Sue Neall

Sue Neall - Events Co-Ordinator

Travel and sewing have always been in my blood and I've done a great deal of both. But combining both loves in one exciting venture is the culmination of a lifetime of experiences, hopes and dreams.

Having come from a family of pattern makers, graders, designers and seamstresses I can't remember when my mother and her three sisters first taught me to sew. It was just always so and after spending my childhood playing on the factory floor of various manufacturing companies it was just a natural progression to East Sydney Technical College and a career in fashion.

This fabulous training added to a natural love of textiles, patterns and the joy of constructing beautiful garments and has led to a forty year career in the fashion sewing industry. During this fabulous ride I have had the pleasure to work with many talented people and companies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A and both the learning and the teaching have never stopped. The early years as a TAFE Fashion teacher led to challenges that pushed me in new directions in writing and presenting and broadened my knowledge of the fashion industry as a whole.

Many years of writing for great magazines like Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, Australian Stitches, Sew Inspirational Web Mag and Palmer/Pletsch Publications has led to a part of my career that never ceases to surprise me and the 12 years compiling and presenting the Stitches & Craft Shows Fashion Parades and 8 years as the sewing presenter on 'Today Extra' TV still feels like it happened to someone else.

But the two most rewarding parts of my sewing life have been the 35 year association with Pati Palmer of Palmer/Pletsch Publishing, with the last 25 years as the Director of Education for Australia, and the past 20 years, spent with like minded friends, in the Australian Sewing Guild. Having been with the Guild since its inception I never fail to feel a sense of extreme pleasure as the Guild moved from strength to strength.

I have, to date, already had a life filled with small triumphs and huge pleasures, shared with a wonderful husband of 40 years and three fabulous children (adults!).

I hope that you will join me, come along on this ride too and gain as much satisfaction and as many friendships as I have from a life spent with the humble needle and thread.