October meeting recap

We were delighted to have Ester Kiely from the Western Branch as our guest speaker for our October meeting. Ester spoke to us about why you would want to keep a sketchbook. It was lovely to see Ester's work and how she uses sketchbooks and journals to prompt ideas and working out the design for a quilt. We all had a good look through the journals and were encouraged to start one of our own.

Thanks also to Rags for Linda who were our shop on the night and to Ruth and Suzanne for demonstrating the one hour basket (our Christmas challenge) and how to make Morsbags.  Suzanne went to a lot of work making bag kits for everyone and it was brilliant!

We handed out our pin cushions swapped with the South Midlands branch at the AGM and they were much admired!  Thank you to all in Kilkenny who made for us! 

The following day some of our members attended a workshop with Ester on starting a sketchbook and thanks to Suzanne again for the photos!

As always Show and Tell was plentiful and here are some of the quilts and quilt tops shared at our meeting! See you on November 4th for our next meeting (not the 11th as the Rugby is on!)

Upcoming Bargello Workshop

We're having a Bargello workshop on November 5th with Roisin McManus from the Quilt Shop Tuam.

Just in case anyone isn't familiar with the term, a Bargello quilt is made of strips of fabric sewn together to create movement. If you can sew a straight seam, you can do this!

You can get the effect of waves, curves and other shapes moving across the quilt top. Even though there are so many curves and shapes on the quilt, there is no curved piecing whatsoever.

All ranges of colours are used, from light to dark. When choosing colours, there are many choices. A common option is a range of shades in a single colour family for a monochromatic quilt. Another choice would be two complementary colours.

The bargello technique can be used to create interesting backgrounds for applique, to showcase landscape prints, and to use up your stash.

These quilts look incredibly difficult, but surprisingly, they are quite easy to make.

Upcoming workshop

Tomomi McElwee of Slaney Handcraft has prepared this gorgeous sample for our upcoming workshop in February. The workshop is on free motion quilting and at the end of the day you will have a completed cushion cover and learned traditional quilting motifs like feathers and some modern flower motifs like tulips and daisies.

The sample will be shown at this Friday's meeting and if you are interested in attending the workshop please see Grania Preston to book a place!  For now here are some close ups of Tomomi's gorgeous quilting!

Fabric Dyeing Workshop

Last September, when I joined the Irish Patchwork Society, the Mid-Western branch announced they would be running a fabric dyeing workshop, given by art teacher Paula Rafferty. As well as those from the Mid-Western branch, Mogs McDonnell from the Western branch joined us on the day. It was tons of fun! We had to wear old clothes, bring an apron and a plastic bucket with scraps. Paula provided the materials and instructions and a homemade lunch.

On arrival, we were greeted with freshly baked scones, had homemade soup with fresh bread for lunch and some of the ladies brought fruit and yoghurt and almond cake for dessert. The theme of the day was how do we get Paula to run another workshop so we can come back for second helpings?

 

In addition to the food, we did learn quite a bit! The dyes we used were Procion fabric dyes. They work with plant based fabrics like cotton really well and react with the fibres in the material to develop colour inside the fibres rather than just on the surface. This is supposed to give the best light fastness and wash fastness. To use with protein based fabrics like Silk you need to use an acid like vinegar. We did a test and not a good result on silk without the acid. We worked with cotton throughout the day.

Paula had the fabric pre-soaked in Soda Ash which acts as a fixative and the powdered dyes were mixed up for us in 3 colours. We had a yellow, red and blue base of primary colours from which to mix other colours. We had a warm and cool yellow (golden & lemon), blue (ultramarine & turquoise) and a magenta colour to work with. We worked in groups of two with some using the cool colours and some using the warm colours.

The dye mix was measured and poured into plastic bags (we had variations of yellow/red, blue/red etc. to make all the rainbow colours.). The pre-soaked fabric was put in the bag and squeezed in the bag to absorb the dye. Everybody enjoyed this bit! We had 2 pieces of fabric for every colour and Paula gave us a recipe booklet and how to instructions for mixing the colours to take away for later. 

After lunch, we learned all about Batik making and wax resistance methods. Paula showed us some of her teaching samples and projects and explained the process of consecutive dyeing using wax to mask off the areas not to be dyed at each and every stage. Her samples were brilliant for demonstrating working from light to dark and building up the wax base as you go along.

 Then of course we had to have a try! We used brushes dipped in the hot wax to make big marks and blobs and used Tjanting tools which have a wooden handle with a metal nib to give fine lines and better control for detailed work.

Paula explained in addition to these tools, stamps in all sorts of detail and sizes can be used to add a wax pattern to the fabric before dyeing. The wax itself can be scrunched to make it crack in places and allow dye to settle in wiggly lines and fun patterns.

Finally, we got to use up the last of the dye with our scraps by just experimenting on the fabric in plastic containers. Milk cartons were perfect for this.

We got all sorts of wonderful colours and patterns just by playing! On Sunday, the not so fun part to finish the process at home, was the rinsing - it takes a bit of time!

Still look at all those lovely vibrant colours. I'm planning a mini-quilt of the colour wheel out of mine as soon as it is all rinsed, dried and ironed. That'll be a while yet! 

If you want to try for yourself the dyes are available online in Ireland at Cork Art Supplies and in the US at Dharma Trading. It was a really fun day and Paula looked after us so well. Thank you Paula and thank you ladies for a great workshop!

Ruth Bourke

Requirements List for Mogs McDonnell Workshop on 9th November

Mogs McDonnell will be giving a workshop on making a Christmas Nativity Wall-hanging this Saturday (9th November) in Villiers School.

 There are still a few places left, so if you want to do the workshop please let a committee member know at Friday's meeting.

  Requirements List (workshop makes two wall-hangings)
1 metre black cotton fabric
1 metre coloured cotton (batik or dyed fabric). Four fat quarters in similiar fabrics can also be used.
Bondaweb: 1 x 16" square, 9 x 16" rectangle. Or just bring some bondaweb to workshop.
 Backing fabric. 2 pieces each 30" (length) x 20" (width).
 Wadding: 2 pieces 30" x 20".
 Small embroidery scissors.
Sewing machine Iron Ironing board (if possible) Extension leads Ruler Pencil

Cut and Come Again Workshop with Edwina Mackinnon

On February 9th, Mid-West Branch members attended a Cut and Come Again Workshop with UK tutor Edwina Mackinnon.

We also had a few members from the Kerry and Cork branch attending, it was nice to see a few different faces at the workshop.

At the start of the workshop, Edwina got everyone to lay out the fabrics they were planning to use for the workshop. We then went around to every table to see what people were going to use. Even at this stage it was evident that everyone had a totally different choice of fabrics and colour schemes. Advice was given to people about certain fabrics which wouldn't work, the importance of keeping some contrast fabrics, but use the proportions of colours wisely etc.

Some of the fabric selections were:

Moya's fabric selection

Liz's fabrics

Cecilia's fabric selection

Ger's fabrics

Tracy's fabrics

fabrics by Berndatte

Mary's fabrics

Phyl's fabrics

Gillian Sheehan's fabric selection

Grania's fabric selection

After the decisions were made on fabric selection we started to cut into our chosen fabrics. Edwina showed us various ways to create different block types, so everyone got busy cutting and sewing.

This proved to be a very addictive workshop, as the leftovers from one block could be used to create another block. One thing leads onto another, reflecting the name of the workshop "Cut and Come Again".

Edwina had listed a sheet or large piece of wadding on the requirements list and everyone used theirs to create their own design board. When working on a quilt like this, a display board of some type is necessary to ensure that colour proportions are correct, that you don't make too make blocks of one type etc.

One of the workshop attendees was totally taken by this way of quilt-making and was heard to say "sure why would you need to make a quilt any other way".

Edwina also had a number of Cut and Come Again quilts with her, showing how you could make up the quilt in different ways by adding sashing, using the blocks in rows, different layouts etc.

A very nice thing about this workshop was despite the fact that we all working with the same sized squares, the variety of colours, block construction etc. met that everyone's quilts will turn out totally different.


This workshop was very much enjoyed by all the workshop attendees.  I think there's going to be lots of "Cut and Come Again" quilts in the Mid-West Branch in the near future.

Thanks again to Edwina Mackinnon for a very enjoyable workshop!

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!

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)

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.