December Meeting

As always, our December meeting was our Christmas party. A great chance to catch up with friends, have a chat and eat plenty.

We had a sewing-themed Christmas quiz devised by Grania Preston which caused plenty of head-scratching on the night.

Our challenge was to make a "One Hour Basket" by Kelby Sews. A free pattern and tutorial to make the basket is available at

https://www.craftsy.com/sewing/patterns/1-hour-basket-tutorial/236408

The One Hour Basket challenge was won by Imelda O'Grady.




Our shop on the night was Fabric Matters. Thanks to Wendy for travelling down to Limerick with her shop.


There was lots of Show and Tell on the night.


Here's 1 of two quilt tops that Suzanne Pass whipped up using fabrics that a friend had given her.

Here's  a lovely child's train quilt that Deirdre Treacy has made.

Frances Shanahan made this lovely baby quilt and matching One Hour basket .

Deirdre Treacy also showed this fabulous log cabin quilt in a straight setting. Lovely use of light and dark fabrics here which really shows of the log cabin pattern.

Here's another amazing quilt by Imelda O'Grady.

Here's a quilt made by Claire Lynch

Morning all! Just thought I'd share some photos and let you know where online our photo archive is. Every month I upload the photos I've been taking at our meetings to our Flickr account Midwest Patchwork. 

Flickr is a photo sharing site owned by Yahoo. You have to have a Yahoo account to log into Flickr. It's free and very easy to set up. Flickr offers a limited storage amount for free users but there are paid options too for more storage and you don't get bombarded with ads. If you pay about 25 dollars a year you get unlimited storage and a Pro after your name!

You can follow people on Flickr similar to Facebook and when you first log in you will see a stream of people's photos that you follow. Commenting and hearts to mark a photo as a favourite are all available and you can send emails to people you follow using Flickrmail.

Flickr used to be a very popular place to share quilt photos and join quilt groups to share work in progress and finishes as part of a quilt a long online or share a project made from a pattern or a technique with the designer. As Instagram and Facebook have become more popular amongst quilters, Flickr is not the go to place anymore but it is still worth a look and very handy for storing images online.

Every month I upload the photos from our meetings and last month started adding them to our Facebook group as well. If you want to see photos of past meetings and exhibitions we have taken part in please visit our group page here!

For now here are some images from our Christmas party at last Decembers meeting!
-Ruth

December Meeting

The December Challenge was to either make a Christmas stocking or a wine bottle gift bag. There were some lovely and creative entries for this challenge. Phyl Awylward won the Christmas stocking challenge and Imelda O'Grady won with her fabulous wine bottle gift bag. The wine bottle holders, also part of our challenge, were undoubtedly put to very good use during the holidays!

Christmas Challenge Entries

Christmas wine bottle gift bag

Frances Shanahan and Imelda O'Grady 

A selection of some of the table runners on display at the meeting. Imelda O'Grady made ten of them as Christmas presents for friends and family .

Show and Tell:
There was a lot of Christmas themed items on the night. Here's Phyl Awylward with her Christmas wall-hanging. Last year Mogs McDonnell gave a Christmas Nativity workshop to make this item.

Here's Marella Moloney with her crazy patchwork Christmas-themed wall-hanging. 

Some of our members are also involved in a Christmas cushion swap with the Modern Quilters Group. Here's Louise Mullane with her cushion .

Louise Mullane

 Ruth brought in her Christmas cushion which was made as part of a Christmas Cushion swap .

Frances Shanahan showed this very striking orange coloured wall-hanging.

Marella also brought in this lovely log-cabin format quilt. 

Imelda showed this great wall-hanging that she recently completed. 

Liz Stanley showed some of her Christmas creations. Liz showed us her very impressive Christmas placemats.

Siobhan Bermingham spoke to us about two adorable quilts made for a doting grandmother for her two granddaughters, aged one and four. Adventures had and to be had by the two little girls were appliqued onto the quilts in the form of a quilted story board.

Mary Enright showcased her quilt made from material purchased in Texas, made in six months for her daughter Brenna.

Ruth Bourke with her friend Louise Mullane displayed a variety of seasonal inspired pieces from cushions to table runners to Christmas decorations.

Our raffle went down a treat given that there was a prize for everyone in the audience! We finished the evening with a homemade buffet, provided as always by our very generous members.

 

Phyl Awylward, Ann Kiely and Joan Commons

December Meeting - Christmas Party

The Mid-West branch held their Christmas Party last week, and great fun was had by all who attended. We had the usual great spread of party food.

Party Food

 Lots of the members brought in Christmas themed items for show and tell, which when hung around the room really added to the Christmas spirit.

Mid-West Secretary Valerie Shortt looking at the display

Phyl Awylward gave a demo on making a wall-hanging to hold Christmas cards which was made using large folded prairie point units. 

Phyl giving her demo to members

 In November, Mogs McDonnell from the Galway branch gave a Christmas Nativity workshop. Some of the workshop attendees brought in their wall-hangings from the workshop which looked fabulous.

Completed Nativity wall-hangings from the Mogs McDonnell workshop

The finale of the paper bag swap took place on the night as well. Back in September/October members put three fat quarters in a brown bag along with their name, these bags were swapped around and you had to make something using the fabric in the bag. The presents were opened on the night, so it was a lovely surprise for people to see what had been made using their fabrics.

Paper bag are all displayed on the table before the grand reveal

This was one of the paper bag swap, a table runner made by Phyl Awylward.

Phyl Awylward received a Christmas wreath and embellished book-cover from Kate O'Donoghue.

Deirdre Tracy received a sewing kit (made up of a pincushion, needle book etc).

Liz Stanley got this lovely star unit which was made by Meg Kenny.

Here's Theresa Riordan modelling her bag.

Breda O'Connor received a bag to hold scissors in.

Cecilia O'Doherty got this lovely wall-hanging and sewing thread-catcher/pin-cushion which was made by Deirdre Tracy.

One of our newest members, Breda O'Connor made this fabulous Christmas table runner.

Cecilia also showed two of the tea cosies she had made at the Wednesday night sewing group. 

 Here's some Christmas decorations made by members.

Phyl Awylward made this very funky (pink and leopard-print fabric) cushion for one her nieces. 

Breda O'Connor also showed this Christmas themed chair cover that she made from a tablecloth.

One of the Mid-West members Liz Stanley also finished this lovely quilt and matching cushion.