Our next meeting takes place on 9th October.

Guest speaker: Irene McWilliams cannot attend. The committee is working on asking some Western Branch members to share information about current projects. Details to be confirmed after the committee meets on 4th.....check back here for more details after that date.



Shop: Pippa Blue from Middle St., Galway will bring a selection of their fabrics, kits, trimmings, books, etc. And are deligted to have the opportunity to meet Galway quilters and hear what you would like them to stock! See http://www.pippablue.com/ for a taster!



Beginner's Workshops: See the post below with more details of what Anne Marie and Margaret are working on with beginners.



Heritage Quilt: Calling all experienced hand-quilters!!! Please stay and share your tips and techniques on hand-quilting with others as we begin quilting the borders of our Heritage Quilt for the Museum. This is an opportunity for those who would like to learn more about hand-quilting to learn from those who may have more experience. All are welcome to this 'quilting bee' (if there are too many of us to work on the quilt at once, perhaps some can use the time to hand-quilt a project of their own and participate in the age old tradition of quilting as a community?)

Beginner's workshops continue in October

Those who attended the 'Beginner's Workshop' in September learned how to construct a 'four-patch' block. They were given a stack of four patches to do as home-work.

In October, participants will learn how to construct a 'half-square triangle' block. Home-work will involve putting both blocks together to form the above 'Jewel Box' block.

In November the class will learn how to make sashings and borders and will be shown how to pin and quilt.

In addition to making their own individual table-mat, participants will complete a small quilt which will be raffled amongst them when it is finished.

If you are a new member, but missed the September workshop, don't worry....Anne Marie and Margaret will be happy to welcome you into the October class and help you 'catch-up'!

Tuition is free, but you must be a member (for insurance purposes). There may be a charge for materials once all costs have been accounted.

American Quilt group would like to meet you!

A group of approx 24 American quilters from a variety of quilt groups is visiting Ireland and it was suggested they meet us when they come to Galway. The tour is being organised by quilter, teacher and author Chris Lynn Kirsch. You can read about her work and some other tours she has organised at http://www.chrisquilts.net/.

Veronika is coordinating a group of Western IPS members to meet this tour-group for coffee at Glenlo Abbey Hotel on 19th October to share ideas, techniques and designs. If you would like to come along and bring some of your work to show and tell, contact Veronika at our October meeting (Sat 9th Oct).

IPS Autumn Newsletter now available!

The latest IPS Newsletter should be arriving to all members through the post right now! It's full to the brim with lots of news from around the country and from various national and international exhibitions. It also has all the information on upcoming events, etc. If you haven't received yours check that your membership is up to date by contacting Bridgie Dalton, Western Branch membership secretary.

Irish Patchwork Society AGM takes place Saturday 2nd October

This year's national AGM takes place on Saturday 2nd October, 2010 in the Best Western Ashling Hotel, Parkgate St., Dublin 8.

The challenge this year is 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Your interpretation of this slogan to acknowledge recycling week in October'.

Margaret Woodside is the guest speaker and she will teach 2 workshops. On Sunday 3rd "Turning I - Working with leaves to make a stunning wall-hanging" and on Monday 4th "Turning II - Working with 'tree' technique to make an A4 landscape picture"

For more information see www.irishpatchwork.ie

Yard Sale at Maeve Meaney's shop until end of September!

The Limerick Quilt Centre is having a yard sale until the end of September! Not many days left....contact Maeve quickly!

See http://www.quilt.ie/ for more info.

WABA Global Breastfeeding Quilt Initiative

Genevieve sent us information about this global initiative by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action to create a quilt to commemorate the actions and joys for breastfeeding worldwide. If you would like to submit a panel in time for the launch event it must get to Malaysia by 25th September. But it's an ongoing project so there is still time to send a panel after that date. Apart from the physical quilt that will be stitched together in Penang, photos of each panel will be added to their website to create an on-line quilt. On-line viewers can click on each panel to read about the panel and its maker. For more information and an application form see www.waba.org.my/pdf/quilt-form.pdf.

Exhibition 'Seeing Red' by Cork Textiles Network

Apologies that the above photo of an exhibition invitation we received is a little difficult to read, but you are all invited to the opening of this exhibition on 7th October at 6pm. The exhibition will continue until 29th October, for more information see http://www.corktextiles.com/

September: Show and Tell

Our first meeting after the summer is always a busy one.
It's a chance to catch up with friends we haven't since since May.
It's a chance to stock up on new fabrics, threads and gadgets at the visiting shop. This month Brenda brought her shop Clew Bay Quilting (www.clewbayquilting.com) with a great selection of goodies!
It's a chance to return library books and pick up some new ones as we move into longer nights.

And it's always great to to see what everyone has been working on over the summer. On September 11th the Show & Tell was full of wonderful work.


Madeleine showed us this beautiful quilt.


Mona showed us the piece of shadow-work she created at a workshop with Pat Archibald at the Lakelands Quilt Fair in Cavan (this fair continues until the end of September, see the earlier post below with more information). For more information about Pat Archibald see http://www.patarchibald.com/.

Lynn also attended Pat's workshop and showed us the piece she is working on.

Johanna completed a smaller version of her award-winning hearts quilt in green.

Johanna and Mari had travelled to Cork to see the national exhibition 'Q is for Quilts' see http://www.irishpatchwork.blogspot.com/ for some photos from that exhibition. In the photo above Johanna and Mari are showing the colourful, quirky fabric collages they made at a workshop by Laura Wasilowski (see http://www.artfabrik.com/) for more information about Laura's work.

September: Show and Tell

Somewhere behind this charming quilt is its owner! I'm pretty sure it's Vera but correct me if I'm wrong!!

Margaret showed us a strip-quilt she is working on.

And over the summer Margaret finished the quilt she had started at Linda McMulkin's 'Jacob's Ladder' workshop.

And proving Margeret has boundless energy, she showed us another stunning quilt in progress. This one is made up of a four-patch block of scraps and a rectangle block edged in white. When put together with small white squares these two blocks form white stars, which really stand out.

Lynn had continued to experiment using Markel sticks to paint on hand-dyed and bleached fabrics. Her fruit series is coming along nicely with the addition of these cherries.

September: Show and Tell

The 'Ready Thready Sew' group in Tuam (which currently comprises 12 members) held their 3rd annual exhibition during the Tuam Arts Festival in August. They brought along some of these quilts to show. The quilt above is one of 3 quilts made from blue fabrics donated by group members. This one was made by Sally and will be sent to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children.

Sally also made this 'Pinwheel' quilt using any turquoise fabrics donated. This quilt will be used to raise funds to send 15-month old Amelia Filipczak from Tuam to China for stem-cell treatment.

The photo above shows the main community quilt made by the Tuam group. The quilt was raffled on 7th Sept and raised over 1100 Euro for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.


Vera has been working on a number of smaller items which will be for sale as a charity fundraiser in the Octagon quilter's upcoming exhibition in Westport. Here she shows a Sunbonnet Sue cushion and a small wall-hanging.

Vera also made a fabric memo-board for sale of work.

September: Show and Tell

Anne-Marie showed us this beautiful red and white quilt made for a Cork friend (with a large bed!). Each block was chosen carefully so that the names of the blocks held some meaning for the family.

Anne-Marie is currently working on this blue and white quilt showing that she has been busy over the summer!

This stunning hand-pieced and applique quilt was shown by Agnes (a member of the 'Ready Thready Sew' group in Tuam) who is a new member of the Western Branch.

Sally and Agnes show another colourful Tuam quilt.

September: Christina Henri's 'Roses from the Heart' project

Madeleine told us about a project called 'Roses from the Heart' by a Tasmanian artist, Christina Henri. Christina's project is in honour of women convicts from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales who were sent to Australia between 1788 and 1853 as slaves. Christina hopes to collect hand-made calico bonnets from stitchers all over the world which will be exhibited world-wide as an art installation. For more information on Christina's work and how you can get involved in the project see http://www.christinahenri.com.au/ where you can download the pattern. If you decide to get involved and would like to receive a woman's name to embroider on your bonnet, contact Madeleine Jordan by phone or email.

September: Workshop on stitcing into soluble fabric with Ester Kiely

The workshop 'Stitching into soluble fabric' was given by Ester Kiely, after lunch

Here Mogs uses a hairdryer to speed up the process of drying her stitching which is molded over a bowl to give it shape.

Madeleine is working on stitching into soluble fabric held taut in an embroidery hoop.

This is Mona's bowl made by stitching into soluble fabric with a variety of threads.

Here are some more of the bowls made at the workshop made by both beginners and experienced stitchers. Some brought their work home to finish and embellish further if desired. Perhaps we will see more finished items at next month's meeting?

August: Quilts by 'Ready Thready Sew' at the Tuam Arts Festival

The 3rd Annual Quilt Exhibition by the members of Tuam's quilt group, Ready Thready Sew, was held during Tuam Arts Festival 20th to 28th August 2010.
The group produced a riot of quilts large and small from pram quilts with coordinating soft toys to full bed size quilts and everything in-between.

Nora Brennan, a Western branch IPS member, entered a number of lovely quilts along with a really striking Cathedral Windows cushion in black with vivid silks in the 'windows. Nora bought the silks in Kathmandu and her inspiration was the multi coloured powders used by Hindus to paint their bodies and faces during the celebration to the God of Springtime. See the photos below for Nora's inspiration and resulting cushion.

The following photos are just a few of the many other quilts included in the exhibition.

(info provided by Sally Marrable)

August: A bundle of joy for Grandma Poth

Congratulations to Western Branch member, Sandlin Poth, on the birth of her gorgeous grandson, Stetson Skye Poth on 4th August, 2010.

The lucky boy looks very happy wrapped in his quilt made by Grandma.

Tuam quilt group, Ready Thready Sew will exhibit their work at the Tuam Arts Festival

The Tuam Arts Festival will run from 20th to 28th August, 2010. Tuam quilt group, Ready Thready Sew, has made 3 "community" quilts to display, among others, as part of the festival. This quilt, which was made with turquouse fabrics left over from the main community quilt, is approx 52 x 63 inches and is destined for Crumlin hospital. The main quilt, in many shades of blue, is bed size and will be raffled in aid of St. Vincent de Paul. A further small quilt is also destined for Crumlin.

Headford Quilts on the way to California!

A delegate from the Morgan Hill, California twinning committee visited Headford recently and made contact with Mogs McDonnell. The South Valley Quilt Association organises a major exhibition each year and they were hoping to show some quilts from their Irish twin-town, Headford. Mogs contacted the quilters who meet at her studio, "Bolg na Talun" to submit their work and 9 pieces were parcelled up and are now on their way to California. Here are some of those quilts.

"The Irish Chain" by Nuala McHugh

"Snail Mini Trail" by Mogs McDonnell

"Margarita" by Teresa Fahey

Maybe other towns/groups could look towards their twin-towns abroad for other possible quilting collaborations?

For more information on the South Valley Quilt Association see http://www.svqa.org/.

Headford Quilts on the way to California!

Some more of the quilts on the way to Morgan Hill, California for the South Valley Quilt Association's exhibition in September.

"Letters Home" by Ester Kiely

"I'm gonna marry a lighthouse keeper and keep him company" by Lila McHugh

"Forever and Ever" by Mary O'Grady

"Cat-A-List" by Mogs Mc Donnell

"A light in the dark" by Mogs McDonnell

An innovative stitch-related workshop with "Sampler Culture Clash"

I was one of a number of tutors involved in the "Support for Women" project at Leitrim Design House over the last year.

The project was aimed at women who have been impacted by conflict in their lives and it was a multi-disciplinary, multi-media, cross-border project.

Throughout the year they participated in self-development, creative journalling, creative textiles, painting, glass-making, printing and mixed media collage workshops. The project culminated with an exhibition of their work at "The Golden Thread" gallery in Belfast which will now travel to Leitrim Design House, Carrick-on-Shannon for an opening on August 19th at 5.30pm (all are welcome!).

On 22nd of July I travelled with the women to Belfast to participate in a workshop with David Littler and Yusra Warsama (also known as "Sampler Culture Clash"). Here our written and spoken responses to the exhibition were recorded to create a soundtrack to accompany the exhibition. The words were also translated into cross-stitch samplers and the patterns also fed into a piano player machine to create music!

The photos show some of this work in progress. The workshop was very enjoyable and provided me with a totally new perspective of stitch-related art. Very interesting stuff!

For more information see http://www.sampler-cultureclash.blogspot.com/.

For further information on the exhibition "Changing Art and Minds" see http://www.intoleitrim.com/.

Ester Kiely