October Mid-West Branch Meeting

The Mid-West Branch met on Friday the 13th in Baptist Church, Limerick.  The night was definitely not an unlucky one!   We had many new members join, and we were very lucky to have Roisin McManus bring her shop from Tuam.   She brought a huge selection of fabrics, including some fabulous Christmas fabrics.

Our meeting was run by Frances Shanahan, our current branch president, and she was extremely complimentary to Tracy Watson who was our speaker for the evening.   Frances, along with many members of the branch, went to see Tracy's exhibition last year in Ennistymon.   We were all treated to the back story of how Tracy prepared herself for the exhibition and gathered her ideas and pieces together.   Tracy displayed her selection of pieces including the "cartoons" that she used to create her curved pieces.  She also framed some smaller pieces, which worked quite effectively.

Meeting in progress

Tracy Watson's pieces on display

Our Show and Share began with Ruth Bourke showing a few of her pieces.  She brought several with her as she was off to Galway in the morning to do a workshop for their branch.   She showed her Rainbow Rose which is the piece which represented Ireland in the Diversity gallery at Birmingham Festival of Quilts.  She also showed her color Ticker Tape example, which each square a different color.  It's a fun way to use up scraps!

Gillian Killick brought her piece "Waves of Color" to share.  She had it in the Dublin Knit and Stitch last year, it is a lovely triptich and hangs incredibly well.

Many members, including some new members, showed their pieces in the show and share.   It's so inspirational to see so many active quilters in our group!   For a full set of photos go to: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5MHhkx

AGM 2017 in Cork, October 7

The AGM for the Irish Patchwork Society took place in Cork at the beautiful Kingsley hotel, and it was a lovely relaxed day.   We arrived to tea and coffee along with the most delicious little biscuits, and had plenty of time to wander around to shop and visit before the meeting commenced at 11:00.   Many members of the Mid-West branch attended.  It was also terrific to be able to connect some new faces with names from the many exhibitions.   We gathered our Mid-West members for a photo:

Ruth Bourke ran the meeting with style and grace.  There is a lot of work being done by the committee, the most largest new piece of work is getting our organization set up to be recognized as a charity.   This will allow us a different status and recognition as a group that provides education of the arts.   We have a lot going on in terms of public exhibitions!

The Strategy Planning Group has also been meeting regularly to help organize processes, and is making great progress.  Mary Hunter gave us an update on their sub-committee.

The quilt making Challenge is always a bit of fun.   This year the challenge was to make a Binary quilt, it could be any two colors but could not venture away from those two.   Jane Horner helped to hang the quilts in the little mini-quilt show.  Many different colors and ideas were represented.   The winner of the challenge wins a prize with a mini-quilt.   The winner was Linda Cowley, who also won last year, so she won her own little quilt!

We had a delicious lunch with a view of the river, then came back to the hall to chat some more until we were called for the speaker portion of the meeting.   Janice Gunner from the UK came to talk about a specialty of hers - Japanese textiles.   We were treated to many beautiful fabric examples and the history behind the fabrics as well.  Janice has travelled extensively in Japan.  Janice prepared a slide show with photos from Japan and the regions that produce the different types of fabrics.  

Thank you to the Cork branch for the wonderful day, and thank you to our committee members who put in so much time over the year.   The Irish Patchwork Society is a terrific group!