About

Hi! My name is Becky and I’m the owner of Black Cat Quilt Co.

My original quilting snoopervisor and the inspiration for BCQC is my old back cat, Cuddles. Cats and quilts - is there a more iconic duo?

A rescue that came to us as a sick, snuggly 5-week old kitten, she’ll turn 16 soon. While she doesn’t come to the sewing room as much anymore, she has spent most of her life as a snoopervisor and quality control inspector. I have a new snoopervisor-in-training these days, while Cuddles spends her retirement napping on the catio or in bed.

My addiction  and all consuming passion for quilting started in about 2003 - my Gran was a gorgeous quilter, and I was fascinated with the idea of making my own. Unfortunately, I didn’t live anywhere near her, so my opportunity to learn from her was limited. One of my favourite memories is of Gran teaching me to hand-quilt and hand-baste on the table in her kitchen during a school holiday visit.   

I decided to try making one on my own - how hard could it be, right? Remember, this is back before social media, so there was no Facebook to search, no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Youtube to learn from - I don’t even think we had a computer at that point. That seems like a completely foreign concept these days! 

I think I found a magazine one day, and decided to give it a try. How hard could it be, I scoffed - little did I know!! Oh my lawd, I don’t think that quilt had a straight line or matched seam in it!! The quilt top went into the time-out corner, and I went looking for classes. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be had in the town I lived in, apart from one heirloom quilting workshop that I would have to wait months to join as they were full. 

Even so, I was hooked! I wanted to sew these beautiful, functional pieces of art. 

Fast-forward ten years, and one move to Townsville. My job moved, so it was either go with it or lose the job. My hubby and I had to give up the 50 acre bush block that we loved, and rehome our pigs, goats, chooks and geese. At the same time, I lost my little dog to old age. We had to leave our friends and start over in a new place - a tiny one-bedroom unit in the CBD. 

For a long time after that move, Hubby was working away and it was just Cuddles and I at home throughout the week. She became my constant companion and quilting assistant / quality control inspector. My challenge was to make a quilt without sewing her into it!

One of the benefits of that move was finding a great class to join, with a wonderful teacher  who is now one of my favourite people in the world. I discovered that I really did love quilting, and I was actually pretty good at it!

I was given the opportunity to take over teaching the class in about 2022, when the teacher retired. I was also teaching bagmaking at that time, and I genuinely love sharing my knowledge with people, seeing what they create with it. 

In the back of my mind, I kept coming back to the struggles of trying to learn how to quilt by myself, and the challenges of not knowing what great tools were out there to help. While the internet is full of tutorials and information, far more than there was when I first started out, I wanted to give quilters an easy and fun way to get their hands on interesting new tools - thus the Quilty Treats Box was born!

Quilty Treats is a box full of the best quilting things I can find and I’m constantly looking for new and fun things to bring to you. I love new tools and gadgets and I love getting surprise boxes, and I wanted to share that joy with you.

While I no longer teach a regular patchwork class, I am working on building my skills in various techniques, including becoming certified to teach Scrappy Applique. I will be looking to offer workshops, both in Townsville and North Queensland more generally, beginning 2025. If you or your group would like to talk to me about running a workshop for you, feel free to reach out, I’d love to see what I can offer for you.