Requirements List for Irene MacWilliam Workshop (Saturday 10th March)

IRENE MacWILLIAM

 FANTASTIC QUILTS FROM A STANDING START

a workshop for the frightened

Requirements List:

Cutting board, ruler, rotary cutter
Variety of cotton fabrics, try and have a few plains and/or very small prints among your selection. (you will not need a cupboard full!!!!)
Sewing machine and usual sewing accessories.  N.B.  Do not forget the foot pedal and transformer if needed. Support table for your machine
Extension lead if needed
Fine pins
Plain paper,   pencil,   ordinary ruler,  
Colouring pencils or crayons if you have them
Paper scissors, fabric scissors
Fine permanent pen
2 small mirrors if you have them
Graph paper or squared jotter paper, do not buy expensive stuff, you can get cheap blocks at most stationers.  Do not worry if you do not have it but it saves time.
Spray starch one can will do the class, not always used. Not necessary but bring if you have it.
1 or 2 irons to share should suffice
Digital camera if you have one

Villiers Sewing Day 26th February

The next Villiers Sewing Day is taking place this Sunday 26th February.

Times: 10am - 4pm

If anyone needs help or advice with the Mystery Quilt, Tracy will be there working on her quilt.


And if anyone has caught the hexie-making "bug" from February's branch meeting, here's a great link to a site that lets you print out different shaped hexagons etc. Graph paper. It saves you from having to trace individual hexagon templates!

Mystery Quilt Parts 5 to 6

Mystery Quilt Instructions:

Here's 2 links to the latest installments of the mystery quilt project. 
 
Mystery Quilt Part 5 January

Mystery Quilt Part 6 February

Irene MacWilliam Workshop on Saturday 10th March

Irene MacWilliams will be the guest speaker at the March meeting.

Irene will be giving a workshop on "Fantastic Quilts from a Standing Start: Design and Construction for the Frightened" on Saturday 10th March.

According to Irene this workshop is about:
"Pain free patchwork that is bound to be unique. I want the beginner and the non-confident to come to my class. No maths required. I guarantee anyone can produce fascinating blocks. We start with a basic block to cover foundation piecing. Students then go on to make their own original blocks. Students will gain an understanding of designing their own blocks and how to alter commercial foundation blocks to make them individual".


There are only a few places left for this workshop, so please contact a committee member a.s.a.p. if you wish to book a place!

Limerick Lace AGM Challenge

AGM Challenge: Create a piece inspired by “Limerick Lace”.

Size Limit: 15” maximum on any side

Limerick Lace

One of the earliest known Irish styles, Limerick Lace was from the outset a commercial venture, brought to the area by Charles Walker who established a training centre and workshop in about 1830. By 1850 it had become popular and prized by wealthy and fashionable ladies all over Europe.

It is extremely light and delicate in style, with designs embroidered in tiny stitches onto a very fine mesh backing cloth. Usually the backing mesh was stretched over frames and the stitching applied to the taut fabric, but some was worked without the use of a frame.

There are two varieties of Limerick Lace. Tambour Lace which is worked with a hook and Needlerun Lace which is worked with a needle. The Tambour is so named because the net is stretched across a frame which is like a tambourine. Stitches are then worked on to the net in a cotton thread with a fine steel tambour hook. The pattern is drawn on paper and placed in front of the worker or held underneath the net.

The Needlerun Lace is also worked on net where the stitches are darned with a sewing needle. Sometimes there is a combination of tambour and run work on the one piece of lace. One of the collars in the Museum shows both techniques. The run lace always has a lighter appearance. As in Carrickmacross Lace, it usually has caskets in the design which are spaces to be filled with a variety of fancy stitches.

Little Limerick lace is made nowadays, but a lot was made in the years between the establishment of the factory and its demise in the early 20th century and antique pieces are still quite widely available.

Links:

http://www.irishlacemuseum.com/museum/limerickpg.html

http://www.estherfitzgerald.com/14_research/14_01.html

February meeting Show and Tell

There were a number of items on display for the show and tell...

Quilt by Kate O'Donoghue

Baby quilt (not sure who made this one!!)

Quilt by Gillian Sheehan for one of her grandchildren.

Quilt by Gillian Killick which was made using Amish-panels. This quilt has been on the go a long time, Rebecca Palmer did the quilting on this one for Gillian.

February meeting

For our February meeting, we had a hand-piecing work-night with the emphasis on e

English paper-piecing.

Grania Preston gave a demo on "fandango's" (folded units but into patchwork blocks).

Claire Lynch gave a demo on English paper-piecing (hexagons) and showed paper-piecing samples from her City & Guilds course work.

Gillian Killick also did a demo on hexagons and showed a hexagon quilt that was started in the 1980's. Gillian also had a number of samples using hexagons in a variety of different ways e.g. tree blocks with the hexagons used to the foliage...

Nora O'Connor also gave a demo on paper-piecing and had some lovely samples to show.

The challenges were UFO's (carried over from January's meeting) and 10" pink blocks (for the February challenge).

Next meeting: Friday 10th February

Our next meeting is on this Friday 10th February.


This month's topic is on hearts, hexagons and handwork, so we're asking all members to bring in some hand-work project to work on for the night. If you're made anything using english paper-piecing (eg. hexagons), hand applique etc. bring it on the night for show and tell..

Please bring your hand sewing supplies i.e. needle/thread/little scissors and some scraps to make hexagons (at least 3" square.).

Almost every patchworker has started a hexagon paper-pieced project at some stage. If you're got some (whether they're finshed or not!) bring it in for Friday night.


February's challenge is a 10" pink block on the theme of Valentines..

 New members always welcome!!