International Quilt Festival Of Ireland

If the Fat Quarterly Retreat wasn't enough, I now have quilt OVERLOAD with the International Quilt Festival of Ireland being held in Galway this past weekend. Were you there?  Did you have fun?  See anything that made your heart flutter?

Spirits in general were high.  We had a gorgeous sunny weekend, so folks could stroll around with an ice cream and soak in the rays.  There were a gazillion different things to do ranging from chocolate tasting to lace making to long arm quilting demonstrations and antique quilt exhibits.  Anything your little heart desired.

I did have a good look around on Friday and found my favorite quilt of the exhibit....

The entire festival was very traditional in nature.  I wish they had a modern quilting exhibit, but no luck.  I also wish they had a exhibit that wasn't themed but instead featured the gorgeous quilts Irish quilters could make.  Again, no luck.  Still, there were quilts there that (if you searched hard enough) would make you stop and gasp.  You know I love color and this is the most colorful one I could find.  It was a mix of piecing and applique with fabulous quilting (that I wish I took a photo of!).  What really stole the show, though, is the Celtic knot that runs its way around the second outer most border.

It even stopped my other half in his tracks to inspect further.  Absolutely beautiful.

So, I spent a small bit of time walking around the exhibits and shopping.  I didn't take any classes as I was kind of classed-out after London.  But, I did spend a good bit of time hanging out at the Irish Patchwork Society booth with these lovely ladies.  We had a great laugh together.

And, of course, there was the Cu Na Mara exhibit (Irish for Sea Hound) hanging in the reception hall.  It was insanely difficult to get a photo of all 20 quilts together.  It was a shame, really, as they all intertwined in/out of one another.  I tried.  Now when I saw the design by the Irish Patchwork Society for this quilt I could easily imagine how spectacular they would be mixing with the panels on either side.  I imagined seeing the exhibit when walking to the building from the outside as the entire opposite wall is glass.  However, the festival put a false front onto the building covering up the glass with a plywood castle front.  There goes our fabulous exhibit.  So, you could kind of see it, but not take it in its full glory.  What to do.

When I was there, the sun was shining in from the roof, so there were shadows of the beams.  I, therefore, shamelessly steal this photo from Anneliese to show off my little part of the exhibit.  She got a much nicer photo!  There's little Cuchulainn getting his day out in the sun.

That's the news from Galway.  I'm heading off to make a few Granny Squares tonight.  Hope you're stitching too!