Showing posts with label guild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guild. Show all posts

Friday, 9 May 2014

Join In Our Community

Hello Modern Irish Quilters!  Want to share?

Disclaimer:  Some Rolo's were consumed in the writing of this blog post!
I know it's meant to be your last Rolo but I needed the wrapping intact for the photo, but you get the idea!   Some of the goals of the MQG are Community, Connection, Friendships and we have lots of online forums for sharing.  There's our Facebook page, Flickr group, some of us are addicted to Instagram, while others prefer to Tweet!  Thinking about how we could increase our opportunities to connect with each other how about doing some of these?
  • Interested in a Monthly Show and Tell?  Wouldn't it be a great way to share what we are all working on?  We could add photos of Works In Progress, Blocks, Finished items, Fabric pulls etc to our Flickr group. 

1. medallion square, 2. pinwheel-quilt, 3. Birthday present, 4. triple zipper pouch swap, 5. Enchant by Riley Blake, 6. block 4, 7. spider-web-02, 8. Rainbow Wonky Squares Quilt, 9. Scrappy Ironing board cover 1, 10. Scrappy Ironing Board cover 3, 11. Bunny Pouch Tutorial, 12. bee blocks for Anna, 13. for-Anna-April, 14. listentothebirdssing cloud tablemat back, 15. listentothebirdssing cloud tablemat detail, 16. Schooldays Notebook Tote Bag

Join our group here and when uploading a photo click to add to group. Our Flickr group photos and blog posts go to Facebook automatically!  If you prefer to use Instagram, upload and add the hashtag #modernirishquilters.  I'd love to do a monthly Show & Tell Mosaic on the blog!  The above are some of the lovely projects on our group page from the last few months. You do need to have a Yahoo account now to log into Flickr.  It only takes a few minutes to set one up but if you prefer Facebook that would work too!
  • Anyone find a great bargain or make a really cool fabric purchase? Spread the joy! We'd love to hear about it.  Find a great tutorial for something we could all benefit from?  Again Instagram or Facebook would be perfect for this! Tag with #modernirishquilters or post to the Facebook page.

  • Wouldn't it be great if we could create a directory and promote our talents?  Cindy has offered to create a resources page for the blog.  Any members who run a shop, teach quilting classes or even take commissions for made items please get in touch.  Give us a link to your shop, Facebook page, blog or space on Etsy.  We'd all love to spread the word and maybe do a bit of shopping ourselves!  We'd love to do a blog post and feature a member if anyone is interested in shoing us their shop or sewing space.
  • Those of us who blog for no other reason than to blog don't feel left out.  Leave a comment or send an email and we'll update the members blogs info so we can all have a blog hop and see what's happening in our community.
  • Now I know it would be impractical to swap books but if you guys are anything like me you probably have a bulging bookshelf with books and magazines spilling off the coffee table, well thumbed through and lovingly kept for just in case!  We'd love a book review, even if it is only a few sentences.   Tell us what book we should buy next!  It could be as simple as a Facebook update, take a photo of the book or item made or inspired from the book and upload to Flickr and we could feature it for a blog post!
  • Finally if there are any upcoming exhibitions in your area that you think would be worth a visit please let us know.   There are some national exhibitions coming up in July and August that we will post a reminder for but for this moment keep an eye out on Sew Mama Sew on the 12th May for her big giveaway day.  Lots of blogs will be offering freebies that you may be in for a chance of winning, usually by leaving a comment.  Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side starts on the 16th with lots of categories of quilts to browse and voting opens on the 23rd for your favourites.

Anything else you guys would like to see?  Please let us know and we'll do our best to include in upcoming posts.  Liz and Fiona have already given us a wonderful post each and we look forward to sharing more  in the coming months in addition to our regular posts from Cindy on Bee Blessed and Modern Irish Bee!

- Ruth

Friday, 21 March 2014

Volunteers Needed!

Although Sarah and I have been trying our best to maintain our happy guild of Irish quilters, we have reached the point that we could use help from our members.  We are asking each of you to become more involved by volunteering to participate in maintaining our online presence.
The blog is currently used regularly to give our bee members the details on that month's blocks, the next step of our QAL or to give updates on what's happening in Bee Blessed, but there's so much more to write about!  We  need three volunteers to work together for the next year to keep the content fresh and new.  Update us on what exhibits are coming to Ireland (or what you've seen lately), request guest posts from our own group of quilters, get a few tutorials posted, etc.  Between the three of you posting, say, once a month and the three posts a month created by Cindy, we could have a very vibrant forum.
We have a lovely little facebook page that could use a little more attention, love, creativity, energy.  We are asking for one volunteer to maintain the page, add fun new content and just spice it up a bit.  We do ask that you take the position for 1 year, then we will find another volunteer to take your place.

To volunteer, please leave your name below in a comment.  Specifically tell us if you want to contribute to the blog or the facebook page.  Either Sarah or Cindy will be in touch with you to organize from there.

Monday, 21 January 2013

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)

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Member Profile: Meet Geraldine


Before we wrap up our member introductions, I'd like to present to you Geraldine of Sophie Belle Designs.  Geraldine, tell us more about yourself...


Stars and Stripes: One of Geraldine's favorites.  She says "...probably a bit too ambitious for someone quilting since January '12, but I have enormous patients when I'm quilting, seems to leave me as soon as I leave my sewing room!" 
The basics
Name: Geraldine Conway          
Hometown: Carrantample, Co. Sligo
Current Home: Lucan, Co. Dublin. Live in a great spot which is far too close to the shops!
Flickr name: SophieBelleDesigns
Family: A husband and two children, a boy of 12 and a girl (Sophie) 7
Pets: A cat called Lennie

Love Birds: One of Geraldine's favorites.


The details
What is your day job? Stay at home Mum who gets to sew while the kids are in school. I also spend a lot of time working with my little girl Sophie who has special needs.

What is your current dream job? Pretty happy with my current set up!

What did you want to be as a child? Can’t remember...

What is your favourite time waster? Internet or 4od.

What are you working on now? A baby boy quilt, a gaming pad sleeve and a draught excluder & customised apron

What do you want to be working on right now? I’m designing some cushions with sketches on them, so just working through the overall look I’m aiming for and practising sketching with my sewing machine.

Do you have other hobbies beyond quilting? I paint and draw too & enjoy photography

Do you play sports?  Which ones? None

What is your strongest positive personality trait? Optimism

What is your greatest fear (nothing morbid or spooky…in a lighter sense)? My sewing machine dying

Is there anything in your past that would shock us (that you’re willing to share)? Ha, next..

What started you quilting? My Mum always sewed and quilted so I just followed her lead.


Geraldine's creative space!


A Quick-fire Round….What is your Favourite
place to holiday: Florence or New York
movie: The Station Agent or The Guard
food: Boxty
book: It would be like asking whose my favourite child! Impossible task.
band/song: Again too many to narrow it down.
colour: Blue
saying: ‘it could be worse’
fabric line or designer: Don’t have one, I just like what I see.
sewing tool: Probably my quilting gloves, couldn’t quilt without them.

completed sewing project: My boys stars and stripes quilt
quick finish sewing project: Cushions or iPhone covers





The quilts
I made this quilt for my boy Jack a few years ago. I started out determined to make a cushion for his bed and it ended up as a quilt. I went about it completely the wrong way and made many mistakes but I still love it!






Well this quilt just ended up all wrong. The ‘white’ background of the polka dot was off white and it jarred against the white bands. That bugged me hugely and when I washed it the red colour ran and it all ended up a hot mess. Two lessons were learned though. The first: double check your fabric colours in the store, especially the whites. Second: wash all your colours to make them run proof beforehand. I washed all my red fabrics together after that and it took 16 colour catchers and 6 washes to make them run proof!!!!!








Saturday, 4 February 2012

Launching the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland!

Are you an Irish modern quilter?  Want to join into a supportive community of like-minded people to exchange techniques and inspiration?  Join the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland


We just love modern quilting.  We love the use of color, the bold fabric patterns, the clean lines. There is something very special about the basic, simple nature of modern quilts that makes it attractive to both beginners and experienced quilters.  To learn more about modern quilting, head over here.

What will we do?  As a guild, we have a great opportunity to thrive as a quilting community.  For example, we could host block/fabric swaps or bees, create charity quilts or have fabric shopping field trips. 

This summer/fall we will hold our first meeting.  There we can decide if we want a quarterly, semi-annual or annual retreat.  We will decide how often we want to meet and what we want to do at these meetings (discussed in more detail below).  We would also like to start small local evening/weekend sewing groups all over Ireland so that talented folks who live near one another can get together with other members of MQGI.

At the first meeting this summer/fall, we will be looking for volunteers who would like to contribute to the board of the MQGI.  It’s going to take a small bit of time from 4-5 individuals to really get things going.  We will need a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, a treasurer, a secretary and a public outreach officer.  If you are interested in any of these positions, email mqgirelan(at)gmail.com.

We are totally open to suggestions, but at our regular whole-guild meetings, we can choose to include any/all of the following activities:
Deal with guild business
Show and tell of member’s projects
Fabric swaps
Host speakers (trunk shows and/or instructional)
Workshops
etc

If they are weekend long meetings we could have free sewing sessions, UFO finish offs or hold workshops in appliqué, fabric dying, improve piecing, quilt labelling, quilting math…what ever we want!

It is anticipated that several guild members will have fabric shops.  At each meeting, we would like to invite those shops to host pop-up shops for all members to have an opportunity to browse and shop to their heart’s content.

It is the goal of the guild to keep fees as low as possible.  Once we decide how frequently we want to meet, where we are meeting and for how long (an afternoon vs a weekend), we can determine an average cost of membership.  


As you know, there are already two wonderful societies within Ireland to support Irish quilters: the Irish Patchwork Society and the Quilter's Guild of Ireland.  MQG is not exclusive to members of these organizations, but instead encourages you to become members of any or all groups!  Sarah is a member of the QGI and Cindy is a member of IPS.  The focus of MQG, however, is specifically modern quilters which makes it unique.

To join in the MQGI please complete the form below.  Please also become a follower of the blog and join the flickr page as these will be the primary methods of communication moving forward.  If we get 10-15 interested people, we will start organizing an introductory meeting.  Hope to see you all there! 


Best wishes,


Sarah (Fairy Face Designs) and Cindy (Fluffy Sheep Quilting)
Founding members and interim organizers