The Quilters Guild of Ireland Exhibition

The Quilter’s Guild of Ireland has members from all over Ireland and during the Covid pandemic, we embraced this initiative. Quilters, like many other craftspeople and artists, found that their creativity became an important tool in keeping their equilibrium.

The Quilter’s Guild of Ireland encouraged our members to reach out to friends and family, to persuade them to join us in the “Keep Well Campaign,” which was an initiative from the Irish Government, launched on October 29th 2021. The Keep Well Campaign concentrated on the following: · Keeping active · Staying connected · Switching off and being creative · Eating well · Managing your mood.

The group hoped that as many of their members as possible would take part and persuade friends and family who had never sewn before to take part.

The aim was to create a couple of quilts to raise money for Women’s Shelters, in particular with reference to Women’s mental health support. Erstwhile Chair, Mary Palmer designed several little blocks with varying degrees of difficulty, each to measure 10inch square finished and asked our members to make at least one 10” block in cotton (10-1/2” square unfinished) on the theme of Home (Houses, Trees, and Paths & Gardens). 

The group has just over 100 members and expected perhaps enough blocks to make 3 or 4 quilts. The response exceeded all expectations, blocks came from every part of Ireland including the Aran Islands, some came from America; others were constructed by people who had never held a sewing needle before! They were supported by our fellow quilters in other guilds. This was an added bonus to the whole experience, there were no boundaries or borders in the response, there were pieces from every corner of Ireland, including the Blasket Islands.

The generosity and spirit engendered were uplifting and emotional. So many people invested time and fabrics into the creation of these blocks. They group held Zoom meetings and experienced a unique, all-embracing collective spirit throughout in the midst of the pandemic.

The result was that we created 22 quilts which will be displayed in this exhibition, there will be two workshops suitable for all abilities on 12^th and 19^th August to coincide with this exhibition.

Where is it taking place?