Trip Along Donation Quilt Finish

Hi everyone! I am here to say a big thank you to all of you who helped on making this project work. It is a long time ago that I asked you to help me make a quilt. I asked you to make a "Trip along" block. This week was the big day to finally finish the beauty. Are you ready? Here she is ...

In total there were 12 blocks made and it was fun to put them together. Absolutely gorgeous and colorful. It was so exciting to look at all those different prints.

This week I took the quilt around Galway and lucky me I had beautiful sunshine. So my first stop was at the beach. I went to the life guard tower in Salthill. I really tried my best to make a lovely picture but the wind did not make it easy. Finally I went to the changing room to unfreeze my fingers but I had to put her up to the Galway hooker.

The finished beauty measures 39'' x 51''. She is quilted in diagonal lines on every second square with a yellow thread on the front and a white on the back.

For the binding I used a purple fabric with dots. This time I tried something new for me and sew the binding from the front. After a good press I stitches as close as possible to the binding to fix it to the back. This worked really nice and even the corners look really neat.

On the back I just used a simple stripy fabric from Ikea I had in my stash. It reflects the colors from the front.

Isn't she colorful? I love this pattern and all the colors used. She really brightens the day. So now she is waiting to be given away

A huge thank you to all the ladies who helped me to make this beauty. It was hard to let her go but I am sure she will find a lovely home where she gives a huge hug to someone.

Calling All Teachers!

Regularly we get emails from new Irish quilters asking for beginners classes.  Sadly we are not able to run these classes as a collective guild since we are scattered throughout the entire island of Ireland.  However, its an excellent opportunity to link up new MQI members with more experienced teachers in their local area.

If you are a teacher and you are not already listed on our Find A Teacher page, please email Cindy (fluffysheepquilting[at]gmail[dot]com) with a little description of yourself and what you offer as well as links to your blog or FB page.  We would be happy to add you to our growing list.  

Image from Just Jude's Ferry Floor class.

Many of you are also branching out and offering quilting services.  If you are one of these people, please also get in touch with me (above) and describe your small business.  I would be happy to create a new tab on the blog so folks can get in touch with you as they finish their projects.

Image from Husqvarna.

Thanks so much!

Cindy

Sign Ups: Modern Quilters of Ireland Bee 2014

Signups are now open for the scrappy Modern Quilters of Ireland 2014 Bee!  We had such a wonderful time last year I hope many of you re-join us for more fun.  Here's how this is going to work:

Each person will choose a month to be queen bee.  That queen bee will write a blog post for the first of the month describing the block they would like, showing photos of the test blocks they made, linking to tutorials and giving fabric preferences.  Each bee mama can request up to two blocks at 12.5x12.5 inches unfinished (or equivalent).  The hive members will then rummage through their stashes and make blocks according to the mama's wishes.  Hive members are to have their completed blocks in the post by the last day of the month.  Our bee will run from Jan 2014 through Dec 2014, including all summer months.

A sampling of bee blocks from our 2012-2013 bee.

For those not interested in committing to a full year of blocks, please join us on your own and treat this as a Block of the Month club.  Add your blocks to the flickr group too! We would love to see what you create.

To sign up, we will take the first 12 qualified people (see below) who leave a comment on this post expressing interest.  If you are a no-reply commenter, please be sure to leave your email address as well.  I (Cindy) will then get in touch with you to organize postal addresses, choosing months, etc.

To qualify, you need to be a member of the Modern Quilters of Ireland, living within the Republic of Ireland or in Northern Ireland.  Membership is free, but we will ask that you hop over here and complete the membership form so we can get in touch with you moving ahead.  You also need to follow this blog closely as you will need access to monthly posts giving you instructions to make your block.  Please also join the flickr group to chat, ask questions and post photos of your finished blocks.

Many thanks, ladies.  Please email me (Cindy) with any questions you might have: fluffysheepquilting(at)gmail(dot)com.  Happy stitching!

A Christmas Swap - SignUps Open!!

After the huge success of our scrappy pincushion swap, and with more than a few requests for another, I'm thrilled to announce that I am opening up signups for a new Christmas themed swap.

This swap will be for a modern Christmas table runner or table topper/centre. Table runner max size 15" x 36" and table topper max size 20" x 20". You'll also be making a small Christmas decoration for your partner, e.g. something suitable to hang on a Christmas tree.

Sign ups will be open until next Wednesday, 6th November, and partners will be assigned by Sunday 10th November. You'll then have 4 weeks to make your items for your swap partner, and posting dates will be 9th-11th December.

This swap is open to members of MQG Ireland residing in Ireland. If you are not currently a member, and want to join up (membership is free) please find the information and link to the registration form here. 

So I hope to see you over in the flickr group where you'll find the signup thread open and more detailed instructions there. Will you be joining?

Scrappy Trip-a-Long Blocks, Anyone?

Quite some time ago, the wonderful Annaliese (of Mail from the Cheeky Monkeys) so kindly volunteered to put together a donation quilt from scrappy trip-a-long blocks donated through the Irish Quilt Guild. She now has 8 lovely blocks from our members, but is looking for another 4 blocks to fill out the top to a slightly larger size.

If you have a few free minutes this weekend (and honestly it only takes a few minutes!) would you maybe think of making a block yourself?  You can follow this easy as pie tutorial and then get in touch with Annaliese through her blog for her posting details. 

Thanks so much to those who have contributed and most importantly to Annaliese for organizing us!  

Scrappy Pincushion Swap - a little update

It seems like there are lots of people interested in our Scrappy Pincushion swap, which is fantastic news. We have a great little group over on Flickr. But I know that a couple of people haven't had a minute to do the signups, and obviously we'd love to give as many people as possible a chance to join.

Happily, we're not under too much time pressure on this one, so I'm extending the signup deadline to Monday evening 26th August to give everyone a little more time :-) If you've been sitting on the fence, please do join us, it won't take too much time, and it will be FUN!

To join in, just add your name to the sign up list in the Flickr group, and fill out this form so we have your details to give your swap partner. If you're not a member of MQGI, please take 2 minutes to join us by filling out the registration form here.

<div align="center"><br /><a href="http://modernquiltguildireland.blogspot.ie/" title="The Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland"><img src="http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j433/FairyFaceDesigns/763dc9fb-e9da-4662-8e0d-98424cbe79d2.jpg" alt="The Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland" style="border:none;" /></a></div><br />

Oh - and I made a button, if anyone wants it for their blog :-)

Announcing the MQG Ireland Scrappy Pincushion Swap!

I'm totally thrilled to announce that the MQG Ireland Scrappy Pincushion Swap is now open for sign ups!

Not been in a swap before? Come find out what you've been missing! Details are in the Modern Irish Quilters Swap group.


The swap signups are open until Saturday 24th August, and partners will be assigned the following week. Posting dates are 23rd-25th September.

So plenty of time to make a little pincushion and have a bit of fun too!

The swap is open to MQG Ireland members resident in Ireland. If you are not a member, but are a modern quilter living in Ireland and want to take part, please join us - we have lots of plans for the coming year and this is only the first fun event! You'll find the registration form here.

So - are you in?

Trip Along Donation Quilt

Good morning Modern Irish Quilters!  We have a great opportunity as a guild to create a donation quilt so I hope each and every one of you will participate.  The lovely Anneliese of Mail from the Cheeky Monkey has offered to create a donation quilt from blocks made by MQGI members.  I will leave it to her to give the details (below), but please do take a break from your SMS Giveaway day blog surfing to make a block or two.  Don't forget to add photos to our flickr group as you go!  Thank you, Anneliese, for creating such a great opportunity for us all to get involved in the greater Irish community.

Hi again,

Some weeks ago I blogged about my table runner for a friend. She still loves it and I am so pleased with the comments to my WIP blog post. Thank you!

my sample block

Today I want to tell you something else. I am Bee Queen in the Modern Irish Bee in May. Oh it is so exciting to be Queen! Did you ever plan a (Bee) Quilt? I haven't. It was exciting! I need to find the pattern, calculate the fabrics, precut and sent them out. It is a struggling process when you have to stick to only one pattern. I found so many quilts I love and I would be so pleased to have them all. Sticking to one 'thing' is not one of my strongest sides but I did it! I cut the fabrics, made a sample block and sent the instructions out.
But there was an other idea in my mind! What about making a charity quilt? As it is my month I would ask the bee ladies to make an extra block and I finish it to a quilt to give away. After a little chat with Cindy and Sarah we thought we would love to make this a project of the MQGI. So here I am! I am asking all of you to join and be part of this quilt. I chose the 'trip along' block. It is simple, it is fast and most of all it is fun!

step by step

There are many ways to do this block but this is the tutorial I used. I found it super fast and super easy.

I so hope to get the eleven blocks for one quilt done. I also appreciate any help with scraps for the back or the binding. I hope to make at least one quilt.

Anneliese

To Boston With Love... Calling all members to participate

I'm sure that everyone was, like me, shocked and horrifed by events in Boston this past week. With all its Irish connections, those of us who have family members there and the fact that thousands of students like me passed through, visited and lived there during our summer holidays in our college days, Boston has a special place in many Irish hearts including my own.

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild is coordinating a fantastic project - a collaborative effort of makers to bring peace and love from far and wide. They are planning a public exhibition of flags strung into banners to be displayed in Boston - hopefully in early June 2013.

I've seen pictures of flags springing up on Instagram in the last couple of days as other Modern Quilt Guilds and quilters around the world have started to participate and would love if our Irish guild could participate too. I (Sarah) will coordinate the collection and postage of flags, if you will make them and send them to me.

The guidelines for making them are here - you can use the tutorials provided, or make your own design within the guidelines so I would love if you would get sewing and get your flag in the post to me to reach me by 13th May next, as they need to get to Boston before May 31st and I want to allow ample posting time. I will ask for a very small contribution (approx a euro/pound each depending on the total cost) towards postage also. If you are not a signed up member (why not? join us please!), you can still contribute a flag if you want, I will accept flags from any Irish based quilter/sewist who would like to participate.

So please comment below, or email me at mqgireland@gmail.com to participate and I will send you back my address and answer any questions you have.

Don't forget to add your flags to the Flickr pool and please please spread the word :-)

What's New, Ruth?

Hello everyone.  My name is Ruth and I write about my projects over at Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner.  I made my first quilt about this time last year and am now working on my fifth quilt.   I was thrilled to bits when a family member asked me to make her a quilt for a single bed and had great fun searching for fabric and deciding on a layout that I thought would be perfect for her.  She was happy to leave it all up to me so I picked  this fabric range Coquette by Chez Moi.  Not having much of a stash I went out and bought everything (any excuse to go fabric shopping!) I thought something colourful in spring colours with stars would be great.  The background material is Kona Snow.

I had a pattern from Miss Rosies Quilt Co. called Bounce that uses scrappy stars so I modified this from a twin to a single bed quilt and so far so good.  I've gone from tiny squares to pieced stars.  Last week I trimmed them off centre to make them "Bounce" as per the pattern and sewed all 28 of them into a 4 x 7 layout. 

Now I'm working on the borders.  I'd like this to end up somewhere around the 58 x 78" for a single bed so I'm adding a scrappy border per the pattern and a nice wide solid border on the outside.  The scrappy border is made from the leftovers from the 28 stars +4 more layer cakes cut into strips and BGF strips.

It’s a lot of cutting and piecing but oh so pretty!  You can see a small part of the stencil I'm hoping to use to quilt this when the top is finished.  I'll be practicing this pattern before I touch this baby with my Free motion hopping foot!

The border is coming together slowly but I'm really happy with the result.  It's very hard to be random.  I've heard of a tip of putting all the pieces into a bag and using whatever is pulled out.  I may have to try that!

Ruth, thank you so very much for giving us a peek in your sewing room!  

What's new, Sonya?

I have been patch working for over a year and a half now and am surprised at just how much scrap fabric has built up in my sewing room. Finally I decided that if I did not want to be classed as a hoarder I had better decide on a project. Not having masses of experience in using scraps I finally decided to make a 2.5 inch square boys pram blanket.

I am using mainly Robert Kaufmann fabrics, just mixing in a few others to help keep the bright & colourful theme.  Here is my progress so far, I have 6 of the nine blocks finished. I work on it on & off as I come across scraps that tie in, but I am loving how it is coming together. Once its finished I plan on making a girl version with all the girls scraps I have in my sewing room:)

Thank you, Sonya, for giving a peek into your sewing room.  Please do come back and show us the finished quilt.  Anyone else have a WIP post to share?  Email Cindy at fluffysheepquilting(at)gmail(dot)com.

What's new, Irina?

Hello, I'm Irina and I write about my ever-growing list of projects at El Petit Taller.  I've been asked to tell you about what I'm working on at the moment. One of my many WIPs is a quilt for my son Conor, who has just turned 10 moths, so it's about time he had his own quilt!

I took part in a rainbow charm swap and had been adding squares from scraps, so with a good collection of 5 inch squares I decided to make rainbow stars inspired in this tutorial.

About the design of the quilt... I'm making it up as I go along!  But the idea, so far, is to make a square quilt, with the stars slightly tilted on a white sashing. I'd like to make small wonky stars where the corners of the starry blocks meet. I'm not sure if I'll add a border... I will need to see how the central panel looks like first and if I want to add more starry blocks, so I might ask you for advise when the moment comes!

Oh, and just let me tell you that I consider myself pretty new in modern quilting and I really love being inspired by the work of all the rest of you in the MQGI, so thank you!

Secret Table Runner

Hi, I am Anneliese and I blog at mail from the cheeky monkeys.  I was asked to write something about a project I am working on. It is still a secret but I mailed it today so I think I can talk about it.

Some weeks ago I was so pleased when a friend asked me to make her a table runner. I love to make them. It just takes some days and it is done. The pattern was on me and we decided to use the charm pack from Kate Spain "Serenade" I had at home with a cream solid. Just a little color in the cold winter time until spring finally arrives. (It was only a week ago they had heavy snowfall so it will take some more weeks until the first flowers will make it through!)

I wanted to use HSTs again. After a lot of trimming the most fun is to sit on the floor and play "memory" swapping the HSTs to find the perfect place for each. I think this worked out nice even if I could still be sitting there swapping HSTs. 

I have never done so much quilting on a table runner. I just did straight lines on the cream solid. It was so a lot of work but it was also lots of fun.

This time I finished the table runner with a triangle shape at the ends going with the pattern. Somehow I feel sad letting it go. Especially as the last days were very rainy and grey here in the West. 

I almost used the whole charm pack. There were only some HST left so I made a little mug rug and added this to the parcel. An other surprise as she did not want to see the finished table runner. So you are the first to see it! 

So the table runner is on its way to Austria and I hope it arrives soon! I don't like the time waiting until I hear the parcel arrived safely. I hope nothing goes wrong. 

This was my finish for January! A little distraction from the other projects which are waiting to be completed. Thanks for letting me share it!

Anneliese

What's new, Judith?

Hi there!  I'm Judith from Just Jude.

I've been invited to tell you about a WIP I'm working on at the moment.

I'm currently working on my class projects for next term, which means making class samples and writing up the patterns in advance of the classes.

Next term I hope to teach a new quilt design called 'Baby Bear Paw':



The idea behind this design is to take a traditional block like Bear's Paw, and modernise it.  You can see here when you put 4 Bear Paw blocks together you get a giant star!  This baby quilt will be approx. 49" x 49". 

And because this block design is so versatile, you could easily upsize and create a Mama Bear Paw Quilt (approx. 73" x 73"):

I've quantified the fabric requirements and have decided to use a fq bundle of Savannah Bop which I won at FQ Retreat last June.

I'm very fortunate to be in the position of owning a Sizzix, and the 4.5" hst die has made light work of the cutting out.

Using the Sizzix means the hsts don't need to be trimmed or squared off when sewn together!  How cool is that!

So that's my WIP for today! I hope to have this quilt finished and photographed soon, for the new programme of classes being released next month!



Chilly Morning Inspiration

It's been a while so belated happy New Year to you all! Is it OK to say that? At least we are still in January!

So to kick-start the year I thought I would put together a little collage of recent work members of the Guild have done, as per Flickr.

So if in any case any of you needed motivation to start off with new new projects throw your eyes over these!

Don't forget to upload your work to the flickr group.  We'd also love to hear about what you are making this month, so contact Cindy (fluffysheepquilting(at)gmail(dot)com) if you are interested in writing a little WIP post for our guild blog.  

All the best 

Fi 
(patchworkdelights)