April: Show & Tell

Nursary Rhyme quilt by Mary Madden

Scrap-quilt by Madeleine Jordan.

"Field of Dreams" by Johanna Tyrell.

"Love Hearts" by Johanna Tyrell.

"Prairie Flowers" hand-appliqued by Marie McPhilips.

April: Show & Tell

"Mystery Quilt" by Maura Cunningham.

"Heartiest Congratulations" by Veronika Feldman.

"Rhythm and Blue" by Vera Buckley.

"Reflections" bargello quilt by Vera Buckley.

"Goodnight Irene" by Vera Buckley.

April: Show & Tell

"Stone walls, tall grasses and a purple moon" by Ester Kiely

"Jump for Joy" by Ester Kiely

"Celebrations Whirling" by Margaret Cunnane.

"Menlo Castle and Rowers" by Margaret Cunnane.

April: Guest Speaker, Nikki Foley

Our guest speaker for the April meeting was Nikki Foley from "The Sewing Shed", Castlemaine, Co. Kerry (http://www.thesewingshed.com/).

Nikki gave a talk about various patchwork and quilting gadgets and supplies that she sells in her shop and explained the differences between various products and how they work. She shared lots of tips along the way and it was very informative. Nikki will be adding some of these tips to her website, so be sure to check it out.
Nikki also modelled her patchwork jacket and told us that herself and her friend Jan challenged each other to make one and wear them at a recent show!

Nikki treated us to a show and tell of her work including this one which was exhibited in Canada this year.

Nikki's also been writing for Irish Quilting Magazine and did a series of celtic wall-hangings for each sign of the Zodiac.

April: Heritage Quilt Project Update

Another productive day at Bernie's working on the Heritage Quilt. Once Bernie boosted everyone's energy with her famous appletart and tea everyone was ready to work....and work they did!
Sandlin, Bernie and Margaret chat about the next stage.

Mari, Marie, Maura, Bridgie,Pat concentrate on those mitred corners!

Pat, Tania, Maura, Marie, Bernie and Mari start pinning.

Marie, Pat, Maura and Bridgie ironing the red strip.

March: A big welcome for our newest (honorary) member!

Welcome beautiful Lara!

Although she yawned a little for the photo, Lara was very much a part of our meeting today and even stayed to supervise the work on the Heritage Quilt. We all think she'll make an excellent vice-chair!

March: Heritage Quilt Project Update

Bernie and Rosalie pin the sashing in place.

Bernadette lays out a section of the quilt for pinning.

Sandlin did all the sewing today as she was the only one with a sewing machine! So a big thank you Sandlin, for all your work at this stage of the quilt!

Nonie and Rosalie prepare another section for sewing.

March: Heritage Quilt Project Update

And here's how the quilt is looking now that the sashing has been added between each block. It's looking great. The committee will arrange another session to look at choices for borders and bindings, so watch this space for more updates.

March: Guest speaker, Maeve Meany

Here's Maeve, peeping over one of her stunning quilts!
Maeve gave a wonderful talk on her experiences with sewing from a young age. She entertained us with her stories and impressed us with the beautiful quilts she brought to show us.
Maeve also brought a great range of fabrics and sewing accessories from her shop 'The Limerick Quilt Centre' www.quilt.ie where she has a range of over 3500 bolts of fabric!
See below for some more of Maeve's quilts.

March: Show and Tell

The group quilt which will be raffled amongst the contributing block-makers came back from Frances Conroy in Maam who long-arm quilted it for us. It looks great! We just need to add the binding and then it will be in the May exhibition before being raffled.

This is Ester Kiely's 'Alive and Kicking on Salthill Prom', which is still a work in progress for the May exhibition. Having spent a morning photographing the walkers on the prom kick the wall which is a Galway tradition, these were printed onto fabric, ready for some quilting!

We had another chance to see the quilt made by Irish quilters for 'Let the Flowers Bloom'

and the one made by Hungarian quilters. Both of these will be in the May exhibition.

March: Show and Tell

Monica Lannon shows her completed piece 'Two Hoots: The West's Awake' which will be in the exhibition in May.

Madeleine Jordan used lots of scraps to make this fantastic quilt for the May exhibition.

Well done to Sandlin Poth, who completed her quilt using the Jacob's Ladder block from the February workshop with Linda McMulkin. Appropriately this quilt is a gift for Jacob!

Mary Madden's Nursery Rhyme quilt is still in progress but will be completed in time for the exhibition in May.

Madeleine also made a piece forthe 2010 EQA exhibition in Bermingham where the challenge is to use 90% blues and 10% of one other colour.

February: Heritage Quilt Project Update

A group gathered in Barna recently to discuss the next steps in assembling the blocks for the Heritage quilt. A big thank you to Bernie for her wonderful hospitality and world famous apple-tart!
All the finished blocks were gathered and laid out for review. It was decided that a narrow strip of mid-tone grey will be added between each block. This will serve to frame each piece and give the viewer's eye a chance to rest and focus on the theme of each block.
The quilt is looking wonderful with a variety of styles and techniques displayed.
The group will come toghether once more before the next Branch meeting to cut the strips and trim the blocks.
Everyone who is available to stay after our Branch meeting on 13th March in the afternoon to work on assembling the quilt is most welcome! Bring your machine and be ready to stitch!
We're really looking forward to seeing all the hard work come together to make a quilt we will be proud to donate to the Galway City Museum.
A big thank you to to everyone who has helped so far and there's still time to add your stitches to this heritage quilt!

February workshop: 'Jacob's Ladder' with Linda McMulkin

Linda McMulkin (http://www.ragsforlinda.com/) gave a workshop on how to make the 'Jacob's Ladder' block in the afternoon after our February meeting. With Linda's guidance we all had at least one block completed and the makings of a few more in progress. Monica at work at her machine.

Toni and Martha concentrating on the work.

Aine and Margaret busy making lots of blocks!

At the end of the day we laid all of our blocks out together and were impressed with the variety of colours chosen. Eventhough these are not going together to make one quilt, they still show how the secondary patterns are formed when the blocks are put edge to edge in a quilt.

February Show and Tell

Sandlin's baby quilt.

Mari's sister-in-law Silja Laamanen made this cushion cover in Finland to send to her godson, Martin and so it made it's way to our show & tell!

Mari's 'Storm at Sea' quilt.