Knitting & Stitching Show

Just a reminder that the Knitting and Stitching Show is taking place this week in the RDS from Thursday 30th - Sunday 2nd November.

October Meeting

The challenge for October was the log cabin block. This challenge was won by Fran O'Donoghue.

The theme of the October meeting was mini-demonstrations on finishing quilts for the November exhibition:

Gillian Sheehan gave a demonstration on hand quilting.

Claire Lynch showed how to put on a hanging sleeve.

Paula Rafferty showed to do machine quilting.

Holly Hogan showed how to attach binding.

Hopefully all mid-west branch members are hard at work finishing off their masterpieces for the November exhibition. Don't forget to bring your quilts to the November meeting for collection for the exhibit.

September Meeting

The September meeting was the first meeting back after the summer break.

The Fainne Quilters group were the guest speakers at the September meeting. They brought a large and varied number of quilts for Show & Tell.

Made with the same pattern, Paula Rafferty made this larger version. The chicken wall-hanging was made by Catherine Kirby. This piece won 1st prize at the wallhanging section at the Tinnahealy quilt show.

The log cabin quilt was made by Linda Broderick. This is only Linda's fifth quilt and it is all hand-quilted.

New IPS Kerry Branch

A new IPS branch has just been started - the Kerry branch! This group will be having it's 1st ever meeting on the 26th September.
Meetings will be held in the Keel Community Centre, Keel, Castlemaine, Co. Kerry at 7.30pm.

List of events for the Kerry Branch:
Sept 26th - there will be a talk by Executive Member and a free pattern. Challenge - Autumn Leaves. Shop to be confirmed.
Oct 24th - Moya Geraghty Talk & Workshop. Challenge - Pumpkins. Shop by Moya Geraghty.
Nov 28th - Talk by Julie Shanahan on "The poetry of patchwork. Challenge - Fireworks. Shop by Nikki Foley.
Dec 12th - Demo - Fun - Party. Challenge - Christmas Fairy.
Jan 23rd - Invite Cork Branch to attend and show quilts. Challenge - Snowman. Shop by Moya Geraghty.
Feb 27th - Mary Palmer Workshop. Challenge - Jack Frost. Shop by Nikki Foley.
Mar 27th - Speaker to be confirmed. Challenge - Daffodils. Shop by Maeve Meany.

Starting a Soul Journal/Starting to use a sketchbook

I came across this great blog recently where a great project on making a "Soul Journal" has recently started. To learn more about it visit http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com

I thought this could be a great link for people who want to start using sketchbooks and don't know where to start. It Could be used as a follow-on for those who attended the Sandra Meech "Creative Sketchbook" workshop, and for those who missed it!

This is the link to the start of the project:
http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/2008/07/s-journaling.html

BRANCH EXHBITION "REGENERATION"

BRANCH EXHBITION IN CITY HALL 24-28TH NOVEMBER:

THE THEME OF THE EXHBITION IS "REGENERATION".

So get your thinking caps on and get working on your quilts!!

A Statement of Intent for the exhbition is to be handed in at the September meeting. The form was handed out at the June meeting.

The completed quilts need to be at the November Branch Meeting (Friday 14th).

Late entries will not be accepted.

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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