thinking design and colours, and creating images in my head that must be allowed to flow from the imagination to the paper,” says Helen.
Helen is a multi-award winner with her quilts receiving awards both nationally and internationally. She most recently won the Master Award for Innovative Artistry at the ‘Quilts: a World of Beauty’ exhibition in Houston in 2005 for Mekong Gold. Now well-known for her free-motion machine quilting, Helen confesses that she has completely succumbed to the lure of working with fabric.