March Show & Tell

Our March meeting was wonderfully attended.  Hanging in the back of the meeting was this gorgeous quilt:

It will be raffled off in the May meeting to raise funds for the IPS Archiving project.  Be sure to buy your tickets before then!

The majority of our show and tell quilts were from Terri McNeill's workshop the month before.  Isn't it great to see how the same pattern can be interpreted by each quilter using different fabrics?

Lynne also showed several quilts made with fabrics from Seams Sew Simple, giving each and every one of us a few new ideas!  Thanks, Lynne!

Our April meeting was filled with a Paula Rafferty double sided log cabin workshop and a wonderful shop:  Floppy Fabrics.  Stay tuned to see everything in our next few blog posts!

Feb Branch Meeting Show & Tell

What a hectic meeting our February one was. There was a pretty full house of members, including our intrepid quilters who come in from the Aran Islands and Dot and Mary Francis from the USA who were visiting Spiddal for the weekend. Both quilters, they had discovered our meeting through the Fennel Shed Website. It was lovely to meet them and hopefully they enjoyed the rest of their trip to Ireland. They were on their way next day to visit Anne Marie Hobbs in Co. Wexford. 

Members of our branch contributed to a fabulous show and tell.  Here's a little peek:

November Meeting

This is just  a short reminder that the Western Branch of the IPS will meet in the Bridge Centre 

on Saturday, November 10^th from 10 - 12 (or maybe 12.30).

At this week's meeting we will open the doors to visitors from a far flung place:Tuam.  The Ready-Thready Sew Group from Tuam who will share their work and stories with us.

A very special show and tell from our members: Confession time! Bring out your old UFOs, unfinished objects, as if you didn’t know!  Root them out and see which one you might like to finish by May next year.  

Cindy Coleman will bring her shop  ‘Fluffy Sheep Quilting’ with lots of goodies.

In the afternoon, we invite members to bring some Christmas projects to sew and maybe share some ideas.  If you want to bring your current pet project that’s fine too.  Maybe bring some lunch if you intend staying.

Ongoing: Don’t forget to get thinking about those Henry bear quilts for the May meeting

SOS: Did you pick up a bag by mistake at last month’s meeting? 

A quilt top by Marie McPhillips went missing after last month’s meeting. Did you pick it up? Can you check if you have it and return it to the meeting on Nov 10^th. Thank you.

Library: Don’t forget the books are there for borrowing. We’d ask you though to look and choose before the business part of the meeting.  

Membership: If you have a friend who might be interested why not bring her or him along as a visitor to the meeting?  If you are in touch with someone who used to be a member why not invite them to come along again.

Looking forward to seeing you Saturday!  We leave you with photos of last month's show and tell to inspire you for this meeting.

March 2012: Show & Tell

Linda showed this lovely red & white quilt.

 A colourful quilt made on Tuesday mornings at Linda's workshops.

Madeleine completed this wall-hanging with lots of stitching in the foreground and a lovely hand-dyed patchwork background.

Joan and Colette showed us a number of techniques for making 3d fabric flowers for the IQFOI 'my quilted garden' exhibition to be held at the International Quilt Festival of Ireland at NUI Galway this June. For further details on the requirements for this open-call exhibition see www.iqfoi.com.

Another flower idea.

 Monica's tesellation quilt.

Mari showed us some of the Sashiko work she completed at the recent IPS weekend in An Grianan.

Linda showed some Celtic panel fabrics available in 3 colourways at Rags For Linda (see www.ragsforlinda.com). The panels can be used to make quilts, cushions, bags.....or whatever other ideas you can think up. Just in time for all the visitors expected for the International Quilt Festival of Ireland in June!

January Meeting and IQFOI Sewing Bee

The Western Branch of the IPS met most recently on the 14 January 2012.

We had a very educational meeting that all members enjoyed. Our guest speaker was Elaine Dobell, a physical therapist, who discussed several helpful points to keep our back and joints healthy while quilting. Thank you, Elaine!

Our shop this month was Seams Sew Simple by Lynn Naughton. As it is a new shop, we were all very excited to see what fabrics she would bring with her. We were not disappointed!

The Western Branch IPS members brought with them their completed quilts for show and tell. They were all beautiful!

Following Elaine’s presentation, the members creating IQFOI panels gathered for a sewing bee to work together on their panels. Members interested in sewing for the afternoon, but without panels, began making quilted flowers for the IQFOI garden.

Our next meeting is 11 Feb when our guest speakers will be the Athone group who will give us a show and tell. Again, the afternoon will hold a chance for IQFOI panel sewing, so bring your supplies!

Next month we will hold a New York Beauty Workshop hosted by Tracy Wilson on 12 Feb 2012. For the workshop, you will need to bring the following materials and supplies:

Fabric: bring a couple of fat quarters of your background fabric, plus a variety of scraps at least 3.5 inches wide. Include complimentary and contrast colors.

Thread

Sewing machine (and knee lift if you have one)

Scissors (fabric and paper)

Pins

Rotary cutter

Ruler

Cutting mat

Iron and ironing board

Thin paper or tissue paper for piecing foundation

Sticky paper tape

Pencil

Extension lead

The instructor will also have handouts, block designs and extras. Each pack will cost 5 euro in addition to the cost of the workshop (25 euro).

October: Show and Tell

Every month brings a selection of quilts completed by members and October was no exception.

Mari proves that the back of a quilt can also be exciting in design. This is the back of a quilt made for her daughter.

Margaret shows a knot-work quilt she completed.

Sandlin shows a a stunning 'trip around the world' quilt.

A beautiful nine-block quilt by Marie McPhilips.

The front of Mari's quilt for her daughter.

Welcome back to Jackie Mackey with this beautiful quilt.

And a second intricately stitched piece.

Margaret shows the completed quilt made by the beginner's class last year which was raffled amongst the participants.

September: Show and Tell

As usual there were lots of wonderful projects completed over the summer months and so we had a vibrant show & tell of quilts at the September meeting.

Linda McMulkin had these two quilts to show how to make use of those 'jelly-rolls' (strips of coordinated fabrics).

Jackie O'Toole showed this wonderful bargello quilt.

Lynn showed her completed painted wall-hanging using techniques learned from Design Matters TV.

Sandlin has been busy making baby quilts!

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!

March 2011: Show and Tell

At the March meeting lots of members brought along completed projects to show the group.

The Octagon quilters recently made some bags with Brenda Maloney of Clew Bay Quilting (www.clewbayquilting.com) in Westport.

Aine showed this completed quilt.

Marilyn showed this hand project.

Sandlin made this Hungry Caterpillar cot quilt.

and this t-shirt quilt.

Margaret has been making patchwork balls recently with great success.

Sally showed the back...

and the front of her jigsaw quilt.

Veronika made this child's quilt.

Monica showed the quilting on the back...

and here's the front of her 'Stack and Whack' quilt.

And here's another quilt by Monica.

Madeleine showed this lovely 'Convergence'-style quilt.

And here are a selection of bags completed after the February workshop with Linda McMulkin (www.ragsforlinda.com).

And a big round of applause for our 'beginners' who aren't beginners anymore! This is the quilt they have been working on together in their classes with Margaret and Anne Marie. Well done to all involved!