Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Reminder: Christmas Party Friday 9th December

Christmas Party

Don't forgot the Mid-West Branch December Meeting/Christmas Party will be taking place on Friday 9th December 2011


There is a table quiz organised for the night, which should be a lot of fun!

Also, we also having a Kris Kringle so don't forgot to bring your present (value of approx. €5) with you on the night.

The challenge for December is a Christmas item - which leaves plenty of scope for people to be creative. 

And we're hoping to get our usual fantastic array of food brought in by members.

Hope to see you all on the 9th December!

 

Monday, 28 November 2011

November Meeting

November Meeting

The November challenge was bags.  Nora O'Connor won the challenge with this pieced bag.

 Another bag entry from Claire Lynch
 Phil Awylward entered this bag in the challenge

Demelza Palmer showed this quilt that she recently completed. Demelza has been collecting sea-themed fabrics for a while and used them to make this quilt. Her mother (Rebecca) did the quilting on the quilt, but all the piecing was done by Demelza - great job!
 


Some more completed Hand Blocks for the International Quilting Festival of Ireland 2011. 


 Tracy Watston showed her completed piece from the recent Philippa Naylor workshop. Philippa gave 2 workshops after the IPS AGM in Cork on curved machine piecing and machine quilting.

Theresa Riordan showed off some of her Christmas wreaths that she's been busy making.
Kate O'Donoghue made this lovely foundation pieced quilt top.


Carmel Creaner from the Cork Textile Network was the guest speaker at the November meeting.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Crafts Council of Ireland Proposed Name Change and Survey

Dear All,
Could you forward this note to as many members as you have emails for? There is a poll to complete by the 25th November. The name change has been discussed at executive level and it was agreed that Design should not be introduced into the name. There are a number of reasons for this:
Is it to be called The Design and Craft Council of Ireland or The Craft and Design Council of Ireland? Many felt that if the name had to be changes that Design should not come first.
If Design is introduced then it will not be the Craft Council any longer, graphic design, engineering etc will have to be admitted and this increased the membership and dilutes the monies available to the guilds, networks and societies.
The Crafts Council of Ireland (CCOI) is a very well recognised logo and organisation and appears to be fit for purpose at the moment-does it need to be changed? in particular after a very successful Year of Craft.
Do we need to spend the money that will be involved in in changing?
These are just some of the arguments and there are many more.
Below is the email from the CEO
Please share your thoughts by doing the poll.
Regards,
Mary Hunter (CCoI Rep)

Dear GANS representative,

Further to the GANS meeting which took place in Kilkenny on 16th September 2011, an online poll has been created as part of the consultation process around the proposal to amend the name of the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) to include the word 'Design'.

This online poll provides your members with an opportunity to share their thoughts and feedback on this proposal, and this feedback is very important to us.  We would therefore ask you to encourage all of your members to take a few minutes to participate in the online poll.  CCoI will also be inviting our registered clients to participate in the poll.

Please click on this link: 
http://bit.ly/ccoiganspna which directs to:
• a letter from the Board of Directors of the Crafts Council of Ireland inviting your members to participate in this poll
• an outline regarding the background and rationale for the proposal
• the online poll

As mentioned in the letter, any GANS member who has a query or would like to obtain additional information on the proposed name amendment can email survey@ccoi.ie
We would ask all GANS members to complete the poll by Friday 25th November 2011 in order to ensure all feedback can be incorporated as part of our consultation process.

What you need to do:
• Please forward this link 
http://bit.ly/ccoiganspna to all of your individual members by email which contains the letter from the Board of the Crafts Council of Ireland and includes the background document and the link to the online poll
• Please encourage your members to complete the online poll, highlighting the closing date of Friday 25th November 2011
• Please forward any queries you receive from individual members or let us know if there are any recurring questions or concerns around the proposal

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you in advance for participating in this consultation process.


Kind regards,
Karen Hennessy.

Chief Executive
Crafts Council of Ireland
Executive Assistant: 056 7796148

Monday, 21 November 2011

Mystery Quilt Instructions Part 1 to 3

Here's the up-to-date Mystery Quilt Instructions. It's for the months of September to November, so 3 parts so far. 

Mystery Quilt Instructions Part 1 to 3

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

November meeting reminder

For the November meeting, on Friday 11th, don't forget to bring your bags to show for the challenge and we will have a board up to pin all the wonderful name badges that people have created. Part 3 of our mystery quilt instructions will be available. Look forward to seeing you there and hearing Carmel Creaner, our guest speaker. Cheers Tracy.

Monday, 31 October 2011

October Meeting

At the October meeting we had demo's on various Christmas items:Theresa O'Riordan - Christmas Wreaths
Loretta O'Brien - Bottle covers
Tracy Watson - Braids
Claire Lynch - tags, tassels and Mug Rugs

Hopefully, these demo's inspired people to start getting their Christmas presents ready early and we might see some of them at the November meeting.

Rebecca Palmer recently made this quilt for a teenager in bright contemporary colours. Rebecca said that these weren't really her colours (i.e. not purple!) but everyone loved the quilt as it was so bright and cheery.


Rebecca has had a number of Woofers (people who volunteer help/time to work on organic farms wordwide for a few months) staying with her over the summer. In that time, she has managed to get them all into patchwork, each of her woofers have made a quilt of their own which is fantastic.
This quilt top was made by a young American girl who was staying with Rebecca and is her 1st ever quilt!

 A number of our members have also made Hand Blocks for the upcoming International Quilting Festival of Ireland.


One of the Kerry quilters, Priscilla made this fantastic quilted jacket

Monday, 24 October 2011

EQA Exhibition at Festival of Quilts 2012 - Crossroads

European Quilt Association
EQA Exhibition at FoQ in 2012

The theme of next exhibition is: Crossroads
Each country's quilts will be hung together in next year's gallery at FoQ

Some ideas about the "Crossroads" theme:
The roads are crossing our lives- people, events or things crossing your life unexpectedly, and make us enjoy life - meeting people in crossroads, some people stay in your life, some not, but all touch your life in some way. Life is not straightforward: you get sometimes lost or take sideways steps.
Crossroads can be a meeting place where people gather to exchange news about one and others lives. A place where we want to make a decision as to what direction we will follow. 

Rules:
1. Size: 20 x 50cm (7 7/8 x 19 5/8). To be hung horizontally.
2. Edges: free choice of edging treatment (i.e. raw or bound).
3. Any technique may be used but the quilt may consist of three layers. No glass fronted or mounted exhibits will be accepted. Be warned that quilts which are delicate or stiff are difficult to transport safely.
4. The entire collection of "Crossroads" will be launched at the Festival of Quilts in 2012. Some countries may decide to display their quilts from neighbouring countries at their annual general meetings. In this case, these quilts will be returned later than September 2012.
5. All guild members may enter and there is no entry fee. The quilts are not for sale.
6. All quilts must have a 10cm (4 inch) hanging sleeve (with extra fullness to accomodate the rod) sewn 1cm below the top of the quilt and stopping 2cm from each side.
7. The quilts are insured for a nominal sum during the exhibition including transport to and from the FoQ 2012. (Information on transport and insurance for other exhibitions is available from the guild organising the event. Should a quilt be damaged or lost, the EQA member guilds is responsible for compensating the maker).
8. The entry form and photo should reach the International Representative by 31st May 2012.
9. 10 quilts will be selected by each country by 30th June 2012. Any quilts which do not comply with the rules, particularly in terms of size or hanging sleeve, can be rejected on submission.
10. Photos of the quilts may be used for publicity purposes.
11. Every member country of the EQA must provide TEN quilts for this exhibition. If too many quilts are submitted, 10 must be selected in whatever way the guild decides. If too few quilts are submitted, the IR/executive committee of the guild MUST organise the making of the missing quilts.

The EQA entry form and rules are listed on the Patchwork Related Links section of this blog.


You can find a copy of EQA Crossroads Entry Form and Rules here