Author: ffrances2017

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 Paisley’s scrap bag and two Australian style works, “Pippi Platypus” and friend.
  3. Noreen Brazier’s Peter Rabbit qyuilt 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.

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.

Christmas 2019 Challenge

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Our 2019 Christmas challenge is:  Make a Christmas table decoration.

any size, any colour, any technique – if you’d have it on your table at Christmas, then that’s what we want to see!

(it could be a place mat, a table runner, a 3-D ornament, a centrepiece, a Christmas cracker…)

Please bring to the 14 December Christmas meeting.

For ideas…

Table toppers by Tracy
Christmas Wreath

May Meeting Preview

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We’re delighted to welcome the Midwestern branch to our May Meeting.

Please note that this meeting is on the 3rd Saturday of the month – May 18, 2019

Shop: The Sewing Shed (Nikki Foley)
Demonstrator: there’s a vacancy… anyone interested? drop us a line.
Speaker: Midwestern Branch Members
Show&Tell: please bring us your latest (complete or WIP)
Start: 10am (ish)
There is a 1/2 day afternoon workshop – a May Mystery – see requirements here. Don’t forget your machine and bits if you are attending that.

The New Committee are:
Chair: Frances McCarthy
Treasurer: Marie Sprott
Secretary (and Web and Communications and everything else!!): Sandra Jansen
Membership: Heidi Wishniewski
Exec. Rep: Eilís Watson
Library and Editorial: Kathryn Bennett
Library: Cora Quinlan

Thanks so much to the outgoing committee for all their work over the last year(s).

May Mystery Requirements

On By ffrances2017In WorkshopLeave a comment

This makes a 24 in piece – it would be a great centre medallion for a larger quilt or a big cushion or a side of a tote bag, or add some borders to make a wall quilt…

There are 6 fabrics in this mystery. Apart from fabric 1, which is a square that doesn’t get cut up any more, it is not really suited to directional fabrics. Checks or fabrics that can be rotated are fine. Fabric 4 sets the tone for this mystery – a strong colour is good here, can be print, batik, solid colour.

 

Fabric Cutting needed (all in inches) colour suggestions
Background 4 of [6 ½” x 3 ½”]
4 of [9 ½” x 3 ½”]
1 of [8” square]
1 of [9” square]

if you have yardage (42” wide) you’ll need just less than 12” to cut all this. It’s more than a single fat quarter, unless your fat quarters are generous.

 can be dark or light,

good contrast with fabrics 4 and 5

not suitable for very directional prints
fabric 1 1 of [6 ½” square] great for a fussy cut (will not be chopped up any more), any colour
fabric 2 1 of [7 ½” square] good contrast with 1 and 3, can be dark or light
fabric 3 4 of [3 ½” square]
1 of [9” square]		 good contrast with 2 and 4
fabric 4 4 of [6 ½” x 3 ½”]
1 of [8” square]
2 of [4” square]

this is easy from a fat quarter’s worth of fabric.

 a strong colour – apart from the background, this is the fabric that appears the most in this mystery.
fabric 5 1 of [7 ½” square]
2 of [4” square]		 a fabric that zings against 4

I used yardage and had everything cut out in 30 minutes. You can cut ahead of the workshop if you want, but my total sewing time was 1h 40 min (including one bit of un-sewing!) – so there will be plenty of time to cut at the workshop.

  • Rulers: there will be some cutting and trimming on the day, so bring your favourite rulers. You will need to have a ruler that can square up and trim units. Marsha McCloskey’s Precision Trimmer is great – if you don’t have it, don’t worry – just bring your usual ruler(s). Bring at least one ruler that has a 45 degree line on it and can be used to trim a unit.
  • Rotary cutter and mat.
  • Bring a pencil or white chalk pen for marking.
  • There will be pressing as we go along – bring an iron and mat, or plan to share with someone.
  • Pins if you are a stickler for accuracy
  • Sewing machine and extension lead.
  • thread, scissors … your usual sewing kit.

Any queries – send an email to corkips@gmail.com – Frances

February 2019 Meeting Recap

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Anne Marie Horan of the Strategic Planning Group set up by the IPS Executive briefed us on proposed changes to the IPS Constitution. These will be voted on at the AGM in June. Contact a member of the local committee if you’d like to review these points.

Our speaker Paula Rafferty joined us from Limerick with a sample of her own and students’ work. The breadth of styles was stunning, and of Paula’s work, the series that built on each other were intriguing.

We got a sneak preview of the Irish pieces of  “World Wide Whispers” –a project taking place in 5 countries, 12 quilts from each, each maker received a photo of the prior month’s quilt as starting point. No photos I’m afraid – these will be on display later this year.

 

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Our members’ show and tell (click on each image for more info):

 

Mary: “I’m an honorary granny!”
two quilts made from a Jelly Roll
Honor’s piece made from a panel from Japan
Anne’s stunner
Joanna: started as a sample for the exhibition at the Sirius Gallery
Catherine and Anne
Catherine: “caution, crumb quilts are very addictive!”
Cathy with a costume for Ursula from the Little Mermaid
Jane received this bag, made from upholstery fabric from the share table
Heidi’s fox from a birthday present book
Mairead: heart pattern from Moya with additions of jewellery