There was an enthusiastic group at our virtual meeting this morning, thank you to those who managed to join us!

The conversation quickly turned to online mystery quilts and quilt-alongs, so I’ve made a small list of some that were mentioned and some that I found:

• You should have received instruction emails from the IPS about the mystery quilt by Mary Palmer. The instructions can also be found under “resources – 2020 patterns” at the IPS website (login required)
• Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt is about to start soon, supplies have been announced. It is called Grassy Creek, and all posts will be on that page as they come available.
• Fat quarter Shop has a free Block-a-Week for 38 weeks called Sewcialites to which several designers contribute.
• Alaska Rainbow Quilt-Along by Edita Sitar on laundrybasketquilts.com. The link goes to the first post, all posts can be found by clicking the tag “Alaska Rainbow QA”.
• A modern row-by-row quilt-along is the Sugaridoo Quilt Along on the Bernina site.

Nikki Foley of the Sewing Shed came in to give us a short talk. She told us how sewing has been a saviour through tough times in her life. She explained how that has given her the energy and drive to work so hard at what she does now and why that means so much to her. She followed it by a photo tutorial for easy Christmas table mats. If you want to make the table mats, find the tutorial on the Sewing Shed website at: Christmas table mats from a star bundle.

This afternoon Nikki was going to open her new shop, too (virtually of course). If you’d like to see, you can find The Sewing Shed on Facebook or Instagram, and there is also a website (10% discount until tomorrow 12PM)

Our next visitor was Mary Murphy who some of you may remember from her visit to us in 2018. Mary makes stitched portraits, and is now involved in a new arts collective/art gallery in Carrigaline. She showed us the space and some of the art work, as well as the craft and design work they are displaying. For anyone interested to know more, have a look at Mary’s website, or visit the Owenabue Arts Collective site.

Then it was time to talk quilts again. Cathy showed us what she is working on: A self-designed quilt with different stars which is all hand pieced and is presently being quilted.

Tracy had recently received paper pieces for an “Ice Cream Soda Quilt” and showed off the first “blossom” she made. She also showed the embroidered pockets for a bespoke advent calendar for her son and his wife.

Joanna showed a lovely quilt she is working on and wants to make bigger.

And I held up my just-quilted log cabin quilt to the camera…

Our next meeting will be on 12 December from 11:00 AM, and it will be a festive one, so find your Christmas hat, and have a mince pie ready! We hope to organise a quiz/treasure hunt for that. It will also be an opportunity to show off your Christmas makes, and wish each other the best for the season, of course.
We will be sending the link for the meeting to up-to-date members only, so please get your renewals sorted…!

Sorry for the lack of pictures so far, to make up here is a short Show and Tell from the photos I received by email:

Siobhan made this log cabin from denim:

Assumpta made paper pieced Santas. They were supposed to be a runner but she made them into individual hanging ones instead:

Tracy Wardle says: “Here’s my offering for this month. I’ve called it “Sweet Like Chocolate” as it was made using mainly fabric from a Moda collection called Double Chocolat. I’ve included a shot of the back as well as the front and also a close up of part of the front. It is quilted on my home sewing machine”:

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Eilís Watson made the colourful quilt below. The pattern is ‘Paradise Pinwheels’ by Laura Coons. It uses a jelly roll with background fabric:

We hope to see you all next month!