The visit of Kaffe Fassett & Brandon Mably was the highlight of our Ruby Celebrations. If you have any stories or photos, we would be glad to have them, although our Facebook has actively published them.

Kaffe’s lecture at the Ulster Museum was an huge success, and the Workshop at Windmill Fabrics was great fun, but our Ruby celebrations continue. While all our attention has been on the Kaffe Fassett visit, we do have really exciting workshops in April and May.

Words from our chair, Paula

Good Morning All

With all the excitement of Kaffe Fassett’s visit, we have Workshops in April and May workshops, which to date have been overlooked.

Workshop Requirements are available here

Few people have signed up so far, this is disappointing, after  all the effort which has been put in to arrange a varied programme.

At the April Meeting on 6th April, Mary McCormick will be on her desk early to give you all information. We do not want to have to cancel any of these

Hands Across The Border
Mary McCormick and I visited Flowerfields last week to organise the forthcoming Hands Across the Border exhibition. We are very impressed with all the suggestions for a Grand Opening on May 4th, at 3:00 pm, for our 40th anniversary year.

We are happy that Mary Peters will be our Guest of Honour at the Opening. Light refreshments will be served there. Local craft and sewing groups and other people of interest locally  are being invited. I hope we will have a good turnout .

Please bring your finished pieces to April meeting, where Janet and Clare will be on hand to take them from you. Clare has printed off a sheet for you to fill in  and put with your work. Please bring in a cloth bag or roll with your name on back of the quilt (pinned on is fine) and on your hanging pole. I don’t think I need to say that a hanging sleeve must be sewn on the quilt.

We are looking forward to a lot of great work.

At the usual Saturday Meeting, there will be the tea and coffee, as usual bring your own mug. Hope you enjoy the morning and the Afternoon workshop, which has a small requirements list. Don’t worry if you are missing something, everyone loves to share   Paula

Our Christmas Meetings are invariably a joy, with Christmas jumpers, earrings and other decorative jewellery on view.  This year was no different and enhanced with our invariably ice-cold hall being so warm that the doors had to be opened.

Jean and Ruth, our wonderful caterers, provided hot drinks and delicious cakes, for which we offer them our deepest thanks.

The ‘make and take’ bottle bag Christmas Challenge produced a  variety of shapes and colours of bottle bags.  Click here to view them for yourself.

Then came an exceptionally entertaining and witty floral art demonstration from Roberta Orr of Flora Desingz, click on her name to access her website. 

‘Don’t forget the Pound Shop’…. you had to be there to know what this means!

Good enough to eat!

Roberta had promised to make three Christmas flower arrangements, but she actually made five. These were given away as ballot prizes.

Anne Jame’s prize, including ballot tickets.

How unusual is this with a Xmas scene in the bowl, lit by lights?

Everyone left with huge smiles, especially those who had won the right to take home the finished items.

Roberta with the lucky winners. Photographer Brian, had to photoshop the sea holly out of Jean’s winning arrangement, so that it was possible to see her. 

Some comments on our 2018 Christmas celebrations included 

• Such a great atmosphere at yesterday’s meeting.  Thanks to all involved for making it a good one!
   
• All went well hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did thanks to all. 
   
• It was a lovely day thank you.
   
• This was my favourite.

Before you go – here’s a must-see exhibition from two of our talented members, both of international reputations. Loving Margaret McCrory’s self-portrait and Irene MacWilliam’s work is always inspiring and exciting.

Roll on to January 5th when we’ll take part in ‘Demonstrations by Members’. This is a popular event, where several members bravely take up a table each to make a 10 minute demonstration of a technique, tip, pattern or something interesting. We divide into however many groups that there are demonstrations. It’s a perfect way to start the New Year – Our Ruby Year. 

Until then have a happy and healthy Christmas with lots of best wishes for 2019.

This was the weekend which had to be cancelled.

Unfortunately, after much effort, Janet McCallum was  unable to make the journey across. Janet was determined to be here, and really did her very best, but between changing airports and examining all the options, she was  forced to submit to the inclement weather from Siberia which has disrupted British and Irish travel so badly.  [The Beast from the East].

Though many parts of the North have little or no snow, other parts are snowbound.  Therefore, the decision was made to cancel the entire weekend.

It was a weekend to stay indoors, keep warm and providing your electric hadn’t given up, you could sew, sew, sew.

Belated Happy St David’s Day to all our Welsh friends. Photo taken on the 1st March 2018.

Leaving you with this text message received yesterday from a quilter who lives just outside Dublin. In case anyone doesn’t know – all Dublin flights have been cancelled until tomorrow. She says:

Good morning, sitting here snug and warm indoors. More snow last night on top of a foot from Tuesday night. So, I’m forced to sew, sew, sew. We have a full tank of oil, plenty of fuel for the fire and lots of food. Plus candles should the power go and wool applique projects if candle light permits.

Ladies, we’ll be in touch about rescheduling Janet etc. Meanwhile take the Kildare Quilter’s advice – and snuggle down with your favourite project.

Happy Quilting.

This post applies only to Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild Members  

We have been invited to take part in this year’s Crafting Live exhibition in the Titanic Exhibition Hall.

Paula, our Chair invites you to submit a small piece which will be used to decorate the NIPG space and wonders if you have a stash of fabric? If so, please ‘Dive Into Your Stash’.

There may be quilters  unaware of  the occupational hazard, which afflicts many quilters – a compulsion to accumulate fabric, referred to as a ‘stash’.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of stash is:

1. A store or supply of something, typically one that is kept hidden or secret.

2. Store (something) safely and secretly in a specified place.

A quilter’s stash begins with the purchase of fabric for the first project and quickly grows.  There are many substantiated reports of a quilter’s stash multiplying overnight.

The acquisition of fabric is justified as being essentially a  quilter’s palette or a ‘creative resource centre’  A quilter’s stash is actually a place to go for inspiration and ideas when planning the quilting for a project.  A highly organised stash may look like this:

Whichever way you’ve organised it or indeed not organised it, Paula invites you to:

“DIVE INTO YOUR STASH.”

Completed pieces should be brought to the April Meeting on Saturday 7th April.

Please complete the following form.  (Unless advised otherwise, poles are not required.) Download the form from here craftinglive2018