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!

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.

Octagon Quilters 20th anniversary exhibition in July 2011

Westport Quilters’ anniversary celebration

The Octagon Quilters of Westport, County Mayo, are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the group by holding an exhibition of members’ work at the Custom House Studios, The Quay, Westport from July 7to 31 inclusive.

The Studios are open from 10am to 5pm on weekdays and 1pm to 4.30pm on weekends and bank holidays. Admission is free.

Founded in 1991, the group holds weekly meetings in Westport and organises, workshops, exhibitions and an annual charity project.

For further information please contact secretary Mary Ayres on email: mayres1@eircom.net

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

Thank You! Frances Conroy

Frances Conroy has offered a wonderful longarm quilting service to Irish quilters for many years from her lovely cottage studio in Curr, Maam in the heart of Connemara.
As a result we have been able to complete some larger quilts without struggling with all that bulk on our domestic machines at home.
Frances has decided to retire from longarm quilting to spend more time with her family and we all wish her well.

But we would like to pay tribute to the work she has done so splendidly for us over the years and say a very big...

THANK YOU

for all these lovely memories...

Pieced by Kathy Fallon, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Kathy Fallon, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Jaci Mackie, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Jaci Mackie, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Jaci Mackie, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Ester Kiely, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Anne Marie Horan, quilted by Frances.

Pieced by Anne Marie Horan, quilted by Frances.

(if Frances also quilted a project for you and you would like to share the photo here, please email it to Ester)

Octagon Quilters complete Japanese Hoko Bag Workshop with Brenda of Clew Bay Quilting

Octagon Quilters Westport,
On Tuesday the 15th Feb. at Hotel Westport, 14 members of the Octagon Quilters were given a lovely workshop by Brenda Maloney on how to make the Hoko Bag. Hoko, meaning other, is made with two main fabrics and is very quick to construct. The adding of fabric flowers gives it a lovely summer appeal. Brenda is also a member of the Octagon Quilters and runs the Clewbay Quilters Studio from her home at Gloshpatrick Westport (http://www.clewbayquilting.com/), where all the beautiful Chinese fabrics were purchased to make those lovely Bags.

by Octagon Quilters Chairperson,
Mary Madden.

(The pattern for the Hoko bags shown above is from "Easy Japanese Quilt Style" by Julia Davis and Anne Muxworthy (10 stylish but simple projects inspired by Japanese Fabrics). Other patterns in the book are for dolls, quilts, wall-hangings and sewing accessories.)

Jackie O'Toole posts her postcard for the National Exhibition at the Botanic Gardens

Jackie O'Toole has just posted this fabric postcard for the National Exhibition "Branching Out". We hope you are working on a postcard too! See the IPS Magazine for instructions on how to construct a fabric postcard.

Ferret: UK quilt artist comes to Limerick

Ferret is an award-winning quilter from the UK who is due to teach a workshop at Maeve Meaney's shop in Limerick in March (I'm not sure if there are still places available at this workshop). I thought it was worth creating a link to her website www.ferfab.com for you to check out her work. It's pretty amazing. I particularly enjoyed this video link http://ferfab.blogspot.com/2009/09/foq-twisted-thread-video.htmlf from the Festival of Quilts.

Festival of Quilts, Bermingham 2011

Are you looking for a challenge? Are you an experienced quilter or a complete beginner? Are you working on a quilting project with local school children?

The Festival of Quilts takes place in Bermingham every year and as usual they are looking for quilts to exhibit and there are lots of categories, so there's opportunity for all levels to submit work for exhibition.

You have until 29th April to register your interest and the entry form doesn't need to be sent in until 27th May. (But remember, that if you are putting a quilt into the Western Branch 'Branching Out' exhibition it may be selected for the National exhibition so you won't be able to send the same one off to Bermingham!) For further details and to download the application form see http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=31&view=review

Function and Form in Textiles, Cork March 5th & 6th

A two day festival of textiles that offers a series of lectures and workshops from

• Diana Harrison: Print and Stitch


• Deirdre Nelson: Stitching Objects


• Aileen Johnston: Beading and Machine Embroidery


• Janney Winchester: Batik


• Mary Timmons: Jewellery


• Jenny Monks: Drawing


• Sheila Jordan: Dry needle felting

For more information and to download the full brochure go to http://www.corktextiles.com/

Our Hungarian friend Gyöngyi Varadi featured in French magazine "Magic Patch"

Our patchwork friend Gyöngyi Varadi was featured in the January issue of French magazine, "Magic Patch". The two "Let the Flowers Bloom" quilts were photographed for this purpose. Mari hopes to get a copy of the magazine for our library. But you can get a little look at the cover and some pages of the magazine (en francais!) at http://www.edisaxe.com/page_feuilleter.php?id=9635100

Gyöngyi also had an exhibition during the last Hungarian Patchwork Guild's AGM in Budapest in November 2010 and this features on the Hungarian Quilters Guild website.

http://www.hunpatch.com/2010exhib/exh2010lib/exh2010_11_HTLN/exh2010_htln_varadi/index.htm

February: Beginner's workshops

Once again our beginners came together with Margaret and Anne Marie to continue their Jacob's Ladder projects.

These classes allow plenty of time for questions, getting to know your sewing machine and trouble-shooting!

1/4 inch seams are a basic step in ensuring your patchwork projects come together as accurately as possible.

Here the blocks are laid out together before being sewn together.

If you are also a beginner and are interested in attending workshops please talk to the committee as we are eager to help everyone acquire the skills they would like to make their next project!

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!

February Guest Speaker: Linda McMulkin

Our own Western Branch member Linda McMulkin gave a talk at our February meeting. Telling the story of how her interest in sewing developed through dress-making before she came to patchwork.

It was during a holiday in Ireland that Linda and her husband Peter decided they would come to live here. The idea for her fabric shop and workshop, where she gives classes, grew from the fact that she had found it difficult to source fabric when she first arrived. And so "Rags for Linda" (www.ragsforlinda.com) has grown from strength to strength over the years since she arrived in Ireland. And we consider ourselves lucky to have such a resource here in Galway as Linda is always ready to source whatever we ask for. Linda will soon add long-arm quilting to her talents and we look forward to seeing the results!

Linda showed us a great variety of quilts during her talk and only some of them are featured here.