Cois Farraige Quilters Exhibition in Inverin

These photos show just some of the wonderful quilts created by the Cois Farraige Quilters for their October exhibition in Inverin.

Over the October Weekend the members of Cuilteálaithe Chois Fharraige held their 4th exhibition in the Seanscoil in Indreabhán. Over thirty items were shown: from a lovely first exhibit Easter wallhanging by Jennifer Deibel to two older quilts one from 1930 and the other from 1940. IPS member Deirdre Stephens showed a quilt for her son based on a painting by Mondrian and an embellished oak tree piece for her nephew Dara. Deirdre works in the craft workshop of the Brothers of Charity centre in Casla and under her direction, Oliver, Padraig, Brid and Padraig completed a beautiful butterfly wall hanging for the centre .
Butterflies were a bit of a theme as four quilts were shown using the 'Butterfly Fling' range of Fabrics. One of them a first quilt for Tony Murphy..no longer a quilting widower!
Another interesting exhibit from a male sewer was a quilt made in Dublin by Michael Madigan in the 1930's from a tailors' sample book of tweeds and suitings. The cover, not strictly a quilt as it had only two layers, was very heavy and the samples were sewn together in irregular squares and rectangles. It looked great on the bed and was a live example of the Sean-nós song 'Déanfaidh mé Cuilt as mo Bhríste' (I'll make a quilt of my trousers!). Bríd Uí Bhriain borrowed the quilt from family in Dublin but she also brought a quilt her family have used since the 1940's. It was made in Wexford by a neighbour, Ciss Carty, and comprised a courthouse steps pattern in velvets. At this stage it is well worn and weathered: testament to its years of use as a winter warmer. Both quilts endure and would have done great service in last winter's snow and ice.
As a group we had four quilts: a Noah's Ark foundation pieced from the P&Q magazine which we have donated to the local Family Support Centre; a baby panel and a lovely pinwheel child's quilt (hand-quilted by new members Máire Ní Dhomhnaill and Kate Conroy); finally we all worked on a blue sampler quilt. The last three have been donated to Colaiste Colmcille, where we meet each Thursday night, to raffle for school funds.
Mary Ann Curran's foundation pieced 'Snowflakes' was stunning in it's detail and colour; Mary Ann also showed a variation of the Flying Geese, multi-coloured against a honey background.
Anne Marie Horan had a large sampler quilt in red and white: a gift for a Cork-born friend. Jackie O'Toole's 'Jacob's Ladder' in orange and purple lit up the room.
Treasa Uí Fhátharta gave herself the challenge of Sudoku quilt in pinks and purples and Máirín Cadhain completed a monster Braided Log cabin. Two of the quilts were long arm quilted by Frances Conroy in Maam and another was quilted by the women on Inis Oirr, Mná le Chéile, another group who quilt as Gaeilge.
It was a lovely exhibition and gave the members of the group an opportunity to show their work. Once again the Seanscoil was a good venue and this year we had the use of the stands from the Southern Branch IPS which made hanging the exhibition much easier. Next year will be our 5th show: come and visit!

by Anne Marie Horan

American quilters visit Galway and meet Western Branch members at Glenlo Abbey Hotel

Recently the Western Branch of the IPS was contacted by a group of American quilters on a tour of Ireland who hoped to meet up at the Glenlo Abbey Hotel for a show and tell and sharing of quilting stories.In this photo from left to right are Sandlin, baby Lara, Sally, Margaret, Veronika, Joan and Jackie waiting to meet the American visitors at the hotel.

In this photo Mari shows the Christmas quilt she made in 2006 from the Christmas challenge blocks that were raffled amongst the participants.

This photo shows a bag made by the American visitors with a map of Ireland showing their tour destinations.

American quilter Wendy shows some of the Celtic designs the group is currently working on. They are also working on a signature 'Irish Chain' quilt and the Irish quilters were asked to sign lots of squares to contribute.

Here the Irish quilters showed the Hungarian and Irish quilts made as part of the 'Let the Flowers Bloom' exchange project. The following Irish quilters also showed some of their work:

Sally, Johanna, Margaret and Agnes.

And finally a photo of the two groups together at the end of of a very enjoyable visit.

Photos and details provided by Johanna.

Octagon Quilters 2010 Exhibition

The Octagon Quilters held their annual exhibition in Westport recently during the Westport Arts Festival.

Some of you may not have been in a position to travel, so Madeleine kindly sent in the following photos to give you a flavour of what you missed!

Watch out for this annual event next year....mark your diaries!

RDS Crafts Competition Winners exhibition at the Museum of County Life, Castlebar

The winners of the annual RDS Crafts Competition will be exhibited at the Museum of County Life, Turlough Park, Mayo until the 15th October. Margaret and Anne Marie visited it last week and highly recommend a visit.

Congratulations to IPS member Mary Palmer who won the Award of Excellence, the William Smith O'Brien Perpetual Challenge Cup and the 1st Prize in Contemporary Patchwork and Quilting for her piece 'The Long Note in 12/8 Part 1' (detail photo above). Mary also won the 1st Prize in Traditional Patchwork and Quilting for her piece 'Woven Paths'. And she also received the Irish Patchwork Society Award. A fantastic achievement and well-deserved.

Bonnets! Bring your bonnets in November!

The above image from Christina Henri's website is used here to promote her "Roses from the Heart" project to ask our branch members to join in!

Just a reminder for those of you who are making bonnets for the "Roses from the Heart" project. Madeleine is asking everyone to finish the bonnets and bring them along to the November meeting. If you need the pattern, click here http://www.christinahenri.com.au/. If you would like to embroider an Irish convict's name on the bonnet contact Madaleine in Westport as she's got a list!

Quilt Art celebrates 25 years

Quilt Art is a group of 20 professional quilt artists from Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands and America. There are two Irish members in this group: Allie Kay and Ann Fahy from Galway.

In 2010 the group celebrates its 25th anniversary with two exhibitions "Quilt Art at 25" and "A slice of Quilt Art" which was recently at the Festival of Quilts in Bermingham.

"A Slice of Quilt Art" will come to Ireland, The Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely from April 30th to May 27th, 2011. Mark that date in your diary and you won't be disappointed!

For more information about the group, its members and its upcoming exhibition venues visit www.quiltart.eu. There are lots of fantastic photos of the work of these artists on the website with links to their own websites as well. Go on click on the link for a visual treat!

A big THANK YOU to Ann Fahy who kindly donated a copy of the above publication to our library for members to borrow.

October: quilting the Heritage Quilt

Veronika marked the border with a celtic style cable pattern prepared by Mari Moran.


Veronika, Lynn and Marilyn discuss marking options.

Mogs and Johanna start quilting.......there's a lot to do, so if you or your group want to help out, contact Veronika.

October: Beginner's Workshop with Anne Marie and Margaret

Our new members are making great progress. Today they learned how to make half-square triangles, put 4 patches together and add a border.

Anne Marie and Margaret showed how to use rotary cutters, rulers and mats for accurate cutting.

And the these beginners are just flying along!

Below are 2 sample runners completed by Anne Marie to show the possibilities for laying out the completed blocks.

October Speaker: Sandlin Poth and friends

A big THANK YOU to Sandlin Poth and her quilting friends who came at short notice to tell us about their Bible Quilt Project. The Blocks on display are "Garden of Eden", "Tree of Life" (Norway Pine is the substitute in the top row), "Dove in the Window", "Jacob's Ladder" and "Joseph's Coat".

Six-year old Emma, proudly shows us her patchwork projects. Emma started patchworking with the group last year when she was 5; that's pretty impressive!

This international group of women meet on Saturdays for Bible Study with a difference. 'Lessons for the Heart' takes its inspiration from a Bible passage and 'Lessons for the Hands' involves learning to make a patchwork block with a biblical theme. Above Catherine Kelly and Joan Cumings show "Jacob's Ladder".

Claudia Titilincu and Mandy Post show "Dove in the Window" blocks above.

Joan Cumings

And Claudia Titilincu show "Garden of Eden" blocks above.

As they continue to work on their blocks they are discussing what name to call the group. Peaceful Piecers, Saturday Stitching Sisters, Quirky Quilters are some of the names under discussion.

Whatever they decide it's certain they have lots of talent and we look forward to seeing the finished quilts sometime in the future.

October Show and Tell

Bridgie has finished this beautiful quilt top and it has just been long-arm quilted by Frances.


Monica showed us both the positive and negative versions of this wall-hanging created in a recent workshop with Mogs.

New member, Marilyn, showed us her wonderful hand-appliqued quilt.

Marilyn also showed this machine-pieced quilt.

Anne Marie's daughter made this colourful quilt....with just a little help.

Northern Irish Branch of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles (Region 17) at the Galway City Museum

You may have noticed in Mary Hunter's European Quilt Association report in the current Newsletter that the Northern Irish Branch of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles are currently exhibiting in the West, at the Galway City Museum (on the second floor).
The group were presented with a catalogue of Cecil Maguire's artwork and this was used as inspiration for the quilts on display.
We are unsure how long this exhibition will run at the Museum, but if you get a chance to take a look it comes highly recommended by Mary Hunter who saw this in Bermingham.

National Exhibition 2011

In 2011, the Irish Patchwork Society will be 30 years old. To celebrate this achievement the IPS is planning to organise a Special National Exhibition to take place that year.

Also in 2011, the World's Craft Council will be hosting its General Assembly in Ireland so the Crafts Council of Ireland has decided that 2011 will be the 'Year of Craft'.

To celebrate these two events, the IPS would like to promote patchwork and quilting throughout the country.

The IPS would like all branches to hold their own exhibitions in 2011. Ideally, the branch exhibitons should be finished by May 2011, so that most of these quilts can go on to be part of the Special National Exhibition celebrating 30 years.

The venue for the national exhibition will be the Botanic Gardens. The final date for this is to be confirmed.

The theme will be: 'BRANCHING OUT'. As the exhibition will be in the Botanic Gardens, entries should be related to an environmental, plant or nature-based theme.

The Western Branch is considering holding a branch exhibition in April 2011 to comply with this request, eventhough we normally only exhibit every second year and would not be due to do so until 2012. The committee is currently investigating possible exhibition venues in Galway and further information will be available shortly.