Regeneration Exhibition Pictures

Christmas Meeting 6th December

The Christmas meeting was a very jolly affair this year with plenty of food!

For a change it was decided to operate a "Secret Santa" this year. Great fun was had during the meeting as numbers were drawn for your chance to go up and collect a present.

A jumble rumble was held on the night to raise funds for the library. Books and fabric were sold off and it seems to be have a great success.

Theresa Riordan showed her quillows that she makes for local craft fairs. She demonstrated how they are constructed. Sheila Allen was the lucky winner of one of the quillows during the Christmas raffle.

Another member brought in a Mola quilt that she purchased on her travels abroad.

Frances Nugent showed a puff-ball quilt that she made. This quilt was recently raffled off for charity.

Gillian Sheehan showed a tractor quilt she has made for her grandson featuring the clever use of a tractor panel & other related fabrics.

A quick demo on how to make fabric baskets was shown by Claire Lynch.

The Frieda Oxenham ATC workshop took place in November, so most of the workshop attendees brought their finished ATC's for display. Anita Mahon has made loads of ATC's since the workshop incorporating some unique materials e.g. circuit boards from timers.
Gillian Sheehan also brought in her Icelandic themed ATC's & Claire Lynch brought her completed ATC's. Some ATC swapping was done on the night, with the promise of more to come in the New Year.

Regeneration Exhibition

The Mid-West Branch held their "Regeneration" Exhibition in Limerick City Hall recently. The exhibit ran from the 24-28th November 2008.

It was the first quilt exhibit by the Branch in over 6 years.

Paula Rafferty's quilt "Elementals 1" was voted the Viewer's Choice. Margaret Talbot's piece came a close second.

Some pictures of the exhibit will be put up later but until then, some photo's have been uploaded to this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lynch.claire/RegenerationExhibition?feat=email#

Frieda Oxenham ATC Workshop

Frieda Oxenham recently gave two 1-day workshops on Artist Trading Cards (ATC's). Great fun was had by all who attended the workshops.

Frieda was very generous with her knowledge and the workshop was well prepared and organised.

Ann-Marie at work making her ATC's.
And below her ATC's.



Loretta at work.....
As was Nora....

ATC's have turned out to be very addictive and most of the workshop attendees have been well and truly bitten by the ATC bug! The workshop seems to have been very popular judging from the amount of ATC's displayed at the Christmas meeting.

Seen below are the finished ATC's from the Saturday workshop.

November 2008 Meeting - Talk by Frieda Oxenham

Our guest speaker on the night was the lovely Frieda Oxenham who travelled over from Scotland on Friday to give a talk on "Artist's Trading Cards" at the meeting.

Frieda explained all about Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) which some people weren't familiar with. To accompany her informative talk Frieda had a slideshow on her ATC work. She also brought folders of ATC's which had to be seen to appreciate the detail and work that had gone into them.

There was a very good turn-out for the talk on the night and after the talk, people were even more looking forward to the ATC's workshops which which were on the Saturday & Sunday.

Niikki Foley brought a Christmas wall-hanging that she had recently made.

A gorgeous stip-pieced quilt was displayed at the Show & Tell.

The November challenge was the English Paper Piecing Block. Gwen Cottiss was voted the winner on the night with her gorgeous paper pieced star cushion.

Other entries for this hand-piecing challenge included this block.

Another entry was this pastel hexagon pieced cushion constructed with velvet fabrics.

The November meeting is on this Friday 14th.

Don't forgot to bring your finished quilts with you on the night for the Exhibition! The "Regeneration" exhbition will be on in Istrabaq Hall, Limerick City Hall from the 24-28th November 2008. Hopefully there'll be loads of entries and at least 1 piece from every Mid-West Branch member.

The November challenge is the "English Piecing Block".

Also, International quilter Frieda Oxenham is flying over from Scotland on Friday morning. Frieda will be giving the talk on Friday night about her work and Artist's Trading Cards.

Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards are miniature arts of work made to a specific size - 2.5" x 3.5" (64 x 89mm).

These cards are never sold but are instead swapped.

There are a number of book about ATC's (specifically fabric ones) on the market e.g.:
Artist Trading Cards Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap by Bernie Berlin
1,000 Artist Trading Cards: Innovative and Inspired Mixed Media ATC's by Patricia Bolton.

Frieda Oxenham is giving two 1-day workshops this weekend on making ATC's, which should be extremely interesting.

Knitting & Stitching Show

Just a reminder that the Knitting and Stitching Show is taking place this week in the RDS from Thursday 30th - Sunday 2nd November.

October Meeting

The challenge for October was the log cabin block. This challenge was won by Fran O'Donoghue.

The theme of the October meeting was mini-demonstrations on finishing quilts for the November exhibition:

Gillian Sheehan gave a demonstration on hand quilting.

Claire Lynch showed how to put on a hanging sleeve.

Paula Rafferty showed to do machine quilting.

Holly Hogan showed how to attach binding.

Hopefully all mid-west branch members are hard at work finishing off their masterpieces for the November exhibition. Don't forget to bring your quilts to the November meeting for collection for the exhibit.

September Meeting

The September meeting was the first meeting back after the summer break.

The Fainne Quilters group were the guest speakers at the September meeting. They brought a large and varied number of quilts for Show & Tell.

Made with the same pattern, Paula Rafferty made this larger version. The chicken wall-hanging was made by Catherine Kirby. This piece won 1st prize at the wallhanging section at the Tinnahealy quilt show.

The log cabin quilt was made by Linda Broderick. This is only Linda's fifth quilt and it is all hand-quilted.

New IPS Kerry Branch

A new IPS branch has just been started - the Kerry branch! This group will be having it's 1st ever meeting on the 26th September.
Meetings will be held in the Keel Community Centre, Keel, Castlemaine, Co. Kerry at 7.30pm.

List of events for the Kerry Branch:
Sept 26th - there will be a talk by Executive Member and a free pattern. Challenge - Autumn Leaves. Shop to be confirmed.
Oct 24th - Moya Geraghty Talk & Workshop. Challenge - Pumpkins. Shop by Moya Geraghty.
Nov 28th - Talk by Julie Shanahan on "The poetry of patchwork. Challenge - Fireworks. Shop by Nikki Foley.
Dec 12th - Demo - Fun - Party. Challenge - Christmas Fairy.
Jan 23rd - Invite Cork Branch to attend and show quilts. Challenge - Snowman. Shop by Moya Geraghty.
Feb 27th - Mary Palmer Workshop. Challenge - Jack Frost. Shop by Nikki Foley.
Mar 27th - Speaker to be confirmed. Challenge - Daffodils. Shop by Maeve Meany.

Starting a Soul Journal/Starting to use a sketchbook

I came across this great blog recently where a great project on making a "Soul Journal" has recently started. To learn more about it visit http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com

I thought this could be a great link for people who want to start using sketchbooks and don't know where to start. It Could be used as a follow-on for those who attended the Sandra Meech "Creative Sketchbook" workshop, and for those who missed it!

This is the link to the start of the project:
http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/2008/07/s-journaling.html

BRANCH EXHBITION "REGENERATION"

BRANCH EXHBITION IN CITY HALL 24-28TH NOVEMBER:

THE THEME OF THE EXHBITION IS "REGENERATION".

So get your thinking caps on and get working on your quilts!!

A Statement of Intent for the exhbition is to be handed in at the September meeting. The form was handed out at the June meeting.

The completed quilts need to be at the November Branch Meeting (Friday 14th).

Late entries will not be accepted.

Sandra Meech Workshop

As well as giving the lecture on the Friday night for the June meeting, Sandra then gave a two-day workshop in Villiers on "Creative Sketchbooks".

There was a good turn-out for this workshop and some people came a long distance for it (i.e. Cork and Dublin).

For this workshop, everyone was working with the idea of using sketchbooks to provides ideas for future quilts etc. Everyone had to prepare some "homework" beforehand on their own theme - which was basically to bring black & white and colour copies of images/personal photos on your own image.

Everyone had different themes that they wanted to work with., they varied from Africa, shoes, The Skellies, France etc.
The start of the workshop was mainly working on painting the blank pages of the sketchbooks and b & w images. It's always a lot easier to work with a sketchbook that has been painted than a blank white page.

Then Sandra worked through a number of exercises with the images based on collage work etc.
At the end of the 2 days it was great to see the variation in everyone's books.

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June Meeting

Sandra Meech was the guest speaker at the June meeting. She gave a fascinating talk on "An Artist's Approach to Stitched Textiles" - which showed how her quilting style has developed from her early traditional quilts, then to City & Guilds work and then her own collage style.

Sandra also showed how working in a series can be very effective and how taking photo's and keeping sketchbooks can provide plenty of ideas for future quilts.

The monthly challenge for June was to make something out of green "robot-themed" fabric that was given out at a previous meeting.

There were only 3 entries on the night, which might have been because people were stumped with how they were going to use the fabric. I know I still have my piece pinned up at home awaiting some inspriation!

Bridget Keane was voted the winner on the night. She made a lovely space-themed wall-hanging, in which she cut out the robot shapes and appliqued them to the fabric. Left-over fabric was then cut into star shapes and appliqued as well.

Phil Dwyer made a very clever pincushion/thread holder. This was English-paper pieced using the robot fabric and complementary colours.

Gillian Sheehan used her sample to make a very practical and unique mouse-mat.

Alison Bingham brought in a quilt top that she is working on for a friend's baby. The colours are lovely and vibrant - just perfect for a baby. Linda Broderick and Meg Kenny brought in their finished wall-hangings from the Joke Buursma workshop.

Ger Larkin was give a surprise presentation of a flower planter to thank her for 2 years of hard work as the Mid-West Branch Chairperson. Gwen Cottiss (pictured in the centre) now takes over the Chair-person.

Sandra Meech

Sandra Meech will giving a talk entitled "An Artist's Approach to Stitched Textiles" at the next meeting which is on Friday 6th June. She is also giving a 2-day workshop on the 7-8th June about "Creative Sketchbooks".


Sandra Meech is an award-winning contemporary quilter, stitched textile artist and author of ‘Contemporary Quilts Design, Surface and Stitch" (2004) and the follow-up book "Creative Quilts - Inspiration, Texture & Stitch" (2006) . Both books are published by Batsford Publications.
She currently teaches, lectures and exhibits throughout the UK, Europe and North America. Originally from Canada, she was a graphic designer and illustrator before working in textiles.

She has own web-site at http://www.sandrameech.com

May AGM

4 new members were elected to the committee. The conclusion of the AGM was adjourned to the June meeting when the various positions on the committee will be decided.

There were a number of items for the show & tell. About 5 people brought in their pieces from the recent Joke Buursma workshop. See last post for pictures from the Joke workshop.

There were a number of beautiful English paper-pieced flowers which were made for a swap with Hungarian quilters.

Jean Kenzie brought in a beautiful quilt which can be seen below.

The challenge for May was "Double Trouble" where people would work in teams of 2 to produce a piece. Sadly, there were only 4 entries on the night (i.e. 2 teams), which was a pity as the entries were very interesting.

Joke Buursma Workshop 12th April

Joke Buursma gave her "Mended Circles" Workshop in Villiers School on the 12th April.

This workshop used either bonded or raw edge appliqued circles which were machine quilted using a variety of machine stitches. This was the perfect opportunity to use some of the fancier stitches on some of the machines.

After spending most of the day working on the pieces, eventually the pieces had to be stacked on top of each other and cut through. This part was a bit nerve-wracking in case the pieces were ruined!

This workshop was very much enjoyed by all the attendees. And quite unusually for a workshop, most peoples' pieces were almost finished by the end of the day.

And as can be seen from the picture below, everyone's pieces were all quite different because of the variations in fabric and stitch colour.

April Meeting

Making something from a book/library book was the challenge for April.

Kate O'Donoghue was the winner on the night with her piece made with folded origami type squares.

Meg Kenny had a made a block using some beautiful batik fabrics.


Tracy Watson had a quilt top made in lovely autumnal colours.

Gillian Sheehan made a log cabin wallhanging with pictures of animals as the log cabin centre.

Gillian Killick mad an applique cushion cover.

Joke Buursma was the guest speaker on the night and she did a slideshow presentation on her work. Joke also brought a selection of some of her work and showed how she works through themes i.e. her zebra themed quilts.