IPS Southern Branch Annual Christmas Challenge 2026

On By ffrances2017In Christmas ChallengeLeave a comment

Thanks to our member Lesley Bell for the idea of holding an annual Christmas Challenge.

The guidelines are as follows:

Make an A4 sized quilt with the theme ‘Water‘ portrait or landscape orientation. Anything goes, surface decoration etc. It must consist of 3 layers.

Bring it along to our Christmas meeting. All of the quilts will be laid out anonymously. Each person present will be given a voting token, which you place on top of your favourite quilt.

The quilt with the most tokens wins the mini quilt trophy to hold for one year and a prize to keep. The winner will set the theme for next year’s challenge.

Quilt sizes for future years can be 8″ square, 10″ Square or A4 portrait or landscape. Keeping the quilts small means that no-one has a huge task so hopefully we can have a wide variety to choose from.

It would be lovely to make this an annual challenge but we need you to take part to make this happen.

November 2026 Meeting Coming Up

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We meet on Saturday 14 November at Sacred Heart Church, Western Road, Cork.

Date: Saturday 14 November 2026

Venue: Sacred Heart Church Hall, Western Road, Cork

Door Opens: 10am

Door fee for members: €4, Door fee for non-members: €8

Speaker: Eilís Watson

Shop: Vibes & Scribes

Show and Tell: Please bring your latest creations

Raffle: Only 5 Euro a strip

Coffee and Tea: Provided but please bring some of your goodies to tempt us.

Afternoon workshop with Ruth Bourke – TickerTape

You can renew your membership directly through the IPS site, or in person at the meeting. We can take card payments for the national membership.

October 2026 Meeting Recap

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We were delighted to welcome everyone to our Open Meeting on 17 October.

Patchwork Plus with Moya Geraghty had plenty of fabric and more to tempt us, and five demonstrators shared their techniques and skills in a busy meeting. Thanks are extended to Marie Sprott, Simona Damerell, Mary O’Connor, Christine Sawyer and Lesley Bell for sharing their expertise.

Our Show and Tell contributors wowed us with a range of old and new works.

  1. Assumpta Lydon’s pair of Christmas Countdown Quilts, one for home and one for her son in Spain.
  2. She also shared her samples from her new beginner’s class.
  3. Linda Foley brought her stars sampler and a stunning bed size quilt.
  4. Lesley Bell’s piece from EQA2024 Alsace has returned, “The Morrigan” depicted stealing a ring.
  5. Ann Pasley brought her jelly roll quilt, a contribution to the care-leaver’s project.
  6. Heidi Wischniewski also shared two care-leaver quilts, the first made from 1/2 square triangles, donated by Linda Foley as left overs, the second created from scraps from her friend Kate.
  7. Mairead Christie brought her Hallowe’en Witch.
  8. Mary Hynes’ work shown included a foundation pieced Christmas panel and a Christmas Tree with charms.
  9. Fionnuala Creed brought an unfinished baby quilt ‘for Lily’ – to be gifted before the November meeting.
  10. Eilis Watson’s stack and whack kaleidoscope was made from striped Hallowe’en fabric.
  11. Angela Aylward’s WIP is a pattern from Pixie Sticks, she used a fat quarter for each colour.
  12. Tracy Wardle’s unfinished quilt is a free pattern from Tilda, acting as a “Welcome-home-from-New-Zealand-congrats-on-getting-married-and-welcome-to-your-new-home” gift.
  13. Christine Sawyer brought her demonstration of the floating block quilt, to be donated as a care-leaver quilt (seen in the gallery above)
1. Assumpta Lydon
2. Assumpta Lydon
2. Assumpta Lydon
2. Assumpta Lydon
3. Linda Foley
3. Linda Foley
4. Lesley Ball
5. Ann Pasley
6. Heidi Wischniewski
6. Back of Heidi’s Quilt
7. Mairead Christie
8. Mary Hynes
8. Mary Hynes
9. Fionnuala Creed
10. Eilis Watson
11. Angela Aylward
12. Tracy Wardle

Reminders for next month – we meet on Saturday 14 November, 2026.

October 2026 OPEN Meeting Coming Up

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Please note that this meeting is on the third Saturday of the Month.

We meet on Saturday 17 October at Sacred Heart Church, Western Road, Cork.
If you signed up for the Quilt Ireland Southern Branch “walk and talk” that will be held on 23 October, and you are not intending to attend in person, please bring your quilt and blurb for Frances.

We will be hosting a Sit & Sew in the afternoon, all welcome and ideal if your machine is in for servicing.

Date: Saturday 17 October 2026

Venue: Sacred Heart Church Hall, Western Road, Cork

Door Opens: 10am

Door fee (usually for members: €4, Door fee for non-members: €8) – waived for the Open Meeting

Speaker: 5 demonstrators showing various skills and techniques throughout the meeting

Shop: Patchwork Plus with Moya Geraghty

Prebooked sewing machine servicing with John O’Donnell of https://www.sewingmachines.ie/

Show and Tell: Please bring your latest creations

Raffle: Only 5 Euro a strip

Coffee and Tea: Provided but please bring some of your goodies to tempt us.

Sign up for forthcoming workshops

  1. Ruth Bourke TickerTape Workshop in November (meeting is 14 November).

You can renew your membership directly through the IPS site, or in person at the meeting. We can take card payments for the national membership.

September 2026 Meeting Recap

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We were delighted to welcome everyone back after the summer, full of ideas and inspiration.

Lismore Quilts with Áine Foley had plenty of fabric and more to tempt us and the Pinpals shared highlights of their recent trip to the Festival of Quilts.

Our Show and Tell contributors wowed us with a range of old and new works.

  1. Siobhan Miller Stone quilt made for a special class at a local school.
  2. Ann Pasley’s scrap bag and two Australian style works, “Pippi Platypus” and friend.
  3. Noreen Brazier’s Peter Rabbit quilt for a grand nephew, complete with a pocket label for a book.
  4. Linda Foley made up one of the patterns from the pattern library – “Costa Maya”
  5. Dorann Loehr showed a rainbow quilt – no image shown.
  6. Sheila Devereaux shared her EQA2024 piece on the theme “Imagine a Bird”, entitled One for Sorrow.
  7. Christine Sawyer brought
    1. a baby quilt for a great-granddaughter
    2. 2009 quilt made with a square on square and flip technique
    3. same technique, but larger!
    4. same technique, but add another square to the middle
    5. (my brain couldn’t figure this technique out – but she’ll demo at the October Meeting)
  8. Catherine Sanborn shared a ‘slow quilt,’ 6 years in the making with 1 in finished squares
  9. — crossed out–
  10. Lesley Bell brought a Youghal Village inspired quilt, created from a fellow quilters de-stash.
  11. Mary Palmer shared her huge quilt from Festival of Quilts, made of Oakshott cotton, inspired by the art of Frank Stella.
  12. Tina Hawkes was inspired by her peacock fabric.
  13. Our chair Heidi Wischniewski brought the Summer Exhibition table makes, now assembled to a quilt, and her own handbag.
  • 1. Siobhan Miller Stone
  • 2. Ann Paisley
  • 2. Ann Paisley
  • 2. Ann Paisley
  • 3 Noreen Brazier
  • 4. Linda Foley
  • 6. Sheila Devereaux
  • 7. Christine Sawyer
  • 7. Christine Sawyer
  • 7. Christine Sawyer
  • 7. Christine Sawyer
  • 8. Catherine Sanborn
  • 10. Lesley Bell
  • 11. Mary Palmer
  • 11. Mary Palmer
  • 12. Tina Hawkes
  • 13. Exhibition Made
  • 13. Heidi Wischniewski

Reminders for next month – we meet on the third Saturday, 17 October. Sewing machine service and open meeting.

September 2026 Meeting Coming Up

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Welcome back to Southern Branch!

We meet on Saturday 12 September at Sacred Heart Church, Western Road, Cork.

Date: Saturday 12 September 2026

Venue: Sacred Heart Church Hall.

Door Opens: 10am

Door fee for members: €4, Door fee for non-members: €8

Speaker: PinPals on the Festival of Quilts

Shop: Lismore Quilts with Áine Foley

Show and Tell: Please bring your latest creations

Raffle: Only 5 Euro a strip

Coffee and Tea: Provided but please bring some of your goodies to tempt us.

Sign up for forthcoming workshops

  1. Sewing Machine service with John O’Donnell at the Open October Meeting (17 October, note 3rd Saturday!).
  2. Ruth Bourke TickerTape Workshop in November (meeting is 14 November).
  3. Quilt Ireland have asked Southern Branch to “walk and talk” 25 or so quilts on Friday 23 October at the event. Frances will be circulating with a sign up list – please let her know if you would like to contribute a quilt.

You can renew your membership directly through the IPS site, or in person at the meeting. We can take card payments for the national membership.

June 2026 Summary

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We welcomed Paula Rafferty and her shop to our busy June meeting, and were wowed by Paula’s overview of her work.

Paula is a well known maker, teacher and quilt judge and brings her fashion and art background to her work. She enjoys a challenge and belongs to the 20 Perspectives Textile group that exhibits three times a year.

Amongst the striking quilts she showed were a sampler quilt that she created for teaching, a layer cake quilt that makes different scale stars, her “Emoture” – emotion and temperature quilt (read more about how it was created at https://paularafferty.blogspot.com/2021/07/emoture-my-temperature-quilt.html), her series of whole cloth quilts, custom printed from Paula’s digitally manipulated images, then quilted (carefully!) in the 1/8 inch black lines! The specialist printer has now closed, but Paula reckons she has two years worth of work stocked up.

Paula offered a workshop in the afternoon on Manx Quilting and whetted our appetites with her own version of this style of work – which is very much based on personal measurements. She recommended the video tutorial of Amy Smart as a great introduction: https://youtu.be/U4pks5ff7B0?si=n9xI5Ifi6e-bb3oG

Sampler Quilt for a class
From a Layer Cake
Emoture: Emotion meets Temperature Quilt over a year!
Emoture quilting detail
Whole cloth, custom printed from digitally manipulated images.
Manx Quilt

Our Show and Tell featured the works of

  1. Mairead Christie, with three quilts, a machine pieced black and white hexies, and two quilts that use fabrics purchased in Australia.
  2. Carol O’Callaghan’s squares, with thanks to Assumpta for help.
  3. Eilís Watson’s rainbow crayon quilt, “to use it up!”
  4. Ann Prendergast brought two quilts, the yellow and brown from a pattern of Mary Palmer, and her star from a Ruth Bourke workshop.
  5. Joanne Harrington brought a quilt made for a grandson, and a sherbet colour way squares.
  6. Ann Kelleher showed an unusual crochet edging on her hexes quilt and a panel of Beatrix Potter.
  7. Rebecca Uí Laughin brought “short and sweet” mammal pouches that can be used in animal rescue work.
  8. Fionualla Creed’s quilt was quilted by Christine Sawyer for a grandson.
  9. Mary O’Connor shared two small works that use vilene geometric print for precise piecing and warned us all: “beware of Birmingham and the demonstrations…!!”
  10. Finally Heidi’s Nymph Echo has returned from exhibition.

Mairead Christie
Mairead Christie
Mairead Christie
Carol O’Callaghan
Eilís Watson
Ann Prendergast
Ann Prendergast
Joanne Harrington
Joanne Harrington
Ann Kelleher
Ann Kelleher
Ann Kelleher
Rebecca Ui Laighin
Rebecca Ui Laighin
Fionnula Creed
Mary O’Connor
Mary O’Connor
Heidi Wishniewski

Enjoy the summer and we will be back in September, on the 12th.

May 2026 Summary

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On a bright and rainy morning in Cork we welcomed our guests from Mid-Western Branch, thanks to the six visitors for bringing a range of their current work.

Persian miniature inspired quilt
1
Hand sewn scrap stars, in a range of soft tones on a pale background
2
Two rainbow hued quilts made from half square triangles and pale fabric, set in diagonal lines
3
Ruth Bourke holding two cushion covers, one a gingham dog made from squares, the other an economy block swap made of fussy cut centres and surrounding triangles.
4
Ruth Bourke holds a framed challenge made of blue fabrics, with symmetrical shapes.
5
Loretta O'Brien holds a large triangle quilt in shades of red and purple.
6
Loretta O'Brien holds her Peace quilt with one side dark, with images of weapons, balanced again a pale side with quilted doves.
7
A Kandinsky inspired piece with geometric pieces on a pale background.
8
9
1. Kate Hennessey’s Persian piece was inspired by antique images, note the human figure!
2. Alison Bingham (the “scrap queen”) brought a large hand sewn quilt with scrap stars.
3. Tracy Watson shared a work in progress made from half square triangles created from the fabric collection of Gillian Killick (RIP), blended with her own collection so that every coloured fabric is unique.
4 & 5. Ruth Bourke showed an early patchwork cushion contrasted with a more recent “economy block” exchange, where fussy cut fabric forms the centre of each block. Her framed piece explored the nature of symmetry.
6. Loretta O’Brien’s triangle demonstrates how to work with large scale fabrics that you don’t think go together — you chuck them in the washing machine with a machine dye!
7. Loretta’s passion for Peace is evident in her war-peace balance.
8. Loretta’s Kandinsky inspired piece.
9. Loretta’s latest is a quilt for a couple – using the purple bunting that they had at their reception!

Show and Tell

  • Olivia O’Sullivan: Hand pieced from a Judy Newman pattern, long arm quilted
  • Olivia O’Sullivan: machine pieced and home quilted
  • Evelyn Draper: meet Henry, created from collage quilting
  • Anne Pasley: Cushions from fat quarters
  • Mary O’Connor: “It’s the year to finish what I started!”
  • Mary O’Connor: “It’s the year to finish what I started!”
  • Frances McCarthy: WIP for Pride
  • Linda Whyte: Apple core quilt with a vintage feel from a 5″ swap
  • Christine Sawyer: Quilt 1 from 2009
  • Christine Sawyer: Quilt 2 from 2009, same pattern!
  • Christine Sawyer: Quilt 3 from 2009
  • Heidi Wischniewski
  • Heidi Wischniewski: recent workshop piece
  • Marie Sprott: Counter-cross work in progress
  • Ella O’Connor: Purple for a friend’s daughter!
  • Cathy Davis: Sea glass quilt

The new committee members that were elected in April have met and are delighted that Heidi has agreed to be co-opted to serve as Chair for the next year.

Others roles are:

Membership: Assumpta Lydon
Secretary: Catherine Sheehan
Treasurer: Trish Hollywood
PRO: Susan Garde
Editorial: Frances McCarthy
Executive Rep: Noreen Brazier

This new committe will be up and running for the September meeting.

16 May 2026

On By clarenewellIn Uncategorized3 Comments

A quick reminder that out next meeting will be on 16 May at Sacred Heart Church hall, Western Road, Cork. Doors open at 10am.

It is guaranteed to be a jam packed meeting with shop being provided by Moya from Patchwork Plus and a host of fellow quilters from the Mid Western branch joining us and bringing along a selection of their work. There will, as always, be a warm welcome and delicious treats and a great raffle too.

See you there.