"Branching Out" National Exhibition photos in Irish Times Healthplus

Photos above show IPS member Maria Bolton demonstrating patchwork techniques to children visiting the National Exhibition at the Botanic Gardens. The photos appeared in an article about activities for children during the summer in the Irish Times Healthplus supplement on 12th July.

Octagon Quilters Annual Exhibition in Westport

The Octagon Quilters will hold the Annual Exhibition of their work as part of Westport Arts Festival in the Parish Centre, James Street, Westport.
The exhibition will be open from 10am to 5 pm from Monday 3rd October to Saturday the 8th October. Admission Free.

Irish 'Let the Flowers Bloom' quilt features in MagicPatch Magazine

The above scanned image is on page 45 of MagicPatch magazine issue 56 (June-July 2011) and it shows the Irish 'Let the Flowers Bloom' quilt made in collaboration with Gyongyi Varadi and the Hungarian Quilting Guild. Full instructions for the Hungarian 'Mountains in Bloom' quilt are given in the magazine. For more information on this French publication see http://www.edisaxe.com/.

EQA NEWS: Fashion San Frontieres

Four members of the IPS, including Western Branch member, Mogs McDonnell are taking to the catwalk in the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel at 7.30pm on Thursday 11th August. If you are travelling to Birmingham for the Quilt Festival, please show your support for our members by attending and cheering them on.
Mogs has been working hard on her designs and we wish her all the best!

National AGM and Conference: 15-17 October at the Ambassador Hotel, Cork

Booking forms are available in the current IPS Newsletter Magazine for the National AGM in Cork from 15-17th October. Forms must be returned by 1st September, 2011.

The AGM takes place in the morning and Philippa Naylor is the guest speaker in the afternoon (see http://www.philippanaylor.com/ to read more about her work)

Philippa will also provide 2 workshops:

Contemporary Curved Piecing - 16th October
Free Motion Feathers for Everyone - 17th October.

AGM CHALLENGE: Miniature Quilts
Create a miniature quilt no larger than 20inch square to exhibit at the AGM. It must have the appearance of a full size quilt (i.e. in a photo, you wouldn't be able to tell if it were large or small)

Pricing:
15th October full day 25 Euro
15th October talk only 10 Euro (15 non-members)
Workshops are 70 Euro each or both for 125 Euro

Western Branch visits 'Branching Out' at the Botanic Gardens

Our bus left Galway at 8.15am on Saturday 9th July to travel to the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin for the National Exhibition.
Tea, coffee and buns were very much welcomed on arrival! Then we had plenty of time to see the exhibition which included a great variety of techniques, sizes, colours, styles, themes, fabric choices. There's something to appeal to everyone here.
Lunch in the restaurant was delicious. And to finish off we stopped at Liffey Valley for some shopping before returning to Galway. A great day out!

These are just some of the pieces made by Western Branch members which were included in the show.

A catalog of the exhibition was for sale (5Euro) and includes photos of all the quilts.

Fabric postcards were sent to the exhibition from all over the world and these are also displayed.

The exhibition runs until 2nd August. If you cannot get there some of the work will be shown again at the IPS stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show at the RDS in Oct/Nov 2011.