MILLYPENNY

 I spent last Saturday up in Galway at the 1st International Quilt Festival of Ireland (IQFOI). Wasn't sure what to expect from this exhibition, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Spotted my hand block in amongst the Cead Mile Failte Quilt panels. Most of the quilts were very traditional, so hopefully at next year's exhibition there might be some more contemporary quilts. There was a lovely exhibit of Antique Irish quilts which was very interesting and informative, unfortunately no photo's were allowed in that hall. Think the dates for next year's exhibition are the 7-9th June 2013, so I'm sure there will be more entries and different exhibits then. Lolipop Queen by Svava K. Egilson (Iceland) Touched by Michelangelo by Donata Gervasi (Switzerland) Some graffiti spotted in NUIG I spent way too much money shopping, especially once I found Irish tweed for sale! It was interesting to see how different the quilts ...

Recently finished this small quilt which I made for the EQA Crossroads Exhibition. I handed the quilt up to the EQA rep. at last Friday's Mid-West Branch meeting, and will find out later if it gets selected as one of the 10 EQA quilts from Ireland. I've also started a quilt-as-you-go log cabin quilt based on the quilt in the Japanese book "Patchwork Style" by Suzuko Koseki. At the moment I'm just using scraps from my scrap basket to make the blocks. I went through my scrap basket and separated out the lights and darks I'll need for the quilt - had a lot more usuable fabrics than I thought. Have 3 blocks finished so far, which are taking me a lot longer to finish than I thought (because of all the quilting involved) but at least when they're done that's it, no more quilting!

I'm involved in the International Quilt Challenge Group . Approximately every 2 months we have to complete an A3-sized piece for the group. For this challenge the theme was "Time". The deadline was the 24th April, so I spent last night watching a football match and sewing my binding on. For the background fabric I had an image of clock-tower from Graz, Austria. The piece was an experiment on transferring a photocopy using oil paints and gum arabic which I made about 3-4 years ago, and has been left bundled up in a scrap bin every since. It just shows that you should never throw any samples or textile experiments, they'll come in handy some day!! I then tried to find some clock or time-rel;ated fabric in my stash. Turned out that I nothing that I could use, so instead I gathered some watches from around the house (had to take some of people's wrists) and then just copied them onto fabric. I didnt even scan the image into the computer - just cop...

No finished projects to show at the moment, just seem to have a mountain of UFO's which I really have to finish one of these days.  Hexagon bag front I have a Japanese quilting book which had a pattern for a bag made out of hexagons. I started making the hexagons for the bag a long time ago, and just work on it occassionally. I finally finished the front panel last night, so just have to quilt it now. But because it's taken me so long to make one bag front, I'm think I'm just going to put a plain back on it and applique on a few left-over hexagons.    Burren project I'm currently working a panel as part of a group project with the Genesis Quilting Group . The panels will be based on the theme of the Burren. I've just finished basting my panel, so will have to crack on and get the quilting completed by 13th May, which is the next time the group is meeting. Can't show a photo of the panel at the moment, until the re...

I haven't had much time for crafting lately. About the only thing I've managed to finish in the past few months is this bag. I purchased the bag pattern from this website . The bag is a very handy size, I'm planning on making another one in blue fabric when I get a chance. Hopefully this weekend I can get around to finishing another project...

Last night I finished quilting a hand block for the International Quilting Festival of Ireland ( IQFoI) which is taking place in Galway in May. At the festival they're going to have a welcome banner made up of hundreds of hand blocks from around the world). Last time I checked, the deadline for submission of the blocks was the 1st February; so I was hurrying to get the 2nd block finished last night. Have just checked their website and you can now submit blocks up to the 1st March. To make the blocks I made a monoprint of my hand, added my name and town using alphabet stamps and then free-motion quilted the block. I got a print of my mother's hand to make the 2nd block, and made it in the same way, just used the stamps to go around the hand this time.

 This is what I'm working on at the moment - a throw quilt using 12 fat quarters. I've had a fat quarter pack of "Sugar Snaps" collection in my stash for a few years, so finally chopped it up last weekend. You can't really tell from the photo, but this quilt is seriously bright! Think it might be the brightest quilt that I've ever made. Not sure that I like it too much at the moment, but maybe when it's quilted I might come around to liking it more. Have adjusted the layout slightly from the photo, and got the borders added last night, so hopefully tonight I can get it basted...