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.

February Show and Tell

The reverse of Margaret's motor racing quilt.

Margaret's motor racing quilt.

Margaret's baby quilt.

February Show and Tell

Colette's quilt

Anne Marie's Flower Quilt.

Anne-Marie's Autumn quilt.

February: Heritage Quilt Blocks are completed

The February meeting saw members arriving with wonderful blocks for the group heritage quilt we are working on to donate to the Galway City Museum.
Sandlin's block was inspired by the intricate tile patterns in the Galway cathedral.

The Tuam group are still working on the embellishment of the Tuam High Cross, but as we see here, it is looking pretty good already!

Sally also completed a block celebrating Galway's hurlers.

February: Heritage Quilt blocks are completed

Rosalie's block shows the sun going down on Galway Bay with the Blackrock diving board in silhouette.

Monica shows the Castle Qulter's block on fishing.

Mogs shows Mutton Island in her block.

February: Heritage Quilt blocks are completed

Mari and Johanna's block shows NUI Galway.

Margaret shows the Corrib Quilter's block of The Long Walk.

Madeleine's block shows Croagh Patrick.

February: Heritage Quilt blocks are completed

Lynn's block shows traditional Irish dancing.

Linda's block shows St. Nicholas Collegiate Church.

Johanna's block represents traditional Irish music and 'The Galway Shawl'.

February: Heritage Quilt blocks are completed

Joan and Colette's block shows the moon over the Claddagh

Cois Fharraige Quilters' block shows Connemara.

Bernie's block shows the Galway Races

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.