March 2012: Foundation Piecing Workshop with Berni Falvey

Busy hands at work as Berni Falvey took us through the steps of how to foundation piece a 'Snail's Trail' block.

We found it took a bit of concentration to get the pieces in place in the correct order, despite Berni making it look easy!

Now pay attention...Berni shows some additional patterns that are easily achieved with foundation piecing such as 'Flying Geese'.

 By the end of the class we had all produced a block, started another and learned a lot in the process.

Some foundation-pieced samples Berni brought to inspire us.

Thanks Berni for an enjoyable afternoon workshop!

Requirements List for February Workshop "New York Beauty" with Tracy Watson

Photo shows Tracy with a bag made from "New York Beauty blocks".

Here is the materials list for the New York Beauty Workshop in February (Sunday workshop).

For the workshop you will need to bring the following:
Fabrics - a couple of fat quarters in the colour you want as background, plus a variety of scraps from which you can get long strips of at least 3.5 inches wide. Include complimentary and contrast colours.
Piecing thread
Sewing machine - if you have a knee lift please bring it as it can be quite useful, don't worry if you don't have one.
Normal sewing kit, including fabric scissors, pins, rotary cutter, small rotary ruler and cutting mat
Iron and ironing pad.
Thin paper or tissue paper for piecing foundation.
Sticky paper tape / drafting tape.
Fabric and paper scissors.
Soft pencil

Extension lead

I am not sure what time you run your workshops over, but I would normally expect to run this over 10am to 4pm.I also prepare a pack of handouts, block designs and extras, but the extra printing and copying does mean I have to charge and extra €5 per pack.

Marilyn's workshop on hand appliqué in November: requirement list

Needle Turn Applique Supply List Fabric

(100% cotton) Avoid stiff or loosely woven cottons
Background Fabric-21 inches by 22 inches - light colored solids or tone on tone -if choosing a print fabric, make sure background fabric doesn’t overwhelm applique pieces (applique should be the focus)
Stems- green fabric -3 strips cut on bias, 1 ¼ inch wide and 8 inches long
Flowers- prints of your choice
Notions Embroidery or small fabric scissors-tips of scissors must be pointed not round
Needles-size 10 or 11 milliners or straw needles are best but sharps will work as well
Thread- 100% cotton is best but use whatever is available.
Match thread as closely as possible to to stems and flowers (don’t match thread color to background)
Paper scissors
Basting thread
Light and dark marking pencils for fabric (can use a lead pencil for light fabrics)
Pencil sharpener
Needle threader
Several wooden toothpicks
Small fabric pins
Small cutting mat
An iron and ironing cloth

Pre-class Preparation
Please bring the following to class already prepared:
Background: Pre-cut to specified size
Stems: Fold bias strip, right sides out (wrong sides of fabric will be to the inside) in equal thirds -Strip should be approximately ½ inches wide -Baste along middle of strip (don’t baste along edges) -Press

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:

Requirements List for workshop with Loretta O'Brien on April 9th 2011

Working from Sketch or Photo to Quilt.

• 
  
  Photo / design to be A3 size, (take a suitable photo, picture or sketch and increase the size on the photocopier to A3 size)


• 
  
  A few sheets of tracing paper.


• 
  
  A sheet of A3 graph paper and an A1 sheet of graph paper. (you can always glue several sheets of A3 together to form the size of the quilt you want to make or you can use a large sheet of dressmakers squared paper)


• 
  
  Pencil


• 
  
  Rubber


• 
  
  Ruler


• 
  
  1 coloured pencil


• 
  
  A sheet or two of CLEAR template plastic. Can be had in Creative Grids UK. (you will eventually need to make a template for each piece and as you will be cutting the plastic if you want to complete the project you may need more than just one or two sheets) You could of course cut up your design cartoon


• 
  
  Scissors to cut templates (I have found a small narrow pointed one the best)


• 
  
  A bucket of patience.

This is a simple process and everyone can do it. You just need to be patient and allow yourself time to do it. This process will suit both pieced and appliquéd work. We’ll talk about fabrics etc at the workshop.

Loretta O’Brien 2011.

March 2011: 'Trip around the World' workshop with Cecile Flegg

Cecile showed the style of quilt planned for the workshop. First step is to choose your fabrics in a pleasing range of colours.

The strips are sewn together.

Lynn works at cutting her strips.

Cecile shows her tips for ironing the seams.

A tube is formed.

Here are some of the quilt tops in progress.

Upcoming March workshop "Trip around the World" with Cecile Flegg

Cecile Flegg from Donegal will be our guest speaker at the March meeting on Saturday 12th. In the afternoon she will teach a workshop on "Trip around the World" (see photo above).

As previously announced due to the short notice, the price for this workshop is an exceptional 10Euro! Contact Sally Marrable as soon as possible to book your place (members only).

Cecile sent the following email to tell us what materials are required:

10 dark: 8'' x 40'' (width of fabric WOF) (quilt centre)
1 dark separate to the quilt centre dark: 8'' x WOF (1" border)
1 light: 5 yards x WOF (back, outer border and binding)
5 dark: 9'' x 10'' (leaves) optional

I have about 3 or 4 kits for this Trip Around The World quilt shown above. It has everything in it except the wadding.

Don't forget to bring your rotary cutter, cutting board, matching thread, sewing machine with leads, iron & ironing pad,glasses if you need them and lots of craic!

Really looking forward to meeting you next week. We will have a lot of fun at the workshop.

Cecile

February: Workshop with Linda McMulkin 'Charm Bag'

In the afternoon Linda McMulkin taught a workshop on how to make this patchwork 'charm bag'.

The bag requires 35 5inch squares of fabric in coordinating colours.

Iron-on fusible wadding is used to layer both the patchworked outside and the plain coodinating lining inside the bag.

A small outer pocket is made up of 2 patches and a flap.

Quite a few bags were almost completed on the day, so we hope to see the finished items at next month's show & tell!

Thanks Linda for a very enjoyable workshop that provides us with a useful project bag to keep all our stuff in!

Upcoming February workshop with Linda McMulkin

Charm Bag: Requirements for Workshop on February 12th 2011
35 x 5" squares It would be best if these were already cut. You can use any scraps, or be colour co-ordinated
1m fabric for lining, handles and pocket lining
1.25m Fusible Fleece I will bring this for purchase if you do not have it. €12 pm I’m afraid !
Usual items:
Sewing machine, thread, scissors, cutting board, ruler, rotary cutter, pins etc
It would be helpful if there were a few irons and ironing boards.
This is a workshop anyone can do!!!!
If you have any queries, get in touch (Linda: 091 550779, ragsforlinda1@eircom.net)

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

Upcoming workshop with Loretta O'Brien in April

Loretta O'Brien from the Mid-Western Branch in Limerick will give a workshop on developing a unique quilt design from one of your photographs.
Loretta is a very experienced teacher and this promises to be a great workshop so be sure to book your place early if you want to participate.
Clear plastic template is one of the materials required for the workshop and Loretta has provided a link to Creative Grids website where template plastic can be bought:

http://www.creativegrids.com/acatalog/index.html

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)