Western Branch visits Mid-Western Branch on 11th February

The Western Branch of the IPS received an invitation to bring some work to show to the Mid-Western Branch meeting on 11th February, 2011. Two cars travelled from Galway with 9 people and lots of quilts! We stopped off firstly at Maeve Meaney's fabric shop 'The Limerick Quilt Centre' http://www.irishquilt.ie/ for a little bit of fabric shopping. We had a nice dinner at the Castletroy Park Hotel. And then on to the Baptist Hall on the Old Cratloe Road for the meeting at 8pm. We received a very warm welcome and lots of tea and cake!


The first quilt we showed was the Heritage Quilt which is almost finished (just needs a hanging sleeve) and will be donated to the Galway City Museum at our 'Branching Out' exhibition in April 2011. We felt very proud to show this group quilt which was made by Western Branch members.

Veronika showed the quilt she made for the National Exhibition "Links" which shows the links between her grandmother's story and her own.

Joan showed her first patchwork 'Holly Hobby' quilts before later showing her intricate watercolour quilt.

Sandlin told the story of her Bible Studies patchwork group and we held up a selection of these blocks which all have Biblical names.

Sandlin also showed this stunning star quilt which she made for her husband.

And this is a quilt Sandlin is currently working on for a friend's baby. Here Sandlin used a technique for applying letters which is outlined in "Snuggle and Learn Quilts" by Chris Lynn Kirsch (who donated a copy of her book to our library following her recent visit from the US to Galway, where a group of our members met her group for coffee at Glenlo Abbey....see earlier post with photos of that day out).

Mari showed the quilt she made to celebrate the IPS' 21st birthday celebration.

And this is a quilt Mari made from the Christmas challenge blocks that she won.

Margaret showed this lovely textured wall-hanging she made as part of a series on Irish boglands.

And this is another of Margaret's quits made with colourful batik jelly-roll fabrics.

Margaret also showed this sunflower 'chenille' quilt made using a rotary 'chenille' cutting tool.

These are a selection of A4 sized pieces made by Madeleine using a variety of techniques.

Of course the 'Let the Flowers Bloom' Hungarian/Irish group quilts are always well-received when they are shown. A lot of flowers were made in the Mid-West so it was nice to bring these quilts to them to see them at close range. These quilts will be included in the National 'Branching Out' exhibition at the Botanic Gardens this summer. Also see the separate post about our Hungarian friend Gyongyi Varadi, who taught us her method of creating these flowers, she is featured in the January issue of French magazine "Magic Patch".

Johanna showed this lovely curved log-cabin wall-hanging.

And Johanna also showed this nursury quilt.

Joan showed this stunning and intricately pieced watercolour quilt.

Ester Kiely brought along the 'Mystery Quilt' which she started while living in Dublin and completed when she moved to Galway.

Ester also showed this scrap-quilt which she is currently working on. The pattern for this was found in an old quilting magazine and it is hand-pieced and hand-quilted (almost!).

Colette showed this wonderful 'Snakes and Ladders' quilt which can be hung on a wall. It comes complete with a furry dice and little magnetic fabric counters!

For more photos of the visit see the MidWestern Branch's blog at http://midwestpatchwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-month-was-bit-different-as-we-had.html