GillyMac Designs
Meet Gill from GillyMac Designs
Gill founded GillyMac Designs in 2014 with a simple aim: to share her love of sewing and help others grow in confidence and creativity. Her warm, imaginative approach to teaching quickly gained national recognition, including awards for her children’s sewing classes.
Since then, Gill has built an impressive career teaching for Liberty of London, the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, Just Hands On TV, Janome, the Women’s Institute and quilt groups across the UK. She has also appeared on BBC Radio, been featured in Berkshire Life magazine and exhibited her own creative work nationally through the GENArt movement, including at Turner Contemporary.
At the heart of GillyMac Designs is a thriving and loyal community of stitchers, with some students learning with Gill for more than a decade. She teaches adults and teenagers across dressmaking, patchwork, quilting and bag making, as well as running online classes, virtual retreats and popular Block of the Month programmes for participants in the UK and overseas.
Gill is also the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Doodle Challenge, launched in 2018 to help stitchers build confidence through drawing and stitching. The challenge helped grow a vibrant online community and led to the creation of the GillyMac Club, where members share ideas, take part in sewalongs and support one another.
In 2020, Gill joined the Janome team, initially creating sewing videos for teenagers, and she continues to work with Janome through teaching, videos and events. Since 2024, she has also taught through the Women’s Institute Learning Hub, sharing her skills with an even wider audience.
Whether she is teaching dressmaking, decorative stitching or free-motion quilting, Gill’s focus is always on making sewing feel accessible, enjoyable and achievable. Her relaxed, practical teaching style gives makers the confidence to try something new, develop their skills and put their own creative stamp on every project.
Doodle Quilting Talk – Friday, 11.00–12.00
Ever wanted to try free motion quilting, or improve your confidence and technique? Join Gill for her Doodle Quilting Talk, where she’ll share the approach she has used to help hundreds of sewists master free motion quilting and it all starts with something as simple as pen and paper. A great opportunity to pick up practical tips, understand the process and discover how doodling can help unlock your quilting skills.