Modern Quilter's Of Ireland Exhibit

Last Thursday was the official launch of our Modern Quilter's of Ireland exhibit!  This is our first exhibit, so it was very exciting for all of us.  Personally, it was the first time any of my quilts was shown publicly, which I found to be quite surreal. 

Modern Quilter's Of Ireland (well...those who came on the day).

It was really a wonderful day.  About 15 of the Modern Quilters took the day to travel to Dublin.  Some of us had met before, but many of us had not.  We only knew each other through blogs, email and Instagram.  It was so wonderful actually putting a face and real life personality with my online friends!

Tomomi's stunning wall hanging

At the exhibit opening, both Paula and I had the opportunity to say a few words.  I wrote mine out, so I still have a copy of what I said...or what I intended to say as I never really remember these sort of things accurately. I'll paste it below with a smattering of photos from the day in no particular order.  Many of you significantly contributed to these ideas/words via the blog or Instagram.  I thank you so very much for the inspiration and quotes included below. 

Paula's tryptic

Sarah Flynn and I started the Modern Quilters of Ireland in 2012.  At that time, I think we had met once over tea in a Bewley's hotel, but we already knew each other through and through just because we shared a common core.   Superficially, we are completely different: She's Irish, I'm not.  She live s in Cork, I live in Galway.  She's married, I'm not.  She had two - now three - children and I have fur babies.  But we shared a love of quilting, which meant we were one in the same.  

Ruth's bee quilt

We sew because we love to create.  We love the color and texture of fabric, the warmth of the finished quilt, and the pride or sense of accomplishment in a finished project.  We love the meditation in the process of sewing with time by yourself, concentrating, expanding your horizons.  

Fiona and her giant plus quilt

Somehow sewing attracts people who love to share, to teach, to gather and support one another.  It's much the same as what I saw with my mother and her gardening friends, or with my partner and his motorbiking buddies.  You find a common interest, and somehow you are immediately part of a community who watches out for one another.

My own Startazing bee quilt.

Our mission in starting the guild was to create that community.  We wanted to support and encourage the growth of modern quilting, but we had to somehow do that from different parts of the country.  With the Internet, the concept of community has fewer geographical limitations.  We could share an online community regardless of physical location.  

Claire's scrappy wall hanging.

Through blogs and social media, we quickly found a group of over 100 like minded individuals in Ireland, which still shocks me as I was sure there were only 3 of us into modern quilting when the guild launched.  

My bee quilt...over hanging the tea station!

In the words of Helen, "Our quilting community is just that: a community in the best 'old fashioned' sense of the word; people who support you through the tricky times, celebrate the good times alongside you and extend the hand of friendship to all newcomers." We cheer on successes like Fiona's quilt that was published in a magazine, the birth of Erin's beautiful children and Geraldine's newly remodelled kitchen.  We invited ourselves over to Anna's new house for a retreat, and we will celebrate a certain someone's 40th birthday next week!   

Partial Exhibit Overview

We support one another through difficulties.  It may be simply listening to one another complain, checking in on each other when someone goes quiet and (of course) sewing quilts for each other when we don't know what else to do.  We simply support and encourage one another because we are makers.  It's a friendship bound through creativity.

Sarah's quilt for her daughter.

I asked everyone on Instagram last night what the quilting community means to them.  I think this was my favorite response: "A place where I am accepted and wanted because of my creativity. It doesn't matter how old or young I am, how pretty or plain I am, how fat or slim I am.  My (online) quilting community includes me because I share my joy of creating with them and they share their joy and creativity with me."

Ana's EPP stars.

With this group, we are understood and accepted.  So many of us do not tell people that we quilt.  It's what your granny does, or for American pioneers.  Within our community we are free to ask questions, show our failures, ask for help, teach one another.  We inspire and encourage, serve as unconditional support, laugh together and distract one another in times of personal struggles.  

Tomomi's sampler

When Fiona and Sherrie presented our guild with the wonderful opportunity to exhibit our quilts, I started digging through the quilts on our beds, in my hot press, stacked up in the living room arm chair looking for a favorite or two to share with you all.  Two of my favorite quilts of all time are here.  It is only after they were shipped to Sherrie that I realized why I love them so much.  

Sarah's medallion

Yes, I love bright colors and repeating pattern, but these quits are quits made by this quilting community through quilting bees.  When I curl up on the couch to watch a movie, I look down and see a friend next to me.  I know their style of sewing, their favorite colors,  what fabric they have in their stash.  We created those quilts together, and I love that I have a bit of each of them in my home.

Ruth's triangle quilt.

I can't thank you all enough for what you do.  I'm privileged to be part of such a great community!

Liz's square in a square in a square.

Anna's own design.

Irina's bee quilt.

Modern Quilters of Ireland Exhibit!!!

I am SO excited to spread the word about the Modern Irish Quilter's exhibit to be held in Dublin the 25 May - 26 June at St Patrick's Hospital on St James's Street.  It is just a 5 minute walk from Heuston Station with lots of parking available if you choose to drive.  Be sure to jot it down in your diary right now...we'll wait.  So many of our Modern Irish Quilters have been stitching like crazy, creating our own patterns and quilting our hearts out in preparation.  You will not want to miss seeing all of their amazing finishes gathered together in one place.

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What I really want to tell you about is the launch on 4th June.  I have the great pleasure of speaking at our launch as the co-founder (with Sarah) of the group along with Paula Rafferty, a member of the group.  I want to talk about our quilting community, its importance to me in terms of support, inspiration and encouragement.  If you are so inclined, I ask you to share your thoughts about the quilting community and what it means to you.  I would love to incorporate the voice of the community in my launch speech beyond babbling on about myself and my own views.

Thank you!
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Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: October Blocks

I totally cheated.  I knew what blocks Tomomi wanted for her bee month ahead of anyone else as I pre-schedule the bee block blog posts to appear on the first of the month.  I cheekily packed up all of the fabrics I needed to make her blocks and brought it with me to the Modern Quilters of Ireland retreat last weekend (27 Sept).

Tomomi was looking for book shelf blocks, but with a twist.  She wanted to blocks 11-13 inches long x 12.5 inches tall with various sizes of books and Ash background.  However, she wanted us to each create a section on her bookshelf with a theme.  Humm....now that's interesting.

I choose to give her a section of bird watching guides:

and a section with cook books:

Tomomi, I hope you like them!  I know several other hive members have started thinking of really super, creative themes for you.  I am sure will you will love what they create!

Modern Quilters of Ireland {Bee Blessed Blocks}

There is SO much to tell you from this past weekend, but I can not get my brain together to write a full post including all of the hoo-ha.  You see, on Saturday several ladies from the Modern Quilters of Ireland came together in Galway for a day of stitching.  I will tell you all about it in time.

Those of us gathering for the mini-retreat decided to come together and create a quilt top for Bee Blessed.  We decided on a scrappy sampler blocks in blues and greens with white background.  I am just delighted with what the ladies created.  Want to see?

Such a super array of blues and greens, but they work so very well together.  I think so at least.  Great variety in block choice too!

I'm going to put the top together with white sashing, blue and green corner stones and then I'll put on borders.  I already know one border I want to use that's new in the shop.  Can't wait to get cutting!

As you will quickly figure out, there are 13 blocks in total.  That makes for a funny shaped quilt.  I would love to have a 4 block x 4 block layout.  Would anyone else in the MQGI want to send on a blue and green block to be included?

Galway breeze go the best of my churn dash there in the upper left.
You can imagine what that corner looks like...very similar to the other three.  

I'm looking for 3 more blocks that are 12.5 x 12.5 unfinished (12 inches finished).  If you are interested in sending one (or two...or three) to me, please leave a comment below and I will send to you my postal address.

UPDATED: I have volunteers for the three additional blocks we need.  Thanks so much, ladies!

Modern Quilters of Ireland, this is going to be absolutely beautiful.  Thank you so very much for your effort.  What a stunner we will make together!

Twinkle Twinkle Top In Progress

I am a bit embarrassed to tell you how long this quilt top has been in the making.  The idea to use this block as my bee block started rumbling around in August or September of 2012.  I think that makes it my longest standing WIP/UFO.  My bee buddies were super at sending the blocks in, so it must have been me holding up the show.

You see, the trouble was that these blocks came to me in a huge range of sizes.  Although it was to be a 12 1/2 inch block, I had some as small is 11 1/4 inches!  I pulled apart six of them to re-stitch and enlarge them, but it just drove me mental.  I put them whole pile of them away and they collected dust. 

However, when the FAL for 2014 kicked off, it was a great excuse to force myself to dive in again.  I am not going to finish this quilt off by the end of the month, but I am quite pleased to have even started it again!  You will surely see it again on my second quarter FAL list.  

I have been messing with the layout, finding one that would be accommodating of several different sized blocks.  I had 12-13 blocks that were 12 1/2 inches square, so I set them on point as the center of the top, as you see above.  I have another 8 blocks that will be positioned around the top as a border, four at the mid point of each side and at the four corners.  That's the plan anyway! 

Only the 8 blocks in the border to go, then.  I am really looking forward to layering this quilt.  It is going to be the first full quilt that I had quilt and I can not wait to get started!  I'll need your advice when I hit that point, so start having a think of a quilting pattern and perle colors.  Decisions decisions!

If you are into making a block like this yourself, I wrote a tute for it back in Oct 2012 for Rhonda's Finish Along.

I. Am. In. Love.

Can you say that about your own quilt?  I am not sure it is socially acceptable.  I should say I am "quite pleased" or something, but this quilt top makes my heart sing.

It was a bit of heart ache this weekend, but working through my "issues" was really quite satisfying.  

When you saw this quilt top last, the center block was not the right size. It had to be trimmed down and the navy border added before adding on the square in a square border.  That was easy enough to do.  The square in a square strips fit PERFECTLY.  Glorious.

I then added on the green border of FMF Eyelets.  My other half suggested I go with a green for this border and I think he was right!  I was going to go yellow, but I think I will save that for the binding.  This border used every. last. piece. of Eyelet in my stash.  It's bitter sweet.

I went on to create my own paper piecing template (using this tute) and stitched a scrappy LV triangle border alternating with saturated "monochromatic" scraps.  I was pleased as punch....until I realized I mis-measured and my border was 1 1/2 inches too long for the green border!!!  Oh, the frustration.  On went another scrappy rectangular border and the triangles fit perfectly.  My size issues are sorted for now, but the next border is going to be pretty tricky size-wise.

Another three sides of triangles to go and then four corner stones to finish off this 'round of borders.  I can not wait to get stitching again!

Happy Saint Patrick's day everyone!  Enjoy it.  xx

Galway Stitching Meetup: March

Last night I met up with two lovely ladies to sit, drink tea/coffee and stitch together.  A few hours of that is truly good for my soul.  We talked about sewing techniques, religion, local patchwork guilds, all boys vs mixed schools and a weekend getaway to Belfast to take a few classes by Judith.  All good stuff filled with laughter.

Anneliese brought with her the famous Nerd Quilt.  It is absolutely beautiful in person.  There was a coordinating cushion, too, but I forgot to snap a photo of that goodie with all of the show and tell/chatter.

What?  No, Anneliese,  I didn't get you in that photo...just the quilt.  **ahem**.

And then Miss Annette.  She's working on a quilt that will be part of an exhibition in the Aran Islands this July.  The theme is water, so she's created a quilt filled with various sizes of DP blocks as sand...

(It's upside down here - we were carried away and not paying attention to what we were doing!)

And then she's going to quilt/embroider on it the "feathers" that water creates when receding back to the sea.  She spent the night practicing on her little hoop stitching over her tracing paper.

Do you see her amazing notebook?  First off, it's MASSIVE.  She has in it her inspirational photos, sketches, fabric swatches, quilt math and little trial samples (left page here).  I've never seen anything like it.  Gorgeous.

I'm getting quite boring and repetitive now.  I spent the evening stitching on one side of my binding.  I am about half way through attaching it to the back, so with any luck I'll finish it off this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Modern Irish Medallion QAL Plans

Since the announcement of the Modern Irish Medallion QAL, I have been busily daydreaming of what fabric colorway I want to use and what my center block of the medallion will look like.  What a wonderful way to occupy my brain on the commute to and from work.

I know you are going to be shocked when I say that I want to use a star as my central block.  I searched high and low for a paper piecing template that I could download as I would like for this to be more complex than my usual 8 point stars.  There are apparently lots of really amazing paper pieced star pattern books, but I am not lucky to have one of those on hand.  Instead, I found myself browsing time and time again Wombat Quilt's free paper piecing downloads.

There, Cath had an example Kaleidoscope star block.  I was hooked.

From http://wombatquilts.com/free-paper-piecing-patterns/

I would like my central block to be more scrappy and random, though, as I want the majority of this quilt to be from my scrap bin and stash.  I pulled out my crayons and came up with a potential star design with a little help from my fuzzy buddy, Clarkson.  Does your cat immediately sit on any new-to-him piece of paper? Mine does.  Always.

I finally coaxed him off and finished my all so important coloring....

It seems a bit more "me".  This paper pieced star will finish at 12 inches square.  According to our QAL guidelines, I need to add a border to this block making it 15 inches OR turn it on point and add setting triangles.  I think I'll choose a path once I have the block in front of me.  These things tend to work themselves out.

But what fabrics will I use!?!?  How about these?

I just hope I have enough of the red pin fabric.  Fingers crossed!  You'll see a little white print with black dots on the bottom of the fabric pull.  Yes, I'm going to try once again to use an LV background.  Who knows if I can get the hang of it this time.  I will give it a try and you guys can tell me where/when I go wrong.

This week I will be piecing the central star.  Until then, I am linking up with the MQG Ireland.  If you want to see what others are planning for their medallion quilts, pop on over with me!  

Modern Irish Medallion Quilt Along

Note: This is a re-post of today's announcement over at the Modern Quilters of Ireland blog, but I thought I would toss it out there for anyone else who would like to stitch along.

You asked for it, you have it: announcing the Modern Quilters of Ireland quilt along!  2013 seemed to be the year of the medallion quilt, which really got my creative juices flowing.  Although there were several gorgeous patterns circulating, like the Marcelle Medallion or Made to Measure, they were not well suited to my quilting interests.  I really do not like using templates and flying geese make my heart clench.  I had to find another way to create one myself.

I started to do a bit of online research to find example medallion quilts that I loved, looking both at the design of the borders as well as the fabrics used.  I created a little inspirational mosaic...that I ogled time and time again when daydreaming of my own medallion quilt.  

1. Red Pepper Quilts, 2. Not available, 3. Red Pepper Quilts, 4. Not available, 5. Not available, 6. Not available, 7. Medallion Quilt detail, 8. Baisakhi Medallion Quilt, 9. 1930s Medallion Quilt

I've been looking long enough.  It's time to stitch!  What if we, as a guild, could create medallion quilts together.  Are you interested in stitching along with me?  I found a wonderful series of tutorials by Catbird Quilts that we can use together.  These tutorials are set up so that we can each create our own individual medallion quilt (depending on our skill level) using Catbird Quilts tutorials on the design-as-you-go process.  Melanie (the brains behind Catbird Quilts) gives two paths to follow in each tutorial.  One path (for beginners) will give block/border measurements for the center square and then for each border.  Alternatively, you can take path two (more advanced) and design your own quilt using Melanie's suggestions on size ratios, etc.  Melanie explains it much better here, so please do click over and read her first post. 

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Here's how this will go:  

First, read this post to get the basic idea of this QAL.  I know this is something that each and every (interested) member of our guild can do to their own skill level AND we can have a great time stitching together, drawing inspiration from one another and learning as a collective group.

Second, search through your fabric stash (or go shopping...what ever makes you happy) and find a palate for this quilt that makes your heart flutter.  Scrappy is most likely best as we don't exactly know how much fabric we will each need.

Third, if you have not already done so, join our Flickr group so that we can all keep updated on each other's makes.

Finally, come back here in two week's time for a linky party.  By 5 February you should have A) a gorgeous fabric pull to share with everyone and B) an inspirational mosaic for your first central block of your quilt.  If you've started stitching, that's even better.  Show us what you've made in your own blog post and leave us a link to check it out!

We will then take each additional border as it comes with shorter intervals between linkies for the first, smaller borders and then giving ourselves more time for the larger outer borders.

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If you're into books, I picked up a few inspirational books including border patterns that could be adjusted depending on the project.  Liberated Medallion Quilts  by Gwen Marston is quite inspirational with a WIDE variety of eye candy quilts to keep me interested each step along the way. 

And then Gwen's co-authored book with Freddy Moran, Collaborative Quilting, hit the mark with lots and lots of border ideas that can be scaled depending on the project.  Super!  You can read my Collaborative Quilting book review here if you'd like.

Now let's get stitching!

Galway Modern Stitchers Meetup

 Last night I had the great pleasure to meet up with two other Galway quilters for a little stitching on the way home from work/before dinner.  I had such a wonderful time chatting with the ladies and checking out what they're making (and how they're doing it) all while drinking a hot chocolate.

Annette was finishing off three wall hangings for her nephews.  There was one dog, one cat and one horse, each personalized with a little fella's name.  These are my most favorite things I have ever seen made with PB&J fabrics.  I thought they looked super.  Annette is nearly there - just tying off a few threads and getting that binding down.  Stitch on, Annette!

Anneliese joined Annette and I to finish off her matchstick quilting wall hanging.  I won't show you the front as I don't want to spill the beans before it's on her blog.  I will say it's gorgeous, though!  I'd love for her to make 5+ more and turn them into table mats.  They'd be gorgeous!  

Check out Anneliese's travelling goodies - a little metal pin box, a sewing roll (cute fabric!) and a kindle to keep her little ones occupied.

I brought along my little cross stitch.  You can see some progress from my last post, but I will say it was slow going.  I could not see well in the dim light, so I unpicked as much as I stitched.  I was also more interested in what Anneliese and Annette were making so I wasn't paying attention to my own project.

Anneliese's two daughters spent a little time drawing and writing notes.  Here's mine, clearly addressed to myself with a cover photo of my bone...

Inside was a fuzzy kitten (with a bow!) and an interpretation of my entire cross stitch panel.  I did receive a second love note from Anneliese's younger daughter, but I think Anneliese is very careful to not mention their names and her name was so very carefully written in the center (surrounded by hearts).  I will keep that one to myself.

We even did a quick cross stitch lesson, so I can't wait to see what they created by our next meeting!  Ladies, it was wonderful to stitch with you.  I can not wait until we meet up again!  Thanks for such a great night out.

Testing Bee Blocks

I am totally jumping the gun here, but I couldn't control myself.  The Modern Irish Bee starts a second year all bright, shiny and fresh in January.  As soon as I picked February to be queen bee, my brain has been racing with all of the opportunities to try something new.

When trying to choose my block, I have been considering the bee setup.  We have a wide variety of skill levels, so something pretty straight forward would be best.  This is also a scrappy bee, so a block that lets me draw on the stashes of others seems greedy appropriate.

I stumbled upon the spool quilt along hosted by Laura of Adventures of a Quilting Diva.  Each month she posts a new spool tutorial, so there should be about seven available by the time my February month comes along.  That would let folks in my bee choose what they're most comfortable with AND gives me a wide variety of blocks in my quilt.  Love that.

To give it a test run, I pulled (widely) monochromatic, stripey FQs thinking most folks would have something like this in their stash.  I set out making four blocks from the spool quilt along: (left to right) block 4, block 1, block 3 and block 2.

I really dig the first and last block, but the second from the left is a bit bland.  Anyway, I think what I've learned is A) there's a wide enough variety in skills that folks could be entertained without being overwhelmed and B) that I like a darker spool color over the Ash in the second purple thread block.  I'm going to make another set of four this weekend and see where this goes as it gets larger.  I may really dig it as it gets more scrappy, but right now it's looking a little uncoordinated and boring simplistic.

This is also my first time using LV fabrics as a background.  I have to say (in 100% total honesty) I'm not sure I like them.  Folks who are gaga about LVs, can you tell me why this isn't wowing me?  Is there a secret I don't know like you shouldn't use LV in a large space or it should coordinate better with what's going on in your block?  Any insight, ladies?