2014 Christmas Swap - sign-ups open!

After the huge success of last year's Christmas swap, and with lots of requests for another, we are delighted to open up sign ups for another Christmas themed swap. This time around we are making a Christmas cushion!

Ruth's picks for Christmas Cushion Swap

1. Christmas Ornament Pillow, 2. Winter pillow for Julianna (1), 3. CIMG9075, 4. Pillow-cover, 5. ChevronPillows - QuiltDetail, 6. Rear of my christmas pillow, 7. Aqua and pink christmas pillow, 8. Christmas Gifts, 9. Christmas FussySquares sewn together, 10. Christmas Snowflake ...a better photo and a little QAL, 11. Christmas pillow front, 12. paper pieced Christmas pillow, 13. Savvy Seasons pillow cover, 14. patchwork pillow cover, 15. pillow cover - christmas, 16. Christmas pillow

This year's swap will be for a modern Christmas themed cushion size 18" x 18" to facilitate the standard Ikea cushion insert. You'll also be making a small Christmas decoration for your partner, e.g. something suitable to hang on a Christmas tree.  For inspiration check out last years swap items on our Flickr group Modern Irish Quilters Swap.

This is open to all sewing levels and is a beginner friendly swap.  This week's blog post showed how to create a mosaic like mine above to give your partner an idea of what you would like to receive.  Next week's post will include instructions on how to make a simple envelope back cushion with the dimensions needed for this swap.  Swaps are a lot of fun and some require prior participation to be accepted.  Now is your chance to get one under your belt and if you have not made a quilted cushion before,  take it from me they a little bit addictive and are great fun to make!

Sign ups will be open until next Friday, 31st October, and partners will be assigned by Friday 7th November latest. You'll then have 4 weeks to make your items for your swap partner, and posting dates will be 8th-10th December.

This swap is open to members of Modern Quilters Ireland residing in Ireland. If you are not currently a member, and want to join up (membership is free) please find the information and link to the registration form here or email us at mqgireland@gmail.com
 

So I hope to see you over in the flickr group where you'll find the sign up thread open and more detailed instructions there. Will you be joining?  Last year was a lot of fun and we hope for more of the same this year!

-Ruth

Launching the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland!

Are you an Irish modern quilter?  Want to join into a supportive community of like-minded people to exchange techniques and inspiration?  Join the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland! 

We just love modern quilting.  We love the use of color, the bold fabric patterns, the clean lines. There is something very special about the basic, simple nature of modern quilts that makes it attractive to both beginners and experienced quilters.  To learn more about modern quilting, head over here.

What will we do?  As a guild, we have a great opportunity to thrive as a quilting community.  For example, we could host block/fabric swaps or bees, create charity quilts or have fabric shopping field trips. 

This summer/fall we will hold our first meeting.  There we can decide if we want a quarterly, semi-annual or annual retreat.  We will decide how often we want to meet and what we want to do at these meetings (discussed in more detail below).  We would also like to start small local evening/weekend sewing groups all over Ireland so that talented folks who live near one another can get together with other members of MQGI.

At the first meeting this summer/fall, we will be looking for volunteers who would like to contribute to the board of the MQGI.  It’s going to take a small bit of time from 4-5 individuals to really get things going.  We will need a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, a treasurer, a secretary and a public outreach officer.  If you are interested in any of these positions, email mqgirelan(at)gmail.com.

We are totally open to suggestions, but at our regular whole-guild meetings, we can choose to include any/all of the following activities:

Deal with guild business

Show and tell of member’s projects

Fabric swaps

Host speakers (trunk shows and/or instructional)

Workshops

etc

If they are weekend long meetings we could have free sewing sessions, UFO finish offs or hold workshops in appliqué, fabric dying, improve piecing, quilt labelling, quilting math…what ever we want!

It is anticipated that several guild members will have fabric shops.  At each meeting, we would like to invite those shops to host pop-up shops for all members to have an opportunity to browse and shop to their heart’s content.

It is the goal of the guild to keep fees as low as possible.  Once we decide how frequently we want to meet, where we are meeting and for how long (an afternoon vs a weekend), we can determine an average cost of membership.  


As you know, there are already two wonderful societies within Ireland to support Irish quilters: the Irish Patchwork Society and the Quilter's Guild of Ireland.  MQG is not exclusive to members of these organizations, but instead encourages you to become members of any or all groups!  Sarah is a member of the QGI and Cindy is a member of IPS.  The focus of MQG, however, is specifically modern quilters which makes it unique.

To join in the MQGI please complete the form below.  Please also become a follower of the blog and join the flickr page as these will be the primary methods of communication moving forward.  If we get 10-15 interested people, we will start organizing an introductory meeting.  Hope to see you all there! 


Best wishes,


Sarah (Fairy Face Designs) and Cindy (Fluffy Sheep Quilting)
Founding members and interim organizers