February: Heritage Quilt blocks are completed

Nonnie and Bernadette show their block representing the Aran Islands.

Anne Marie shows a block by Quilters Cois Fharraige on traditional Galway Hookers.

Ann Fahy's block shows the Spanish Arch

January: Heritage Quilt project is in progress

Members of the Western Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society are working on a group heritage quilt which will be donated to the Galway City Museum during the exhibition there in May.

The quilt will be made up of various sized blocks, depicting scenes from Galway city, county and the West of Ireland.

All of these will be assembled into a quilt over the coming months.

The photo shows work in progress on a block depicting 'The Long Walk' by the Corrib Quilters. The block is being made in 3 sections (sky, houses and water) and uses a variety of piecing and applique techniques. The finer details will be stitched on top. Photos of more blocks to follow!

January quilting bee

The snow and ice made it unsafe for a lot of people to travel to the January meeting and so the slideshow and talk by Naomh Muire Quilters will be postponed until the February meeting.

In the meantime we made a start on assembling the raffle quilt using the recent challenge blocks.

First the blocks were laid out on the floor. A further two blocks will be made into matching cushions.

Toni got to work pressing seams as neutral sashing was added between each block.

Mari was busy cutting sashing strips.

Margaret got to work stitching.

Mary, Joan and Colette trimmed each block to 12.5 inches.

January quilting bee

Veronika and Johanna trim the blocks.

Berni is busy sewing rows of blocks together.

A job well done! The smiling faces of some of those who participated in putting the quilt together.

Still needs a border, which will be added next month and then it goes off to Frances in Maam to be 'long-arm quilted'. It's looking good!

January Show and Tell

This quilt was made by members of Naomh Muire Quilters to donate to victims of the recent flooding in Ireland.

Sally made this block showing a hurley and a very realistic sliotar as a tribute to Galway's hurling tradition for the Heritage quilt we are making to donate to the Galway City Museum.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to snowy 2010! Despite the bad weather, for those of you who can make it we will be meeting as usual on the second Saturday of the month (9th January) at 10am in the Bridge Centre, St. Mary's Road, Galway.

The Naomh Muire Quilters will give a talk about their recent trip to Hungary to view the exhibition which featured the 'Let the Flowers Bloom' quilts. They will also explain how they approach the making of a group quilt like the one above which was made to celbrate the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway.

And in the afternoon we will have a 'Quilting Bee' where we will work on putting together the raffle quilt.

If you can make it safely, we hope to see you there. If the weather prevents you from travelling, stay safe and warm at home and drop by the blog next week for snapshots from the meeting.

Hand-made name-tags

Veronika did a great job making name-tags for each member. They make a colourful display!

This will tempt you to put your name down for February's workshop!

Linda McMulkin (www.ragsforlinda.com) will give a workshop in the afternoon after February's meeting showing how to make this Jacob's Ladder quilt. Those who attend the workshop can expect to complete most of a quilt top in an afternoon. This is a great workshop for all skill-levels, expecially if you want to go home with a great sense of achievement. Sign up fast before the places are all gone!

December Show & Tell

This month's 'Show & Tell' had some lovely pieces made by members. Mari Moran completed a bag using curved piecing. Margaret Cunnane's nativity scene wall-hanging should be completed just in time for Christmas. Joan Colleran told us of some hiccups encountered as she laid out all those tiny squares to make up this beautiful watercolour quilt...everyone agreed it was worth the headaches as it really is stunning! I didn't write down the maker of the green braid pattern quilt, but I'll find out and update this post with the info as soon as I can.

Eyes down for Bingo!

How do you get a roomful of patchworkers interested in a game of bingo? Make the prize a huge collection of 'fat quarters' (a 22inch square of patchwork fabric). Everyone paid 1 'fat quarter' to play. Then we got a long list of names of patchwork blocks to chose our personal bingo card using 25 numbers. All eyes were down as the numbers were called. The winner got a huge bundle of 'fat quarters' and the loser got a few too just for being last!

Christmas Challenge

Lots of people participated in this month's challenge to make a Christmas gift item. There were a wide variety of gifts on display and the viewers' choice was won by Frances for her placemats. Well done Frances! And well done to everyone else for participating, it's always great when there are lots of different techniques on show.

GroundWorks Studios opens in Mervue

GroundWorks Studios launched on Friday 11th December at the Lyrr Building, Mervue Business Park, Galway. It was opened by James Harold, Arts Officer for Galway, with an exhibition of ceramics and textiles created by the members. The exhibition ran for the weekend but has now been taken down to allow the group to prepare the space for the artists to set up their individual studio workspaces. The group will offer workshops to the public in ceramics and textiles in the new year so keep an eye on the website http://www.groundworksstudios.com/ for more information on this.

The mission statement reads 'GroundWorks Studios will provide a platform for emerging Ceramic & Textile Artists in a collective environment, creating a contemporary, innovative and vibrant setting in Galway and West of Ireland.'

As an associate member of the group, (more information on membership options can be viewed at the above website) I exhibited 2 pieces at the launch. 'Jump for Joy' also exhibited previously at the Quilt Festival in Bermingham and the Knitting & Stitching Show in Dublin. 'The Rocker II' was the second in a series of quilted pieces about the Irish rockstar, Philip Lynott, the first in the series exhibited at 'The Long Note' in the Cork School of Music with the Cork Textiles Network (http://www.corktextiles.com/).

Ester Kiely

Christmas Party 12th December, 2009

The meeting of the Western Branch of the IPS takes place as usual on the second Saturday of the month....so that's Saturday 12th from 10am to 12.30 at the Bridge Centre, St. Mary's Road. And of course it's Christmas so that means it's party time! There will be a prize for the winner of our "Christmas Gift" challenge (you take home the gift you make). The above photo is a wall-hanging made by Linda McMulkin.

Bring a 'fat quarter' of patchwork fabric to participate in the Fat Quarter Bingo!

There will be a buffet of party food to share and of course our usual festive fun.

We hope to see you there.

November Show and Tell

Every month members bring along finished quilts or some work in progress to show the group. This month a variety of work was shown including members work exhibited at the Quilt Festival in Bermingham and the Knitting and Stitching Show in Dublin (for info on these shows see www.twistedthread.com)

Members Challenge

A multicoloured scrap of fabric was given to members at a previous meeting and the challenge was set to create a 12.5inch block using this fabric and any other fabrics of your choice. 30 blocks arrived at the November meeting showing a great variety of styles and techniques. The group will now construct a quilt using these blocks and the finished quilt will be raffled amongst the participants with one luck prizewinner in 2010. Someone is going to be the very lucky and proud owner of this group quilt!

Hungarian Flower Quilts

In 2007 Hungarian master quilter, Gyongi Varadi lived in Galway for a year and taught us her method of paper piecing to make flowers. On her return to Hungary she set a challenge to all Irish and Hungarian quilters to submit flowers which were divided between the 2 guilds to make a quilt each. The 2 quilts were exhibited for the first time recently in Budapest and a number of Irish quilters travelled to see the exhibition. These quilts will be exhibited as part of the Western Branch Exhibition at the Galway City Museum in May 2010.

The library

Jackie is our librarian and ensures we have access to a great selection of books to borrow. Members pay €2 per book and can keep it for a month and return it at the next meeting. It's a great way to find out if a book is worth investing in for your own bookshelf at home. And it's a great way to browse a huge selection to find a pattern that might suit you for your next project. The photo shows a small selection of what's on offer. Jackie is always open to suggestions of new books you would like to see added to the library, so let her know what you would like to see.

Shopping for patchwork fabrics.

Every month at our meetings in Galway we invite a fabric supplier. In November our guest speaker Moya Geraghty brought her shop 'Patchwork Plus' to give all of us a chance to stock up on lovely fabrics and sewing supplies. Here are a few photos of some very happy shoppers. For more information check out Moya's website http://www.patchworkplus.ie/.

Moya Geraghty shows her work

Moya Geraghty was our guest speaker at the November meeting and she arrived with a wonderful selection of her work through the years. These quilts tell stories of everyday life captured creatively in fabric and stitch. Moya showed us quilts for Christmas, Valentines, Halloween, Patrick's Day, teenagers' bedrooms and babies. Her quilts range from traditional to contemporary. She makes quilts and wall-hangings with prints and plains, printed panels, denim, flannel, hand-dyed fabrics, etc. The variety of work was inspiring. She uses a wide variety of techniques and draws inspiration from a variety of sources. These are only a small selection of the quilts Moya showed us. If we master some more technology, we may be able to create a slideshow to show more of the work.....so watch this space! Thanks Moya for a fabulous visit to Galway and we look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

Monthly meeting 14th November, 2009

The meeting of the Western Branch of the IPS for November takes place at 10am at the Bridge Centre, St. Mary's Road, Galway. Our guest speaker is Moya Geraghty and she will bring her shop 'Patchwork Plus' selling lots of patchwork supplies. Moya will also give an afternoon workshop in making patchwork Christmas gift items. For further information on 'Patchwork Plus' visit the website http://www.patchworkplus.ie/.
Any member participating in the current challenge to make a 12.5inch block using the challenge fabric should bring along their completed block on Saturday 14th.

The photo shows Moya's Christmas fun quilt.

'Surfaces to Paint' workshop with Fabric Gallery, Bray

Our October workshop was delivered by Gwen from Fabric Gallery in Bray, Co. Wicklow (http://www.fabric-gallery.com/). We began the workshop with a piece of plain white fabric. We started with the paint straight from the jar and made a mark. We then added water to dilute the paint, starting with a 75% paint to water solution and continued making marks and adding water until the colour ran out. We continued using different paints and then applied a base coat to see how this changed the results. We then tried out the same effects on different fabrics. Our final piece was great fun as we played around with the different paints and stencils. This workshop was very informative and our samples can be mounted on cardboard or put into a logbook for future reference.

By Lynn Naughton