The NIPG, as we are affectionately known, welcomes anyone interested in any aspect of patchwork and/or quilting, in whatever form. Beginner, advanced or in between.
The Guild usually meets on the first Saturday of the month in the Parochial Hall of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Co Down, Northern Ireland. Contact us for more information.
Meetings open around 10.30 am with tea/coffee for which we charge a small visitor's fee. This is quite informal.
The meeting proper begins with 'housekeeping' - various announcements relevant to our members. Often we will have engaged a speaker of note, which is sometimes followed by a workshop/ sew-in. Full day workshops are held on Sundays.
We have had speakers and teachers from USA, Germany, Holland, England, not forgetting the excellent people who are locally based.
Contact us or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nipatchworkguild for further information.
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.
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
At our February meeting (Sat 3rd Feb), Judith Hollies will have a one day pop-up shop where you will have a little time to browse and shop.
Then six of our members will be stationed at six tables, and each will deliver a fifteen-minute demonstration. Members will be divided into groups of ten or twelve, with each group spending the allotted time at each table, until everyone has had the opportunity to visit all six tables.
Enjoy each visit.
Hopefully you will leave with new tips and ideas.
Workshops
WE have at least two spaces at Gillian Barr’s workshop on Sunday 4th February 10 o’clock in the Lagan room.
Please get in touch with either Adrienne or myself [ phone numbers on your membership card ]as soon as possible these will be allocated first come first in.
We also have some places on Janet McCallum’s workshop, where you will be able to use a lot of your scraps to make a baby quilt/summer table cloth for outdoors bed quilt/a small piece for an exhibition. Lots of possibilities.
Titanic exhibition in April
DIVE INTO YOUR STASH of quilts for our Titanic exhibition. You will not need a hanging sleeve or pole for these. Just have them ready for the April meeting
Mary will have forms for you to fill in, which will be pinned to back of your piece when you hand it in Cant wait to see all your exciting ideas
[Banner is ‘Overcrowded World by Irene MacWilliam]
New Year 2018 was heralded by cold, wet weather, which unfortunately was reflected in the heat (or lack of) in our Hall. The heating is out of our control, but the talk by Pat Archibald was hot and steamy bringing us in a journey around Ghana and illustrating how items which we casually discard can be made into objects of beauty.
Pat Archibald, a quilter of international repute, was co-owner of Scotland’s first dedicated patchwork and quilting shop, which she subsequently sold, has taught specialist textile classes to students from far and wide. She has had her wonderful work widely exhibited in the UK, Europe and in the USA, in addition to which she has travelled far and wide, garnering ideas and discovering craft makers. Recently she led a textile holiday to Vietnam. Her history into quilting is documented on her website.
We were fascinated with Pat’s travels in Ghana, she brought to life the craftspeople in different parts of the country, with a variety of skills. Weavers, dyers-of-fabric, people who stamped blocks on fabric to make intricate patterns, glass bead makers, brass beads makers, and potters amongst others.
The photos which she generously shared showed a great many very happy smiling people, justifiable proud of their inspiring work in creating high quality items from virtually nothing.
Pat fullfilled her promise to transport us to “far flung places”.
She demonstrated how artists and craftworkers in underprivileged parts of the world combine their resourcefulness with what is available to them locally to produce fabulous textiles and artworks.
Members crafted tree decorations from felt, beads and fabric to create a stunning display. Santa Brian patiently wrapped them all and then redistributed them to the NIPG members.
Mince pies were consumed and everyone was encouraged to sing a particular version of Jingle Bells. The one depicted here is similar to that which we sang, but if anyone would like to send in the actual words we could put them up here.
A delightful display of glass ornaments was the first thing you saw when entering the hall.
This was accompanied by an intriguing talk from Anne Marie Nelson and her partner about glass making. A great variety of questions were put to them. All in all, very interesting indeed.
A word from Paula, our Chair about our next meeting on October 7th
Hi to all,
October meeting is fast approaching and I hope you all are looking forward to it. I will be on holidays and will not be with you, but I have left you in the capable hand of Adrienne ,who will collect any of the syringe bags you have made for Judith Hollies charity
This should be a very interesting talk and half day workshop, not forgetting the half day workshop on the Sunday
Some of the workshops filled up very quickly so we will start a waiting list on a first come basis in case of cancellations
Please check out November workshops as I believe there are some spaces .
I’m hoping you are all working on your Christmas tree ornaments as we will have a great display.
I will see you all again in November so enjoy next weekend Paula
New section on workshop requirements has been added, especially for those who are fortunate to get on one of the workshops.
We’ve had a somewhat wet summer here in Northern Ireland, fortunately we can always find plenty to do as we are gallop towards our first 2017 – 18 Guild meeting on Saturday 2nd September.
August is Craft Month and we have been enjoying many exhibitions, workshops and talks all over Northern Ireland – too many wonderful projects to mention and there’s still a wee bit of time in the month to catch something else.
Days of blue skies and fluffy clouds and sunshine. as evidenced thanks to an Instagram photo from @alkisti_hou, have been punctuated with rain, as of just now, at the time of writing, the rain is pouring down, or ‘bucketing’ as we call it.
Luckily there is no shortage of things to do, including the odd excursion to one of the many establishments serving refreshments. Such as “The Dark Horse” near the Cathedral Quarter and the tenth establishment to receive one of the special Game of Throne’s doors.
Tourism Ireland Unveils the Last Door. The Dark Horse, Belfast
Not that everyone in Northern Ireland is “Game of Thrones” mad, though it may appear that way and if you follow on, you will see why it is being mentioned in connection with the first Guild meeting of our season.
It is impossible to live in Northern Ireland and not be aware of GoT and it is so exciting to see the many visitors coming to here to visit GoT film locations and we hope enjoy our hospitality.
The Dark Hedges, Ballymoney. 18th Century Avenue of Beech Trees. Aka Kingsway in Game of Thrones.
What are the Game of Throne doors?
One of the most iconic scenes and most visited site is the Dark Hedges, aka Kingsway to GoT fans. Locals have always known and loved this avenue. The beech trees are 300 years old, so no surprise to hear that some were felled during fierce storms. A sad demise for such proud trees, and a dilemma of what to do with them. Someone came up with the idea of using the fallen trees to carve out scenes from each of the GoT series. Ten in total.
The intricately carved door depicting scenes from the final dramatic moments of Series 6. Location : The Dark Horse.
These, such as the one above, have been placed in different locations throughout Northern Ireland. In April 2017 Tourism NI launched a “Journey of Doors passport” – visit the 10 Game of Thrones Doors across Northern Ireland and collect a unique stamp at each of the locations.
Why all this talk of GoT? During the summer some of our members have been engaged, under Valerie Wilson’s direction, in embroidering the Game of Thrones tapestry now hanging in the Ulster Museum.
Jayne McClenaghan is the link between GoT and our forthcoming programme, about which, we are very excited; a varied and interesting series of talks and workshops.
Indeed our 2017 – 18 season kicks off on Saturday 2nd September, with the aforementioned, Jayne who with others, has spent some of her summer embroidering the GoT tapestries. [Seamless, if long winded link?]
Jayne’s talk is entitled ‘Improving lives through craft’, intriguing? Find out more about her at her blog One Day At a Time. This gives you a glimpse into her life: in addition to working part time as a nurse, embroidering GoT, and teaching patchwork and quilting, she volunteers at the National Trust property Mount Stewart . Where she finds the time for all her activities is a puzzle. Jayne certainly proves the truth of the old adage: “if you want something done give it to a busy person”.
The committee has been working hard to make the programme current, varied and related to NIPG interests and activities. There will be a mixture of talks, short afternoon workshops, and all day workshops. Also a few Friday workshops which proved so popular last year.
We apologise for the delay in posting our forthcoming programme. In addition to confirming speakers, venues have to be confirmed. Though we are indeed fortunate to have our base in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, at times they need the space we use for events they are organising. We will be posting our programme very soon so keep your eyes peeled and enjoy the last few weeks of summer.
On 26th June, I received an email from the Guild asking for volunteers to hand embroider a “very important piece – fabulous fabric – specially made” at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, that had to be finished by 10 July 2017, with the unveiling of the project on 17 July.
I liked the sound of it! So I signed up for it. What a surprise – it was a huge tapestry specially woven for the latest series of The Game of Thrones!
And it was gorgeous! And very, very bloodthirsty!
We were all sworn to secrecy. And we kept our word. Not a single leak! My husband became more and more curious as the days went on. I didn’t tell him what I had been doing, until the Mail and the Sun broke the news on-line the night before the media launch.
It was fascinating work.
The tapestry had been specially woven and our job was to highlight various parts of it, generally hair and clothing, with the blood, crowns, sword hilts etc being highlighted in metallic thread (a nightmare to sew!) to make them stand out even more from the background.
I was very proud of my “hair embroidery”, and even more proud of embellishing the zombies’ clothing to make it look even more decayed. Not often one is asked to do that!
There were four of us from the Guild and others from the other Craft Guilds, around 30 volunteers in all. We worked well together, with quiet conversations going on all round. The constant supply of Tunnocks Tea Cakes greatly helped!
The tapestry came to us in 6 panels, as they came off the looms. Each panel represented one series, with an illustration of each episode woven into it. The last panel was very late indeed, arriving on 13th July. With the media-launch scheduled for 17th, we were working as fast as we could. It also meant that I didn’t get to embellish the ‘decaying flesh’ I had been asked to do, and for which there was a specific colour of thread!
Each panel – about 35 feet long – was laid out on a long run of work tables, and a number of us worked on each panel simultaneously. As well as the embroidery and embellishing, we needed to sew Velcro to the back of the tapestry so that it could be hung. Once I got into a rhythm with this, I reckoned to herringbone Velcro at a rate of 5 feet per hour. Others were faster!
The gallery we were working in was closed to the public “for routine maintenance”. I did rather wonder what visitors to the Museum made of the groups of ladies coming and going to carry out the “Maintenance”!
We were given a preview of the tapestry in the Ulster Museum immediately after the media launch. My word, it was impressive! And the really interesting thing is – it is a work in progress. Each episode of the current series will be woven and sent to the Museum for embellishing and hanging along with the rest of the tapestry. Our incoming Treasurer, Jayne McClenaghan was lucky enough to work on the first episode.
I have really enjoyed the experience. It was exciting, interesting and varied work. I met new people, which is always good, and in short, I had a ball! I’m looking forward to working on it some more. My friends and my younger relatives are so impressed!
Yes, we are getting very excited about the Hands Across the Border exhibition coming to the beautiful setting of the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn.
It had a successful showing in Dublin, where it was exhibited in the Custom House Quay, IFSC, Dublin Northside, hosted by the Eastern Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society.
Eastern Branch have kindly posted 58 photos of the Opening Night, at which Leo Enright, the well-known RTÉ broadcaster, news reporter, and scientist, officiated. The photos may be found on their Facebook Page and give a glimpse of what you can expect to find in the exhibition.
Now all 63 quilts will be at the Island Arts Centre, where you will be able to view them from the 1st June until 1st July.
Opening times of the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn are:
Monday – Friday: 9.30 am – 10 pm
Saturday: 9.30 am – 5 pm
Sunday: closed
Jayne has posted a great summary of what’s been happening with NIPG, so here’s a link to her blog. You might want to see what she’s up to in Mount Stewart. Would love to know how she finds the time to do all that she does?
The Guild had a demonstration and display at the Create a thon in the Ulster Museum in April. Yet again we discovered how many ladies can’t/ won’t sew, majority being under 40 years old.The display demonstrated the variations in patchwork as well as the process. Examples from the past up to modern day. There were many…
All Quilters welcome. Our membership encompasses the lone quilter to local groups, with our Mariner’s Compass logo representing the span of our membership. Each and everyone has a place in the Quilter's Guild of Ireland. Join us..
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.
The heating is out of our control, but the talk by Pat Archibald was hot and steamy bringing us in a journey around Ghana and illustrating how items which we casually discard can be made into objects of beauty.
Members crafted tree decorations from felt, beads and fabric to create a stunning display. Santa Brian patiently wrapped them all and then redistributed them to the NIPG members.
A delightful display of glass ornaments was the first thing you saw when entering the hall.
We were all sworn to secrecy. And we kept our word. Not a single leak! My husband became more and more curious as the days went on. I didn’t tell him what I had been doing, until the Mail and the Sun broke the news on-line the night before the media launch.
