Welcome to the NIPG Website

Quick note to add to this post. Patrick’s Olympics didn’t end with a medal; only a few may win medals, but Patrick certainly won our hearts and we are tremendously proud of his achievements.

Summer’s nearly over and joyfully our 2016 -17 season will kick off on Saturday 3rd September.  Post will follow soon.

Time to update you on Joy McCormick’s Grandson, Patrick Huston, and his  Road to Rio. 

Patrick,  a former award winning quilter, (albeit achieved when he was ten),  definitely has our support.  Wishing you every success in Rio, but most of all enjoy this experience for which you have worked so hard.

Belfast to Sambódromo 5,879 miles 

Sambodromo is the traditional venue for carnival samba school parades, but is opening its doors to archery and the marathon during Rio 2016.

First up for TeamGB will be Patrick and fellow archer Naomi Folkard.  Their ranking rounds are scheduled for 5 August, the day of the opening ceremony.

Aim of the game

Archery has a simple but far from easy objective: to hit the bull’s eye on a target from a distance of 70m.

I don’t know if you get the Belfast Telegraph, but I’ve sent you a link to a long article on Patrick going to Rio.  

In it you may notice that the NIPG has been transmogrified into

” granny’s knitting group” !

Just wanted to say that is not what Patrick would have told them. He knows better! I suspect it is the work of some ignorant male sports reporter who probably thought it sounded more comic. Joy

I’ve had messages of support from my granny’s knitting group

NB   Images are courtesy of  Rio 2016 where you’ll find everything you would want to know about the Olympics 2016, including the Olympic torch journey.

The ‘Memories’ exhibition at the Flax Gallery, Mossley Mill was wonderful!  Our members did us proud producing 38 beautiful quilts.  [Check out the Memories Quilt Page on our site] . The theme obviously sparked inspiration in so many directions – the variety of quilts and the diversity of techniques was phenomenal, and the quality of the work was tremendous.

The exhibition was very well received by the visitors, whose comments in the book were very complimentary indeed!  I visited the exhibition three times, with various friends, and I found it a very great pleasure on each occasion.  Well done to everyone who produced a quilt for the exhibition.  The quilt voted favourite by the visitors was Clare Taggart’s ‘Rathlin Island’.  Congratulations, Clare!

And finally, a special thanks to Brian McKenna for photographing the quilts for us, you’ve done us proud!

On Saturday 4^th June we will hold our Annual General meeting at the Folk Museum.  The Chairman and the Treasurer will present their reports for the year and the arrangements for next year’s committee will be finalised.  Then we will have the patchwork postcards, the apple pie and the chat!

We are asking members to bring along two fabric postcards – 6” by 4” – in any design they choose.  We will display the postcards, then members will receive two postcards from the collection.  Esmé suggests creating the postcard on wadding or wadded curtain lining, then sewing it on to a card backing.  Good luck and we’re looking forward to seeing all the cards!   Anne James.

Ideas for Postcards with links to interesting sites. 

Here’s a link to  Postmark’d Art a great site all about Fabric Postcards,

from a group inspired by an article in Quilting Arts about a group who were making 4″x6″ fabric postcards and mailing them to each other!

These little art treasures were being sent to complete strangers just for the thrill of sharing art.  There was an invite for  those who interested to “click here” to join a round of card trading. Enough people clicked that Postmark’d Art was born and a new group of people were “stalking the mailman!” Today the group consists of  close to 50 fiber arts junkies from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, The Netherlands, United States, Wales, England, Denmark, and Singapore, all happily experimenting with new techniques and products, sharing ideas, and their art.

Another site worth a visit is Art2Mail  which predates Postmark’d Art and was found through them.  It began on the  Quilt Art Mailing List  with  Kathy Loomis’s request to receive postcards from all 50 states sparked Jackie Moravcik’s idea of making the actual postcards – mini pieces of art where the messages and stamps were part of the art itself.  Thirty-eight people from 21 different states and 5 different countries were intrigued and eager to experiment with the idea.  Within a couple weeks, small works of art began arriving in mailboxes across the country. That was in 2004 and is still going strong.

Lastly, for anyone not sure how to start to creat your postcard. Here’s  one of many ‘how to’ sites you’ll find on the web by Marelize Ries from South Africa. 

We are very excited to have Rosemary Little as  our speaker for the March meeting [Sat 5th in our usual venue],  on the topic of  ‘Indian inspiration’, sounds intriguing.

In the afternoon, after our monthly meeting, we have the opportunity to attend a  half-day workshop with Rose [that’s Sat afternoon 5th Mar –  from 2:00 in the Slemish Room.] The cost of the workshop will be £12.50.  There are places if you want to attend.

The topic will be Kantha Embroidery, though you may find  the term ‘Embroidery’ slightly misleading.   There are  similarities to Japanese quilting and kantha makes for a very decorative and interesting fabric. Originating in Bangladesh, it is a traditional technique of embroidered quilting, constructed with several layers of recycled white cotton fabric and simple embroidery stitches to create a graphic, richly textured surface.

Message from Anne James, Chairperson

A happy and peaceful New Year to you all. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that Father Christmas filled your stockings with lots of goodies.

The first meeting of the new year is on Saturday 2nd, and I hope everyone will be fit and well for it. There will be a lull in the storms on Saturday, though it may be wet – a good opportunity to get out and about while staying dry!

Sharon Mount and Irene McKee are looking after the catering. The meeting will be demonstrations, as is now traditional for January. There will be four covering a wide range of techniques:-

Lindsey will guide us through a novel method of attaching a flanged binding;

Anna will shown us how to make a corsage;

Irene will demonstrate screen printing and the making of the screens; and

I will demonstrate how to make some 3-D rose-like fabric flowers.

Do come along, it will be good fun. If you have a name badge, please remember to wear it! Again, Happy New Year,

Anne