Official opening of "Branching Out" at the Galway City Museum by John Killeen of "Lets do it Galway"

Chairperson Lynn Naughton has a wonderful blog with lots of interesting news. And thanks to her husband there is a great video clip of the opening speeches at the "Branching Out" exhibition at the Galway City Museum. To see the video please see www.lynnnaughton.blogspot.com/2011/04/branching-out-at-galway-museum.html

Please note early closure of 'Branching Out' exhibition at the Galway City Museum

Unfortunately our Western Branch Exhibition 'Branching Out' has had to close at short notice as the Galway City Museum is closing for renovations. Apologies to anyone who intended to travel next week to see the exhibition. Some of the quilts on show will be selected to travel to the National IPS exhibition in the Botanic Gardens in the summer so perhaps you will have the chance to see them there.

Western Branch members love to blog!

Since creating our westernips blog we've had lots of positive feedback from our own members and other IPS members around the country. The blog has also allowed patchworkers from abroad to make contact with us before they travel to Ireland and we have had some enquiries from those who want to plan their trips to Galway around their love of quilting. Creating a blog on http://www.blogger.com/ can be done in a few easy steps. Some of our own members have already joined in the fun. It's a great way to share information about your favourite techniques, books, websites, work in progress, etc. Sometimes someone else's research on-line can provide you with just the inspiration you needed for a new project! Be sure to check out members blogs for regular updates and consider encouraging them to keep blogging by clicking 'follow'. The on-line patchwork, quilting and textile art community is a very friendly one, so why not join in? Cindy Coleman is the latest Western IPS member to let us know about her blog and you can read all about her activities on http://www.fluffysheepquilting.blogspot.com/.

"Branching Out" an exhibition by Western Branch IPS members opens at Galway City Museum

We had a wonderful time at the opening of our exhibition on Saturday 16th April, a very sunny afternoon at the Galway City Museum. John Killeen of "Lets do it Galway" opened the exhibition for us and had high praise indeed for the creativity and craftsmanship involved in the variety of work on show. UPDATE: THE EXHIBITION CLOSED EARLY DUE TO RENOVATIONS AT THE GALWAY CITY MUSEUM. APOLOGIES TO ANYONE WHO DID NOT SEE THE EXHIBITION DUE TO THE SHORT NOTICE OF CLOSURE. Here are just some of the photographs from the event. Chairperson, Lynn Naughton, thanks John Killeen for opening the exhibition and presents him with colourful prints by Irish artist Simone Walsh (www.simonewalsh.net).

Veronika, Anna and Lara Feldmann with "Rhododendron Rose Tree" by Veronika.

Naomh Muire Quilters (Bernadette Falvey, Mari Moran and Tanja Alanko-O'Malley) with their piece "Hope".

Margaret Cunnane with 'Soleil d'Or'.

Mogs McDonnell with "Up the Garden Path".

Marian and Irene Kavanagh with "Folded Flowers" by Marian.

Mari Moran with "Cave Women's Flowers".

Margaret Cunnane and Catherine Geraghty.

Madeleine Jordan with "Taste of the Seasons".

Emer and Johanna Tyrell with "Merci Matisse" by Johanna.

Joan Colleran with "30 Years A-Growing".

Jackie O'Toole and her daughter with "All Things Bright and Beautiful" by Jackie.

Isabelle Foyle and her grand-daughter Nora.

Colette O'Donnell with "Harmony".

Cheryl Breeds with "70's by Nature".

Bernie Falvey, Colette O'Donnell, Margaret Cunnane, Josephine Helly and Lynn Naughton.

Bernie Falvey with "Bouquet of Love".

Aine Ui Dhomhnaill and her son with "Abi".

Clodagh, Emily, Grainne and Agnes Warren with "Back to Basics" by Agnes.

And finally a really BIG THANK YOU to the organising committee (Margaret Cunnane, Mari Moran and Johanna Tyrell) for putting together such a wonderful exhibition, creating posters, invitations and catalogues, advertising it in local press, etc. We all appreciate the work you did so THANKS!

Jim West tells the group about the International Quilt Festival of Ireland in 2012

Jim West moved to Ireland a year ago and now lives in Oughterard. He joined the IPS and attends the South Western Branch meetings. Jim has been working with Failte Ireland and NUI Galway to fulfil his plans to host 'The International Quilt Festival of Ireland' in Galway in June 2012. The festival programme opens with a gala dinner at the Radison and then the NUI campus will turn into the 'Quilter's Village' for the weekend hosting workshops with International and Irish tutors, a number of open and juried exhibitions, quilt-supply shops, craft and food market, flea-market, restaurants, cafes, pub, cinema, music and dance displays and lots more. Jim welcomed questions from all members and hoped everyone would participate by submitting quilts to the many exhibitions planned. Jim also invited the Western Branch committee to meet him at NUI during the week for a tour of the campus to get a greater understanding of the scale of the event. The committee will report back to the members on how we propose to get involved. In the meantime please see www.iqfoi.com for more information. Further details on how to book your place at the workshops or submit quilts to the exhibitions will be available on the website on June 7th 2011.

April: Workshop with Loretta O'Brien - from photo to quilt

On a previous visit to Galway, Loretta O'Brien showed us some of the fabric portraits she had created and of course we all wanted to know how she made them. So in April 2011 Loretta returned to Galway to give a workshop and teach us the steps involved.

Working from photographs which we had enlarged to A3 size, we traced the design using tracing paper, baking parchment or clear plastic.

By placing our tracing over graph-paper with small squares we were able to count the number of squares in the height and width.

We then moved to graph paper with large squares and plotted out our image by scaling the line drawing up to the larger paper. Although this is a slow process it is one that really helps to create a very good likeness of the original photo.

Loretta gave us an outline of what to do next.

• Copy your paper template so that you have a paper pattern to cut into the individual templates.


• Iron bondaweb to a piece of fabric larger than the template piece.


• Cut out your fabric using the template.


• Iron your fabric pieces to a background.


• Using monofilament (clear thread) on the top and in the bobbin, stitch the pieces in place using a blind hem stitch (----^----^----).


• Add in any details using free-machine lines, etc. in an appropriate coloured thread.

Below you can see some of the drawings in progress:

April: Midwestern Branch Show and Tell

Our guest speakers for the April meeting were members of our nearest IPS branch neighbours who meet in Limerick - The Mid Western Branch (http://midwestpatchwork.blogspot.com/). We were treated to a fantastic 'Show and Tell' from this talented group of patchworkers. So sit back and enjoy the following photos!