Deferral of Bag Workshop

Paula Rafferty's Bag workshop has now been postponed till the Autumn. Deposits for people who were attending the workhop will be refunded at the next meeting.

The Vilier's Sewing Day is still going ahead this Sunday (22nd May)

Funky Bags and Totes Workshop by Paula Rafferty

Bag Three Requirements & Advance preparation List;

General requirements;
1. Sewing machine in good working order, cleaned, oiled with new needle.
2. Feet for machine to include, quarter inch, darning, zipper and walking.
3. Sewing kit; threads to match fabrics, spare needles (size 90), fabric and
paper scissors, pins, small safety pin, rotary cutter ruler and mat. Marking
pen or tailors chalk.
4. Iron and ironing pad.

Fabrics;
1. One and a half yrds patterned interior fabric (heavy cotton or
upholstery fabric)
2. One and a half yrds contrast cotton for backing/ lining
3. One yrd. of cotton batting/ wadding
4. Two and a half yrds of trim or ribbon approx. half inch wide
5. Heavyweight zips; two by 14in, one by 24in, one by 12in. (I have rolls
of zipper tape which can be cut to any size in black white and beige)
6. 2.5yrds of 2.5in wide bias binding (see notes on making bias
binding) approx. one yrd. of fabric.
7. Sewing threads to match fabrics
8. One and a half yrds of black webbing approx. 1.5in wide (will have
with me at workshop)
9. One black webbing shoulder strap with swivel hooks (will have with
me at workshop)

Advance Preparation;
All the main sections of this bag are quilted and to ensure that bag will
be completed during workshop please have following sections quilted
beforehand. Then you can concentrate on making the bag, otherwise
you’ll spend the whole day quilting panels. Alternatively you could buy
pre-quilted fabric.

Quilted panels;
Take main fabric, wadding and lining of pieces below and make quilt
sandwich, spray basting in place and quilt with desired pattern.

Pieces should be cut a little larger all round and then cut to required size.

One 24 by 31.5 inch piece (front and back)
Two 9 by 12 inch pieces (side panels)
One 5 by 24 inch piece (zipper panel)
One 8 by 14 inch piece (large flat side pocket)
One 8 by 10 inch piece (large 3-D panel)
One 6 by 8 inch piece (small 3-D panel)
Two 5 inch squares (shoulder strap tabs) use these two pieces
of fabric to make up one quilted piece, placing one piece on top,
wadding in centre and other piece of fabric on bottom.

Bias binding should also be made up before hand, cut bias 2.5 inches
wide and press in half. Instructions for making bias tape included.

May Meeting

The May meeting was AGM time, so most of the meeting was taken up with various reports e.g. Treasurer's, Secretary etc.
After a little bit of coaxing, a new committee was finally elected. Tracy Watson is now the new Chairperson of the Mid-Western Branch.

Before the serious AGM business commenced, show & tell by members was done.

Cecilia O'Doherty and Rachel Banting some of the work made at the recent Children's Bag Workshop.

Cecilia O'Doherty and Therese O'Riordan showed two fabulous fabric clocks that they made at a recent Kerry Branch workshop.

Gillian Sheehan showed a bag that she made from a kit purchased at a quilt shop in Donegal.

Meg Kenny showed two quilt tops that she's currently finishing off. One of the quilts is for her new grand-baby. The 2nd quilt will be for the baby's older sister so she won't feel left out!

Claire Lynch showed off a messenger-style bag.

Claire also showed a "Tulip" Wall-hanging made in March's Ferret workshop.

Nora O'Connor made this beautiful Botannical inspired wall-hanging held here in the photo by Cecilia.

Cecilia showed a block that she has made for the Limerick MS Branch. The MS Society of Ireland are making a quilt with blocks made from all the branches in Ireland. Cecilia's block showed the Treaty Stone - a well known Limerick land-mark.

Ferret Workshop

Ferret gave two 1-days workshops back in March for the Mid-West Branch. The workshop on the Saturday was "Tulips", while the Sunday workshop was a more advanced workshop using the same techniques from Saturdays's workshop.

Here are some photo's from the workshops.