Monday 31 January 2011

REMINDER!!!!

Don't forget that this months challenge is 'A Lavender Bag' - open to any interpretation of that title!.

Lets have a good number of entries for this challenge please!

Tuesday 25 January 2011

January Meeting


We had a reasonably good turn out on a wet and windy night for the first meeting of the New Year.

Nikki Foley of The Sewing Shed, bought along her shop and a visitor! She was accompanied by Jim West of Sew Many Places – the quilting tour company from the US. Jim outlined some the activities of his company for the coming year and also told us about the online magazine he publishes – www.quiltposium.com.


Nikki also reminded us that the Sewing Shed offers free postage in Ireland for all orders.



The High Plains quilt along with its matching cushion cover was unveiled in all its glory. The next set of blocks was handed out for our own quilt and cushion, which we plan to raffle at some point in the future.



Our speaker was Rebecca Palmer who talked about the part our computer has to play in our quilting, from shopping to tutorials and friendship. She brought along a block swap quilt that she had made with people from the US, Canada and Australia. Her talk gave us the first opportunity to try out our much awaited new projector, which performed beautifully.





Meg demonstrated her technique for transforming an image into fabric, with a fabulous array of samples and images.


Last preparations were made for Tracy’s New York Beauty workshop and members were reminded about the Villier’s sewing day on Sunday 16th.




The challenge was won by Chris Palmer who made a delightful coffee cosy. This is good time to remind everyone that next month’s challenge is ‘a Lavender Bag’.

Pictures to follow as soon as I work out how to do it!!!! RP

Thursday 6 January 2011

New York Beauty workshop materials list

For the workshop you will need to bring the following:
  • Fabrics - a couple of fat quarters in the colour you want as background, plus a variety of scraps from which you can get long strips of at least 3.5 inches wide. Include complimentary and contrast colours.
  • Piecing thread
  • Sewing machine - if you have a knee lift please bring it as it can be quite useful, don't worry if you don't have one.
  • Normal sewing kit, including fabric scissors, pins, rotary cutter, small rotary ruler and cutting mat
  • Iron and ironing pad.
  • Thin paper or tissue paper for piecing foundation.
  • Sticky paper tape / drafting tape.
  • Fabric and paper scissors.
  • Soft pencil
Optional items:
  • Extension lead
  • Template plastic
  • Freezer paper.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Christmas Meeting 2010

A very pleasant evening was had at the December ‘Christmas Party’ Meeting on Friday 8th December. Our numbers were low, but the recent bad weather may have been the reason for that!

Everyone very generously supplied an impressive spread, while the hall was decorated with – what else? Patchwork decorations of course!


This month the challenge was to use the fabric square handed out a few months ago to produce something festive. We had a good response to this and the winner was Cecilia with a lovely set of festive hangings.


Loretta gathered in the groups submissions for the ‘Dream Catcher’ exhibition and we had a chance for a sneak preview of some of the finished (and unfinished!!) pieces – good luck to all those who will be finishing off as I write!


The High Plains quilt was on display too – a lucky change of date by the group in Colorado means that the quilt will not be required until the spring – giving us all a chance to see how beautifully it is coming together under Meg’s expert hands.

Theresa provided us with a shop, Chris wore his Santa Hat – all in all – a very festive evening!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Quilting!!!

Rebecca