Mogs McDonnell and Students Exhibition in Headford

On Friday 21st Sep, Anne-Marie Horan, our Western Branch Chairperson opened an exhibition of work by Mogs McDonnell and her students at Headford Parish Hall which ran until the 26th Sep.

 

A good number of IPS members were in attendance to support these quilters as they celebrate another year's work completed. There was a party atmosphere with goodies to eat and drink as we enjoyed the display of quilts. 

 

Mogs modeled, with panache, her designs made for the Fashion Sans Frontiers exhibition in Birmingham last year.

 

I particularly loved the 'Cathedral Windows' quilt Mogs made with the Active Retirement group in Kilcoona.

 

But there were plenty of other stunning quilts on show as you can see from the photos included (sorry I don't have names for all the makers).

 

This annual exhibition is always an enjoyable event and I look forward to it each year.....make sure you mark your calendar next year, you won't be disappointed!

 

Ester Kiely

Thanks Giving

On Thursday 24th Nov 2011 Margaret ,Ester and Sally headed to Campbells Tavern, Cloughanover, Headford to celebrate “Thanks Giving”.

There wasn’t a turkey in sight as Willie had given Mogs Mc Donnell free rein of the lounge for the night. We came in on a cold and very windy night to a pub that was full of beautiful quilts and we had one mighty show and tell. All the ladies groups that Mogs works with, showed one beautiful quilt after another. Niamh Langan’s quilt “The Ties That Bind”which was featured on the front of the catalogue (remember the pink doc martins) for the Links exhibition looked great hanging on the wall.Mogs showed us her own lovely work “The Children of Lir” that she made for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.

Everyone had tea and lovely homemade apple pie and cream to mark the day even the men playing cards were treated to some also.

 Thanks to Mogs for a lovely  “Thanks Giving”.

Written and Photographed by Margaret Cunnane.

Quilting Bee at Campbell's Tavern, Cloughanover, Headford on Thursday 24th November

Photo shows Mogs McDonnell at the Western Branch exhibition 'Branching Out' in the Galway City Museum in April 2011, with her quilt 'Up the Garden Path' which was voted 'viewers choice'.

Our own Mogs McDonnell will host a 'Quilting Bee' at Campbell's Tavern, Cloughanover, Headford this Thursday 24th November at 8.30pm. All quilters, quilt-lovers and those interested to learn more about the craft are welcome.
There will be a 'show and tell' so bring along your quilts, old, new and in-progress.
It promises to be a lovely evening of quilting, chat and good company!

September Guest Speaker: Mogs McDonnell shows her designs for 'Fashion Sans Frontieres' at Birmingham Festival of Quilts

Congratulations to Mogs on her fashion collection for 'Fashion sans Frontieres' at the Birmingham Festival of Quilts in August 2011. Chairperson, Lynn Naughton presented Mogs with flowers and a big thank you from the Western Branch for making us so proud! Mogs received an award for the quality of her stitching and workmanship in her evening-wear collection. The Irish Patchwork Society team of 4 received an overall award for their day-wear collection.

Mogs shows the back of her pieced, quilted velvet coat. The title for Mogs' collection was 'Swanning Around on the Corrib'. Taking inspiration from the white, black and orange of the swans and the blue of the lake and sky, Mogs created her colour palette for the collection.

Mogs shows the front of her coat, with fur trim on the neckline.

Mogs created a 70's inspired day-wear look with tie-dyed top, over-sized baker-boy cap, elephant-flare denims and traditional Irish críos (belt) which was hand-woven by Mairéad Sharry on Inisheer.

Mogs gave us a wonderful talk, slide-show (with grateful assistance from Agnes Warren) and show & tell. She took us through her journey from being asked by EQA representative, Loretta O'Brien to participate, creating her 'mood-board' to describe her inspirations, creating each piece, travelling to Birmingham, practicing for the cat-walk and finally the show itself. We are so proud of all her work and in awe of her talent! Keep it up Mogs!

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!

Christmas Crib Workshop with Mogs McDonnell at her studio Bolg na Talun

On a very very frosty Saturday morning in November, my husband Peter bravely drove two mad quilting women from Galway to Headford, to do a workshop with Mogs Mc Donnell.
Mogs lives in a cosy thatched cottage and has converted her out-houses to a lovely studio. The stove was blazing; the kettle on when we arrived and Mary had brought hot scones just out of the oven. So after a cuppa and a delicious scone we were ready to go .Pencils sharpened, we traced the pattern of the Christmas Crib onto bondaweb. We bonded the pattern onto our black fabric and carefully cut out background shapes and bonded the black outline onto our piece of batik. This left us with a positive and negative pattern so we have two wall hangings. As we sat in the warm heat of the stove, carefully cutting away the pattern, we could see the fog rising off the lake and the sun struggling to come through, but it was still freezing.
Mogs provided us with a beautiful lunch of homemade soup, brown bread and apple tart, great food to keep us going for the afternoon.
We cut and bonded for the rest of the afternoon and had our two wall hangings ready for quilting. Mine is still in the process of being quilted so it will be ready for Christmas 2011. Thank you Mogs, for a great day.
For more information about Mogs see her listing on the Crafts Council of Ireland’s website (http://www.ccoi.ie/).

By Margaret Cunnane and Mary O’Brien

November: "Stack and Whack" workshop with Mogs McDonnell

After our November meeting Mogs McDonnell taught a ‘whack and stack’ workshop which at least 15 members attended.

We all watched in trepidation as Mogs showed us how to draw up the template that we would use as our pattern. She gave us some good advice on how to make up our template so that we wouldn’t end up with very small pieces of fabric that might be hard to work with, and we used a simple numbering system on the fabric pieces which corresponded with the numbers on the template.

We were able to choose for ourselves whether to divide our fabric into 4,6, or 8 pieces (or more if you were working with larger pieces of fabric). The amount of finished squares would depend on the number of pieces that you divided the fabric into e.g. 4 pieces = 4 squares, 6 pieces = 6 squares and so on.
As we were able to design our own template, our finished pieces were all individual and unique.

What initially looked like a very complicated procedure actually turned out to be quite a simple one, once you got into the swing of it. The pieces were very easy to assemble and the finished squares were very quick to make up and could be used to make a variety of things from placemats to wall hangings, lap quilts to full size quilts.

This was a fabulous workshop that was suitable for all levels and I for one will definitely be using this technique again.

Thanks Mogs for teaching such a great workshop I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m sure that everyone else that attended did too.

Workshop review by Jackie O’Toole (see below for photos showing the variety of blocks made at the workshop)

November: Guest Speaker, Mogs McDonnell

Mogs McDonnell has been a member of the IPS since around 1995. She first began making quilts from a book of patterns and then attended classes with Helen Hardesty, a teacher Mogs admires greatly. Mogs later decided to study for her degree in Art and Design, specialising in Textiles at GMIT. Mogs now teaches a variety of workshops at her lovely stone-built studio "Bolg na Talun", Lisheenageeha, Headford. Mogs is registered with the Crafts Council of Ireland (see www.ccoi.ie for more information)

These two quilts were hand screen-printed from original designs by Mogs based on an old mill in Tuam.

This quilt is entitled 'Lady of the Lake' with an impression of Mogs in the middle.

This quilt is an original design by Mogs and started at a 'Solstice Arts' community day for cultural integration at Campbell's Tavern in Cloughanover (near Headford). Members of the local community, the gospel choir and various ethnic groups living in Galway were invited to create a print of their hand and inscribe it with their own hand-written message. Mogs then created the yin & yang central panel representing earth, wind, fire and water, surrounded by symbols of the sun, moon and stars. The quilt took a couple of years to finish and was launched at a subsequent event at Campbell's where many who had a 'hand' in it returned to see the finished piece. An artist's book was also created to mark the event. Although the quilt later 'disappeared' for a little while from the tavern, a special poster appealing for news of the quilt was successful in reuniting the quilt with its creator! But the quilt will appear again at future community events.

Requirements list for 'Stack and Whack' workshop with Mogs on Saturday 13th November

If you plan to stay after the meeting on Saturday 13th November for the workshop with Mogs McDonnell you will need to bring the following:

• sewing machine
• mat, ruler, rotary cutter
• flathead pins, thread
• Tracing paper 7in square
• Fabric: 8 x 9in squares of different colours harmonizing, contrasting, big or small prints. Idea: Christmas fabrics would suit!
• Fat quarters if yo've got lots - the remaining fabric could be stacked and whaked to make a quilt.

The workshop should be fun, hope you join in! Mogs

Castle Quilters Roscommon: Workshop with Mogs McDonnell

Today Mogs McDonnell travelled to Roscommon to give a stained glass-window workshop to the Castle Quilters in Roscommon. A great day was had by everyone involved and as you can see from the photo a lot was achieved in the class. Mogs also teaches a wide range of patchwork and quilting skills to all levels from her beautiful stone-built studio 'Bolg na Talun' near Headford, Co. Galway.