MILLYPENNY

I'm currently a member of the International Quilt Challenge . Every two months we have a different challenge, the most recent challenge theme was through "Through the Window" so here's what I submitted for that challenge. A contemporary quilting group I'm involved with (Genesis Patchwork) are currently working on a group project about the Burren. So I decided to use my "Through the Window" piece as a sample piece for my Burren project. I have a number of photographs of old church windows and ruins so I took 2 of this photo's and turned them into a thermofax screen. Then I screen-printed the windows onto hand-dyed fabric. This photo of a window in Carron Church was used to create one of the thermofax screens

 I spent Saturday of last weekend driving around the Burren trying to get more inspiration for the upcoming Genesis group project. So took more photo's of stone walls and other various things spotted during the drive. My favourite Pfaff sewing machine has been in for repairs for ages (3 months and counting!). It was even sent to the UK a few weeks ago because no-one here can figure out how to fix it. I do have another sewing machine I can use but it's not much good on free-machining. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and ordered a new one - which will be delivered next Thursday or Friday.

I spent last weekend up at An Grianan, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth with some contemporary quilters from North and South Ireland, which was great fun. It was lovely to be able to spend a whole weekend on craft-related activities with food served up to us. My sewing machine is currently in for repairs so instead I spent my time dyeing fabric and working on my sketchbooks and altered books. The 5 members of the Genesis group (that I'm in) all managed to get up to An Grianan. We are planning a group project for next year and needed common fabrics, so we all did our dyeing at the weekend. Each of us dyed 5 metres of fabric, this fabric will be then divided equally amongst the Genesis members at our next meeting. So each of us will end up getting 4 metres of fabric from the other members, which should ensure that we have plenty of fabric for our project. Apart from a horrible drive home (in extremely wet conditions) I'm already looking forward to next year's residential weeke

The 2nd challenge for the International Quilt Challenge  has just been announced - it's "Through the Window". I actually quite this like this theme, and I have a number of photographs of windows so have plenty of inspiration to work from. Photo taken at Noughaval Church in the Burren Kilfenora Church

I'm a member of the International Quilt Challenge group, and for our 1st challenge we had to create a quilt on the theme of "light and shadows". The deadline for the 1st challenge was today. I'm just after posting my challenge piece over in the International Quilt Challenge blog. My piece was based on a photograph I took in Fuengirola, Spain while on holiday there a few years ago. One of the footpaths in the town had a number of coloured concrete balls all the way up the street which caught my eye. I've always meant to make something textile-related using the photograph, so this challenge was the perfect excuse to use the photograph. Here's the original photograph that was my inspiration for the light and shadows challenge

Here a few photo's of quilts which caught my eye this year at Festival of Quilts. 4 Seasons by Ineke Berlyn (Contemporary Quilts Section). This was a really bright and cheery quilt. High Maintenance by Cherry Vernon-Harcout. This quilt was really clever in using the lines of an electricity pylon to create a quilt. I have loads of photographs of electricity pylons and transformers so this quilt really caught my attention. The Miniatures section this year was really interesting - a nice mixture of traditional and contemporary styles. I loved this one called "Untitled" by Linda Brassington - it was really simple and elegant. This quilt was amazing, log cabin style, but it was all knitted! "Double Delight" by Pauline Law, Kloof, South Africa. The piece in the catalogue says that it was hand-knitted and hand-quilted with thick thread and wool.

I did a two day masterclass with Jette Clover at the Festival of Quilts last week. Can't remember the exact name of the workshop now, but I think it was "layering with collage". Was really looking forward to this workshop as I love Jette's quilt and collages but I didn't find the workshop that useful. Jette was a lovely person but there was an awful lot of wasted time in the workshop. And I hate workshop lists that make you bring stuff you don't use! This photo shows 2 ATC-sized collages we had to make. At the start of class we had to pick a piece of paper from a bag. You then had to use the word written on the paper for the 2 days. I got "Heritage", which I wasn't too mad about working with. One of the mini-collages had to be about your word, while the 2nd one had to be the negative of it. This photo shows the 2 collage pieces I made, bit of a rush job as we only had about 2 hours to get these pieces done and sewn at the end of the 2nd da

Finally got my mystery quilt top stitched together - this was from a mystery quilt project from the Mid-West Branch. It's a large quilt though, so will have lots of fun trying to get it quilted later on. I'm off to Birmingham tomorrow afternoon for 5 days at the Festival of Quilts (yay!). I'm doing a two-masterclass with Jette Clover - been getting the requirements list items ready today...

The only craft related item I got finished over the weekend was this recycled journal. I'm currently doing an online visual journalling book-binding class. This notebook was made from a damaged book (just recycled the cover) and scrap papers (lots of security envelopes, scrap paper etc). The main reason why I didnt get much done this weekend was becuase of this new addition to the family: It's my new puppy (name to be decided)who seems to be very fond of chewing things (even fingers) as my Dad found out... lol....

The official opening of the Irish Patchwork Society's "Branching Out" Exhibition will be held tomorrow at the Botanic Gardens, Dublin. I'm planning on making it to the opening tomorrow, so long as I don't sleep it out! My quilt "Spring Growth" was one of the quilts chosen to be put on the exhibition invitation which was a very nice surprise to get in the post last week...

About two weekends ago, I went to a 2-day workshop with Lynne Edwards. The workshop was "Patchwork Perspective". I went to the workshop with the intention of making a cushion cover, but got a bit carried away and decided to make a wall-hanging instead. The drafting of the pattern, cutting out freezer paper templates etc. took a lot of time so I only ended up with three blocks completed at the workshop. So, since then I've been making the rest of the blocks for the wall-hanging. This photo shows some of the blocks made by all the participants at the workshop. Finally got the top completed last night, so hopefully I'll get the quilting started at the weekend.

I made this notebook cover last month for my friend Meg. The notebook cover is a mixed media - the front has spoon templates made of organza, while the back is made up of pieces of security envelopes.

I recently completed my EQA "Circle of Friends" piece which was made from paper lamination. This year's EQA piece was black & white, with up to 30% of a certain colour (Ireland's colour is orange). ur was orange). I used the left-overs to make these ATC's.

Linda & Laura Kemshall recently had video clips on their DMTV about making altered books. I found 2 old books in second-hand shop in Galway a few weeks ago that I'm using. 1st stage is to reduce the number of pages in the book by glueing pages together, adding stitch to the pages, and then adding gesso or gel medium to the pages. It's taking a while to get the pages prepped as you have to wait for the gesso or gel medium to dry properly before adding colour to the pages. So I've been putting a coat on the pages every time I get a chance, but haven't got very far at the moment. I'm going to use one of the books as a sketchbook for an upcoming quilt project that I'm working on.

Here's another messenger-type bag that I finished recently. It was made using some Japanese Echino fabric that I love. I showed the bag at May meeting of the Midwest branch, so here's a photo of that.

I did a workshop with Ferret back in March. The workshop was "Tulips" using a variation on a stack & whack technique. I got the top pieced together at the workshop so it just needed to be quilted. Finally got this wall-hanging quilted last week ago. But I still have a 2nd quilt from the Ferret workshop to machine quilt...

My quilt "Spring Growth" is currently on exhibit as part of the Mid-West Branch "Branching Out" Exhibition. The exhibition is on in the Old Benetton Building on the corner of Henry Street and Sarsfield Street and runs till Saturday 23rd April.

Haven't got much sewing over the past few days - just finishing up the Spring Issue of the Irish Patchwork Society Newsletter for the printers. Did manage to get a few ATC's done though - they're made using fabric scraps (some from my as yet unfinished "Branching Out" quilt)! Have got a few more postcards done for the "Branching Out" exhibition as well, which I'll be putting in the post next week. Photographs to follow next week.

I'm a member of a small contemporary quilting group called "Genesis". I had the idea of each member taking it in turns to give out small swap bags at meetings filled with various different items. The challenge will be for all members to produce something for the next meeting using items from the bag. For our 1st Swap Bag challenge, I came up with the swap bag contents - which was a pieced of hand-dyed screen-printed fabric, square of metallic fabric paper (from an Arts & Craft Shop) and a stick-on magnet. Finished items are due at our next meeting on the 6th March. I Last weekend I had a go at using up the Swap Bag contents - ended up making 3 items from the contents. I embellished my fabric strip with thread, pieces of the metallic fabric paper, tiny squares of dyed (and used) colour-catchers. Also put the piece under the embellisher to add bits of organza, ribbon etc. When I had the fabric embellished enough I decided to make a fabric cuff - I have thin wrist

Here's the 1st fabric postcard that I've finished for the IPS "Branching Out" Fabric postcard exhibition. The postcard is made from fabric paper, two scraps of screen-printed fabric and a hand-dye. The screen-printed fabric is actually a piece left over from my Branching Out quilt - which is still in the construction stage! I have a few more postcards nearly completed - all I have to do is add the edging. Hopefully, I'll get them done over the weekend.

I finished this messenger-type bag over Christmas. Used a pattern from a Japanese craft book: ISBN-13: 978-4834729467 Made most of the bag out of a long Japanese fabric panel that I got at FoQ a few years ago - decided I might as well use it up. The bag of the back uses most of the panel piece - almost prefer it to the front.. The