MILLYPENNY

This is the 1 piece of stencil graffiti I spotted in Dublin yesterday. Didnt really get a chance to look around - was up for a committee meeting, so as soon as that was over I got the next train home to Ennis.

I'm currently the editor for the Irish Patchwork Society Newsletter and have just fnished getting the summer edition ready for the printers. I had a few empty pages to fill over the past few days, so was racking my brains trying to come up with a pattern or tutorial I could include. Then I thought of the disappearing nine-patch block which I thought would be perfect to include as any level of quilters (even beginners) can make it. I only meant to make 1 sample block to take step-by-step photos of, but got a little bit carried away and ended up making 8 blocks. I used 3.5 inch squares for my blocks, so my top is big enough for a table runner - might make a few more blocks to lengthen it though.

Finally got around to making the quilt top for the EQA "Colour Connections" Exhibition that will be shown at the Festival of Quilts. This year the member countries have to make a 15.7 x 15.7" (40x40cm) square piece. Each country got 1 colour and you were only allowed use up to 10% of another colour. Ireland and Austria got the colour blue, while the UK is Yellow. Only 9 quilts are chosen from each country, so I doubt if mine will get chosen as it was a last minute job (i.e. last night and this evening) but I just wanted to enter it. Just after sending off the entry form & photo to the Irish EQA rep. The piece is made up of hand-dyed blue fabric (left over from my City & Guilds final assessment quilt), ribbon yarn, a blue sweet wrapper, blue felt balls, organza, blue net bags (from fruit & veg). Luckily I have an embellisher machine which really speeds up adding the layers. Still have to attach a binding to the piece, but that won't take long. Might add a

I was in Galway last weekend to see the Western Branch "The Wests Awake" Patchwork Exhibition. You dont see much stencil graffiti around, so the few bits I saw in Galway caught my eye.

I made this bag about a month ago using a pattern from "Bend the Rules Sewing" book by Amy Karol. It's the 3rd time I've used this pattern as it's such a handy-sized bag. I spent a day back in February with two friends printing and stamping on fabric (which was great fun!) and ended up with some lovely fabric at the end of the day. I used all hand-dyed fabrics for printing on, and decided I had to use up some of the printed fabric after spending all that time working on it.

Finally finished the final assessment piece in my City & Guilds Course - just after emailing the photo's off to my assessor. So hopefully, that's the C & G course done & dusted!! The quilt is made with all hand-dyed fabrics and is basically a selection of wonky style log-cabin blocks.