MILLYPENNY

Finally finished my paper lamination piece from the Sarah Welsby masterclass Festival of Quilts. The paper used were newspaper cuttings about Nama and the property crash in Ireland. Also used a few colour photocopies of Monopoly money. The piece was free machine quilted with little houses to continue the property theme. Update on 6/10/10: Just found out that the quilt won the "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" Challenge at the Irish Patchwork Society AGM last Saturday.

Spent last Wednesday down in Tralee at a 1-day workshop with Gloria Loughman. Workshop was called "Playing on the Surface". Gloria said the workshop was usually a 2 or 5 day workshop so we had plenty of work to fit in for 1 day. Didnt get anything finished - had a load of strips - work in progress, but now know how the process works. Gloria was a great tutor, picked up plenty of tips from her. She had a large number of quilts and samples with her, and didnt mind people photographing and examining them which was very nice of her. I already had her first book "Luminous Landscapes" but she had patterns & books for sale on the day, so picked up a copy of her 2nd book "Quilted Symphony" (which she autographed). Havent finished reading the book yet, but it's well laid out and goes through the process of how she makes her quilts in small sections.

Went to Cork yesterday to attend the opening of the Irish Patchwork Society's National Exhibition. I entered my Graffiti Graz quilt in the show, so here's a photo of it in situ.

The EQA exhibition this year at the Festival of Quilts had nine different colour 12 inch squares from the EU countries. Ireland got the colour blue. The photo shows the Irish entry - my square is on the middle row on the left.

I took a 3-day "Paper Lamination" Masterclass at the Festival of Quilts with Sarah Welsby. We were in the Virtual Studio for the 1st two days which was interesting as the show was being put up around us - plenty of hammering and drilling noises taking place. I was a bit like a zombie for the 1st day which was caused by lack of sleep (hadnt slept for about 24hrs by the time I got there). Really enjoyed the workshop - I already had the Committed to Cloth Paper Lamination book but think that you had to see the process to really understand how it worked. In the workshop we made of paper lamination samples and Sarah also showed us how the paper laminations could be used as a screen which I think will prove to be very useful.

I think I lost my sewing "mojo" over the summer, so the only sewing I've done is to make a few cushions and bags. I promised my mother some cushions for the sitting room - so finally got around to it after about a year (eeek!). Am heading to Birmingham tomorrow for the Festival of Quilts - will be doing a 3-day "Paper Lamination" Masterclass which should be really good. Only downside is that the flight is a 6am and I have to drive up Dublin during the night to get the flight.

Ordered these books from Amazon.co.jp a few weeks ago. My camera unfortunately decided to pack it in yesterday, so no photos until my new one arrives (hopefully I'll get it sometime this week!).