Sandra Meech Workshop

As well as giving the lecture on the Friday night for the June meeting, Sandra then gave a two-day workshop in Villiers on "Creative Sketchbooks".

There was a good turn-out for this workshop and some people came a long distance for it (i.e. Cork and Dublin).

For this workshop, everyone was working with the idea of using sketchbooks to provides ideas for future quilts etc. Everyone had to prepare some "homework" beforehand on their own theme - which was basically to bring black & white and colour copies of images/personal photos on your own image.

Everyone had different themes that they wanted to work with., they varied from Africa, shoes, The Skellies, France etc.
The start of the workshop was mainly working on painting the blank pages of the sketchbooks and b & w images. It's always a lot easier to work with a sketchbook that has been painted than a blank white page.

Then Sandra worked through a number of exercises with the images based on collage work etc.
At the end of the 2 days it was great to see the variation in everyone's books.

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June Meeting

Sandra Meech was the guest speaker at the June meeting. She gave a fascinating talk on "An Artist's Approach to Stitched Textiles" - which showed how her quilting style has developed from her early traditional quilts, then to City & Guilds work and then her own collage style.

Sandra also showed how working in a series can be very effective and how taking photo's and keeping sketchbooks can provide plenty of ideas for future quilts.

The monthly challenge for June was to make something out of green "robot-themed" fabric that was given out at a previous meeting.

There were only 3 entries on the night, which might have been because people were stumped with how they were going to use the fabric. I know I still have my piece pinned up at home awaiting some inspriation!

Bridget Keane was voted the winner on the night. She made a lovely space-themed wall-hanging, in which she cut out the robot shapes and appliqued them to the fabric. Left-over fabric was then cut into star shapes and appliqued as well.

Phil Dwyer made a very clever pincushion/thread holder. This was English-paper pieced using the robot fabric and complementary colours.

Gillian Sheehan used her sample to make a very practical and unique mouse-mat.

Alison Bingham brought in a quilt top that she is working on for a friend's baby. The colours are lovely and vibrant - just perfect for a baby. Linda Broderick and Meg Kenny brought in their finished wall-hangings from the Joke Buursma workshop.

Ger Larkin was give a surprise presentation of a flower planter to thank her for 2 years of hard work as the Mid-West Branch Chairperson. Gwen Cottiss (pictured in the centre) now takes over the Chair-person.

Sandra Meech

Sandra Meech will giving a talk entitled "An Artist's Approach to Stitched Textiles" at the next meeting which is on Friday 6th June. She is also giving a 2-day workshop on the 7-8th June about "Creative Sketchbooks".


Sandra Meech is an award-winning contemporary quilter, stitched textile artist and author of ‘Contemporary Quilts Design, Surface and Stitch" (2004) and the follow-up book "Creative Quilts - Inspiration, Texture & Stitch" (2006) . Both books are published by Batsford Publications.
She currently teaches, lectures and exhibits throughout the UK, Europe and North America. Originally from Canada, she was a graphic designer and illustrator before working in textiles.

She has own web-site at http://www.sandrameech.com

May AGM

4 new members were elected to the committee. The conclusion of the AGM was adjourned to the June meeting when the various positions on the committee will be decided.

There were a number of items for the show & tell. About 5 people brought in their pieces from the recent Joke Buursma workshop. See last post for pictures from the Joke workshop.

There were a number of beautiful English paper-pieced flowers which were made for a swap with Hungarian quilters.

Jean Kenzie brought in a beautiful quilt which can be seen below.

The challenge for May was "Double Trouble" where people would work in teams of 2 to produce a piece. Sadly, there were only 4 entries on the night (i.e. 2 teams), which was a pity as the entries were very interesting.

Joke Buursma Workshop 12th April

Joke Buursma gave her "Mended Circles" Workshop in Villiers School on the 12th April.

This workshop used either bonded or raw edge appliqued circles which were machine quilted using a variety of machine stitches. This was the perfect opportunity to use some of the fancier stitches on some of the machines.

After spending most of the day working on the pieces, eventually the pieces had to be stacked on top of each other and cut through. This part was a bit nerve-wracking in case the pieces were ruined!

This workshop was very much enjoyed by all the attendees. And quite unusually for a workshop, most peoples' pieces were almost finished by the end of the day.

And as can be seen from the picture below, everyone's pieces were all quite different because of the variations in fabric and stitch colour.

April Meeting

Making something from a book/library book was the challenge for April.

Kate O'Donoghue was the winner on the night with her piece made with folded origami type squares.

Meg Kenny had a made a block using some beautiful batik fabrics.


Tracy Watson had a quilt top made in lovely autumnal colours.

Gillian Sheehan made a log cabin wallhanging with pictures of animals as the log cabin centre.

Gillian Killick mad an applique cushion cover.

Joke Buursma was the guest speaker on the night and she did a slideshow presentation on her work. Joke also brought a selection of some of her work and showed how she works through themes i.e. her zebra themed quilts.

March Branch Meeting

The March Branch meeting had mini-workshops as it's theme. Paula Rafferty showed how to make fabric postcards and also how to use the embellisher machine (which had people queuing up to use it!)
Gwen Cortiss showed how to make hexagons using old and new techniques. Phil Dwyer also brought along her hand-pieced pincushion with colour co-ordinated threads.
Claire Lynch showed samples from the Margaret Beal workshop which she recently took at the An Grianan IPS weekend. She also demonstrated the use of the soldering iron with fabrics and how to create buttons with it.

The challenge for March was "Blue and green should not be seen". Maureen Talbot was voted the winner on the night with her beautiful foundation-pieced wall-hanging. The piece was constructed in a very restful blue-green colour scheme.
Alison Bingham nearly forgot to bring a piece on the night, but luckily her hand-made bag fitted the theme perfectly. It was constructed with blue and green squares, and had appliqued flowers.

Tracy Watson's entry had the centre part constructed using a soldering iron on fabrics. Kate O'Donoghue made a very vibrant wall-hanging in denim fabric and bright green fabric. Claire Lynch entered a cushion with 2 appliqued hearts.
Gillian Sheehan entered a small wall-hanging with a metallic centre.

There was a variety of entries for the Show & Tell which was great. Alison Bingham showed a lovely quilt which she made for a friends baby. Paula Rafferty showed her piece which is to be entered in the Links Exhbition.
Maeve Meany showed 3 boards filled with block made by 3 members in the past month - a great achievement!
Claire Lynch showed 2 items; a quilt top and a finally-finished quilt using the fabric from the June Challenge.
Holly showed a rail-fence quilt in very vibrant colours.

Meg Kenny showed her beautiful quilt which had made . The border of the quilt was screen printed with sonograms of her grandson. All the fabrics in the centre of the quilt were hand-dyed and screen printed (with images relating to fertility). She showed etchings and drawing which she used to create the prints. It was a very informative talk and showed how people could interprate their own experiences to design and create their own quilts.

We also had an overseas visitor on the night - Edie from Alaska, who is in Ireland for the next 3 weeks. Thanks to the power of the internet and blogging, Edie found out about the March meeting. She spoke about her embroidery and patchwork, and she also showed the hat she was wearing - which was crazy pieced. Every part of the hat had been embellished with embroidery stitches, sequins etc. Edie has her own blog called the "Sporadic Packrat" which has been added to the list of Patchwork-related blogs over on the right-hand side.