November meeting recap

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For the first time we organised our meeting in person as well as online, and we even managed (imperfectly) to connect the two!

It was lovely to see so many attending the church hall this morning, even if the facilities were limited… I’m sure to see the quilts in Show & Tell “for real” must have been quite a treat, as well as shopping for fabric, of course.

Online we had about 10 people, and it was greatly appreciated that we offered this option too.

Assumpta spoke about the Passage West Creates shop, that she found herself manager of, with great enthusiasm. By the looks of the display tables they have a lovely selection of handmade items for sale in the shop, as well as brilliant community activities. Definitely worthwhile to check out if you are in the area, or if you are too far, visit their online shop: https://passagewestcreates.ie/

Our summer challenge, using a fat quarter that was sent to our members at the start of summer, had quite a few entries. We will be drawing a winner from all entries and will announce the winner in an email. Some were shown in the hall, others sent to our email address. And the Show & Tell had a wonderful array of quilts, cushions and other items:

Many of us have been making for Christmas, too:

Some links that you may want to have a look at:

Our next meeting will be the Christmas meeting, planned for 11 December. Keep an eye on your emails to find the details nearer the time. In the mean time the committee will be scratching their heads over quiz questions and other festivities…

November meeting

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This Saturday, 13 November, we will be hosting our monthly Southern Branch meeting. For the first time since “forever” we have booked the hall and we will be holding our meeting in person!

At the hall we will be checking COVID CERTS, and MASKS will have to be worn except when sitting down with your coffee. Unfortunately the kitchen will be locked, but there is a coffee van outside or you can bring your own flask.You will also be asked to sign in at the entrance with your contact details.
For those who are not comfortable to attend the meeting we will be having a zoom connection, the link will be sent in the coming days. We hope to “beam” our speaker and the Show & Tell via zoom for those at home.

If you want to renew your membership at the meeting, please bring exact fee if possible (cash or cheque, €50 for general membership) and consider filling out the form in advance. Non-members will no longer receive emails after this meeting.

When: Saturday 13 Nov, 10:00 – 12:30 (usual door fees apply)
Where: Sacred Heart church hall, Western Road, Cork
Speaker: Assumpta Lydon
Shop: Patchwork Plus
Show & Tell – bring your quilts!
Raffle

CHALLENGE
Remember the gorgeous fabric we sent out for our summer challenge? Well, summer is truly over by now, so anyone who has made something using their fat quarter is asked to bring their item to the meeting or email your photo to us. We will be drawing a winner from those taking part.

While many are looking forward to meeting in person this Saturday, we are aware that not everyone will be comfortable to leave the safety of home (yet). So we have set up an online meeting as well, see the link in your email.

You will be welcome in the hall from 10.00 AM, the online meeting will start at 10.30 AM. We are hoping to be able to get a connection with the hall at least for the speaker and the Show & Tell.

Any photos for Show & Tell and for the challenge (!!) can be emailed to us in advance of the meeting, we can show them online either at the Zoom meeting or on the website afterwards.Of course you are very welcome to bring your Show & Tell to the hall as well!

October recap

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We had a good turnout yesterday, and everyone was very happy listening to Irene MacWilliam. She showed us a wide variety of her quilts and had many, many stories to tell. A very inspiring and interesting lady!

She uses a lot of free machine appliqué and stitching as well as other decorative techniques. She also uses techniques like fabric dyeing, screen printing, stamping, sun printing, etc. Her work is greatly varied: Some of her work deals with conflict and the effects of it on children and families, other pieces show a brilliant sense of humour. She has also made numerous “year quilts” depicting world events, and journal quilts.

If you missed the talk, or if you want to see more of Irene’s work, find her website at http://www.irenemacwilliam.co.uk/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/irenetextiles/ . Searching her name online and going to images also gives a lot of photos of her work…

Our own (short) show and tell was lovely, too. See the photos here:

  • Friendship braid with prairy points by Colette
  • Strip-pieced hexagons by Assumpta
  • Table runner by Sheila

In the afternoon, Tracy gave a workshop to a good few of our branch members. We all got a little bit in the Christmas spirit…! I think everyone ended up with a finished item, and I am probably not the only one intending to make more of these versatile trays as gifts and for use around the house, and not just for Christmas.

Our next meeting is planned for 13 November. Since government guidelines will most likely have changed by then, we will update everyone by email what form that meeting will have…

To receive updates of the branch, please renew your membership so that we can keep sending you emails (tick that box), and keep an eye on your inbox!

September recap

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Our new year started today with a lovely meeting, even if it had to be online.

We had Suzanne Pass give us a personal tour of last month’s Festival of Quilts. Lots of photos of quilts and much background information. Suzanne sent four quilts to the show which were very personal to her, and they looked wonderful.

There were also a few photos sent in for our Show & Tell:

Assumpta made this quilt for a friend’s son who had a baby girl in Australia
Suzanne Pass showed these blocks which was a block of the month pattern in the Midwest branch
Colette is participating in a journal quilt course and showed these three recent quilts

Lastly, Tracy announced that she will be having a Row-by-Row sampler class, which will start in October. Anyone interested can find more details on her website, or contact her directly (or contact us and we’ll pass you on):

We will be announcing our plans for the coming months to our members by email. Information on renewals will be sent, as well as plans for future meetings.

Anyone who would like to (re-)join the Irish Patchwork Society can contact us for information (see About Us page or find us on Facebook). You can also leave a comment here so we can respond to you (comments will not automatically be published so they will not appear publicly if they are not meant to). You can also find more information on the Society’s main website at https://irishpatchworksociety.wildapricot.org/.

Members, keep an eye on your emails…

September again

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Suddenly it is September, and there is an autumnal feel to the day… How did that happen so suddenly?!

After a lovely summer with (for me) not all that much sewing, we are looking forward to evenings with a quilt again!

The recent news on the upcoming lifting of restrictions is promising for in-person meetings, so we may be organising “real” meetings soon. Unfortunately, that time has not come quite yet so the committee has had to decide to have our monthly meeting online again. I suppose we all have to have a little more patience.

We are meeting this Saturday 11 September using Zoom. Members will have been sent the link by email, contact us if you are a member and you haven’t received it.

PROGRAMME:

  • 9.30 AM – start of the meeting and a short branch update.
  • 10 AM – SPEAKER: Suzanne Pass will give us a talk on her recent visit to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Expect lots of quilt photos to inspire!!
  • Afterwards – SHOW & TELL – send us your photos in advance so we can share what you’ve been up to!

June meeting recap

On By sewofcourseIn Meeting Recap1 Comment

This morning we had our last meeting for the summer and everyone was in good spirits.

All members should now have received your fat quarter (get in touch if you haven’t), and hopefully it will inspire some projects to keep us busy over the coming months.

We are planning a sewing meeting (socially distanced) outside in the Regional Park in Ballincollig. We hope some of you may join us there to work on your own hand project, or to help with sewing bindings to some of the quilts of the “Keep Well” project. We hope to be in touch with details (and directions) about this in a few weeks time, and dependent on the weather of course.

Also, a reminder that the national AGM for the IPS will be held on Saturday 19 June online. Check your emails for details and to register. This is the opportunity for all members to find out what is going on at national level and to make your voice heard if there is anything you want to discuss.

We do not know yet what September will look like regarding meetings, so we will be in contact about that nearer the time.

Below some lovely work that was shared with us from Tracy, Assumpta and Sandra. Wishing you all a lovely summer!

June meeting

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This coming Saturday, June 12, we will be holding our June branch meeting, starting at 10AM. The link to the meeting has been sent to our members by email.

This will be a “Sit and Chat” meeting, to catch up with each other and have a get-together before we have a break over the summer.

While we will not be having a meeting in the coming months, we hope you will keep sewing. To encourage everyone we are setting you a challenge. Our members will be receiving a small surprise in the post, and we hope that you all will be inspired to make something with it. In the hope that we will be able to see your makes in person, we have set the finish time for this challenge for our November meeting.

As we are almost at the end of our patchwork year, I also would like to say thank you to all the members who have stayed with us and tried to make the best of a year (and more) of meeting online and sharing your quilting with us via photos. You have been brilliant!

We hope to see you all at our meeting this Saturday at 10AM, so grab a drink, find your meeting link email and connect with us!

May meeting recap

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Thank you to all who joined us for today’s meeting. We were happy to welcome Frances Gamble from New Zealand for a talk on how she documents her work.

After a false start caused by me (twice!! – I’ve sat on my hands the rest of the time), Frances treated us to a lovely talk. She showed us how she keeps track of how projects are made (pattern, fabrics, and all kind of information). Of course this included lots of photos of her quilts and other makes, which was most inspiring. In preparation for the talk she had gone through her older records as well, and found it most interesting to see how her style has changed over time, too.

Another inspiring theme was Frances’ use of textiles like old table clothes or embroidered blocks into her quilts. Sometimes they were used as a frame around the label, other times as blocks in a quilt, or as pieces into the back.

We all came away with ideas and inspiration. And in discussion it was concluded that it is never too late to start keeping a record of your own, even if it is just to look back on what you’ve made, or to easily find that pattern that you want to make again.

Colette send us some photos of her quilts to share:

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 12 June, so be on the lookout for the link in your emails a few days before that.

Sandra

May meeting

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Good morning everyone,

This Saturday, 8 May, we will hold our monthly branch meeting. This month we will have a special guest from the other side of the world, thanks to the wonders of the internet! Frances Gamble moved several years ago from Cork to New Zealand, and she has agreed to stay up late to give us a talk.

To make sure she isn’t missing too much of her “beauty sleep”, we have decided to start somewhat earlier than usual due to the time difference with NZ: Our meeting will be starting from 9 AM, with Frances’ talk starting at 9.30.

We hope you will al join us at this earlier time!