January Meeting

The quilters in the West are an intrepid gang, they turned out in great numbers for our January meeting.  In past years the inclemency of the weather has put people off travelling from the outer reaches of the region but this year things were much milder. 

We received copies of the lovely calendar put together by Mna le Cheile, the Inis Oirr Quilters Group. It is a lovely piece of work combining quilts and the marvellous Inis Oirr scenery. If you'd like to know more about the group check out their blog mnalecheile.blogspot.ie.  We still have copies of the calendar for sale at €10 so make contact if you'd like to buy one. And don't forget tickets for the "Let the Flowers Bloom" Quilt at €5 a book.

We were also lucky enough to have not one, but two local shops at our meeting to supply threads, perle cotton, precuts, rulers and rotary blades.  

Fluffy Sheep Quilting

Seams Sew Simple

 Textile artist and long time IPS member Ann Fahy donated a box of fabrics to the branch and on foot of that we invited members to bring in any unloved fat quarters to donate them for sale for the charity Lily Mae. One quilters 'yeuch' is another one's 'yum'! We still have fabrics left but so far have €130 in donations. Thank you to Ann and to all the members for their support.

Today Veronika Feldman demonstrated a really quick pinwheel which would make a lovely child's quilt. (photo?) Thanks Veronika. Thanks too to Toni Foley, branch treasurer, who stepped out from behind her table to demonstrate beautiful fabric flower brooches. This involved circles of fabric (using your favourite wine glass as a template), and dental floss (stronger than thread for pulling in the circles of fabric). Who knew household items could be so handy for our craft?

As usual there were lovely items in the Show and Tell. 

Mari showed a finished UFO with lovely hand quilting, Kathy Fallon had a stunning quilt with log cabins and maple leaves, the pattern for which she went to great lengths to procure as it was well out of print. The magazine in question sent her a copy of the pattern.  Linda showed a really fresh table runner in blue and white with a complicated looking shape. Sewing a mitred corner is straightforward on an 'outside' corner but much more complicated on an'inside' corner. 

Anybody got any tips on how to do it? Lynn had a simple but effective cot quilt from a single piece of children's border print with a plain border print around it. Lynn said the machine quilting was very manageable on such a small piece and encouraged members to give it a go. Anne Marie showed a square in a square quilt which all began with a  charm pack of yellow squares won in the raffle at the IPS meeting in April last. Mary Madden showed us a quilt made block by block from a series that ran in the Farmers Journal, a lovely folky quilt. Susan very proudly showed a spider's web block but even more impressively a handy ruler caddy made from a coat hanger and some hooks.

In the afternoon we got busy putting together our charity quilt.

What's coming up:

The Tessellations Workshop for February with Terri McNeill is fully booked and we all picked up our requirements today.  We look forward to hearing Gaye Grant sharing her wisdom on 'A quilt from start to finish...how I do it'.  In March we will have a sewing bee for the hospital quilts and Adeleine Jordan will share some of her work and show how to make a quick book cover. In April Paula Rafferty will be bringing her Fashio snas Frontieres Pieces and giving a workshop on Double sided log cabin using jelly rolls. Have you booked yet?

Angela Keane of the 1913 Lockout Committee will be with us next month to explain about how we can be part of the Tapestry Project.  Other groups have already stitched their pieces but we will get going in February. See www.1913.committee.ie for details.