Fermoy and the Mid-Western Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society

Fermoy and the Mid West Quilters
March 14

Fermoy

I was up early enough to get my writing done and my photos downloaded, watching t.v with my headphones on, as the walls at the Blackwater Bed and Breakfast were on the thin side. Another awesome Irish breakfast stuffed me to the gills, and I was off to Fermoy with the telephoto lens.

The Blackwater B & B is just a ten minute walk from Fermoy’s center. I passed the Presbyterian church, and stopped to dig out the telephoto lens and get a shot of St. Patrick’s RC Church. I had to get one of the monks in front of the Presbyterian church too; Bridie said she wasn’t sure why the monks had been placed there, as they had lived down by the river (in what is now one of the hotels). Going on down the hill, I hope I got at least one photo of the river that’ll be similar to the postcards.

Bridie told me where the internet café was, at the end of town, and I was very disappointed to discover that they wouldn’t open til 11 a.m. So, I went up the hill to the Catholic church and took a bunch of pictures; none of the inside as I figured the church would fall down if I did! And I must admit that I feel a bit awkward treating a church as a tourist attraction. There were a number of priests’ graves to one side; none would have been around while Great-Great Grandfather Broderick was in Fermoy (back in 1833). I didn’t see anyone to ask why they’d been buried in the churchyard; they’d all died between 1900 and the 1960’s. Lovely Celtic crosses as headstones.

Bridie mentioned that Frank Morgan, a photographer, might be interested in my postcards, so I stopped by his shop and introduced myself. We chatted for a few moments, and he was curious about them, but didn’t have any of his own to show me. Mr. Morgan didn’t think I’d have much luck finding new versions of my postcards; and I was unhappy to find that he was right. He thought Tom Baker might have some postcards from the same era, but unfortunately I couldn’t find him. One interesting fact I gleaned from Mr. Morgan is that the company that did many of the postcards similar to mine still holds the copyright and they can’t be reproduced. He also kind of laughed and said he should produce some himself (his shop is a photography studio) since he has all the equipment; but he just doesn’t have time.

After going up and down the main street several times, I decided I had enough photos and didn’t want to stop and get online. I went down the hill to walk back along the river, and lo and behold! There’s a fabric shop! Drapery and home decorating fabrics, with no remnants. They did have embroidery thread though, so I stocked up and I don’t really need any more now. I had a nice chat with the owner; like all the Irish I’ve met so far, she was wonderfully friendly. She explained that all the fabric in her store was ordered and there weren’t any remnants, but drapery fabrics aren’t really suitable for my projects anyway… well, except maybe a vest?

I took a few more shots of the Blackwater River before going up the hill and getting packed up to leave. Bridie was so sweet; I left the car at the bed and breakfast and paid for my room just before leaving Fermoy. Now it was just a matter of tossing my camera and daypack in the car, and checking the map. And off I went to Limerick!

Limerick was about a two hour drive from Fermoy. I was going to stop for lunch, but I was there before I found somewhere I wanted to stop at. Coming into Limerick on the N8, I passed the racetrack, so that won’t be hard to find again. I hope! Finding parking in Limerick wasn’t hard, but when I got there, the street was closed off due to construction. So around I went, thinking I’d get to the back entrance. Instead, I found another carpark altogether. I set off down the pedestrian-only street and found an internet café right next to a nice place for lunch. The very busy café was a great place to people watch, and I really enjoyed whatever it was I had for lunch; I was pretty hungry by now and would have eaten just about anything!

The internet café next door was upstairs; a room full of what… 40? computers. People staring intensely at screens, headphones on listening, typing away. Weird. But there I sat, just like the rest of the drones. I quickly flipped through my email and checked on the quilt meeting I was planning to attend tonight. Finding the address for the house I was supposed to stay at was impossible, so I just wrote down the directions for the Limerick Baptist Church, where the Mid-Western Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society would be meeting, and cleared the cache on the browser I used. I was only two blocks from the car, so I rode the elevator to the fourth floor of the carpark, and did not get dizzy going down the spiral ramp, surpisingly enough.

Getting out of Limerick proved to be very easy, and I found the road to Broadford right off the bat. Maybe I am learning to navigate in Ireland! After looking at the postoffice sign to be sure I was really in Broadford, I parked just like the Irish on the sidewalk and went in to find a phone and call to get directions to the house. No, no, you have to go to the little store. So I walked down there. No, no, the phone’s broken, so you have to go back to the postoffice. I spoke to the woman in line who’d suggested I go down to the store, and explained what happened, and she said oh, just come home with me. She lived just across the street, and although I only caught about half of what Tony said, I found the house quite easily.

Tony Scudder is quite a character. He must have kissed the Blarney Stone more than once! I watched while he fixed up a gate so the new calf could get into part of the stall and eat on his own. Then he let me in the house and we talked about farming and Ireland, until he had to get back to his farmwork. I unpacked the car, strewing stuff from one end of the house to the other, left a note for my roommates, and went back into Limerick to the quilt meeting.

Mid-Western Branch meeting – see their blog for more information

Finding the Limerick Baptist Church was unbelievably easy. I was just a bit early so I parked the car and got out my embroidery while I waited. And waited. And waited. I turned on the radio to check the time. Seven p.m. Hmmm. I’m either early, or I’m at the wrong place. I decided to wait until 8 p.m., and if no one came by then, I’d go back home.

Luckily a car pulled into the parking lot, and then another, and I was in the right place at the right time. Getting a key to open the door took a few moments, but once the door opened we all piled in. Moya of Patchwork Place from Cork brought her store, so I (and others) helped her unpack and set up her wares while more members arrived. The hall was a hive of activity as we unloaded the car, set up tables, brought in chairs, moved the preschool toys (including a huge slide and jungle gym), and greeted each other.

Everyone was thrilled to meet me, and was so enthusiastic. I met two other Americans, married to Irishmen. Later I found out that they’d both lived in Florida about 10 miles apart, but didn’t meet til they moved to Ireland. The members are similar to those of the Cabin Fever Quilters’ Guild in many ways, but the main difference was the level of enthusiasm for new techniques. The level of chatter in the room was deafening, and I met so many wonderful women, asking me questions and wanting to see my hat. The tea lady made sure I had a cup of decaf coffee, with cream (thank you very much!), and when it came time to sit down, there were a number of calls to sit here, sit here! I opted to sit along the wall, so I could jump up and take photographs during the meeting.

The meeting was very similar a guild meeting at home; the business meeting was first and member participation is probably a little higher, but otherwise it was much like home. Show and Tell was wonderful; these ladies are extremely good quilters, with a good eye to color. I am hoping that the members can fill in some of the details on the quilts, because of course I remember very few details.

Show and Tell – see the pictures on my Flickr site. I’ll add the images to the blog post when I get the time.

Just one caveat-I took all the photos without flash, so some of them are blurry. I also managed to miss getting any photos of the monthly challenge pieces and the demonstrations, because I was so busy gawking and talking!

This is Ger Larkin, the Chairwoman, as she starts the meeting. Wonderfully friendly woman!

Most of the group (I didn’t quite get the edges of the room), intent on listening to Ger as she starts the meeting.

A lovely baby quilt; you can just see the very pregnant maker to the left. And of course I’ve forgotten how to pronounce “Cian”. I think it’s “Kee-ann”, definitely not “Sean” though.

This quilt top was made by Claire Lynch, on the left in the blue sweater. She is the one I got in touch with before coming to Ireland, and is a wonderfully warm and friendly person.

Another baby quilt; Claire is holding it on the left, with Ger hiding behind it.

This quilt was made by a group of schoolchildren under the guidance of the woman to the right. Four of the mothers had sewing machines and helped the children with the sewing, but the kids did all of the actual sewing. They also printed fabric for the squares.

Holly, to the left, is one of the Americans I met. The quilting on this baby quilt is stunning; very precise 2 inch squares that exactly follow the seams on the front. Lovely colors too!

This is the maker’s first quilt! The piecing is all done by hand for this sampler quilt, and the quilting is being done by hand. Isn’t it gorgeous!?

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Three sampler quilts after four weeks work. Maeve Meany is teaching this class at her shop in Limerick, which I’m hoping to visit later in my trip. She’s one standing behind the presentation boards.

The fabrics in this quilt top are all hand dyed; originally for another project. I can’t remember the circumstances, but plans changed and this got made instead. It’ll be bound in black fabric. Just gorgeous, isn’t it!? The maker, standing to the left, also demonstrated the needlefelting machine after the business meeting concluded.

Moya Geraghty brought her shop, Patchwork Plus (Midleton, County Cork, patchworkplus@gmail.com) to the guild meeting. There are no quilt shops per se in Ireland; just a few people that sell quilt fabrics and supplies from their home, at guild meetings, and shows. I was at the far end of the room, so unfortunately you can’t see any details in this table runner.

Here she shows another table runner that isn’t finished yet. Her daughter really likes this one, so she said it might grow.

Here is one of her baby quilts. I believe it is machine quilted, but I didn’t get a closeup look at it, so I’m not positive about that.

Meg is the other American I met. She is a print maker, and just finished a degree at the art college. The images surrounding the pieced center are silk screened ultrasound images of her grandson. The fabrics that make up the rose in the center are silk screened, dyed, and overdyed, with images of fertility goddesses, including one Irish fertility goddess that is carved in stone on a church. Meg designed the pieced portion of the quilt using a rose that her daughter got while in the hospital for the birth. First she painted a picture of the rose, then made a grid and pieced the rose from the fabric she prepared. She also kept a scrapbook of the process as she worked on the quilt. She comes to quilting from an art background, using fabric as a way of portraying women.

Unfortunately that’s the last of the images from the quilt meeting. I was so busy talking to people, asking questions, watching, answering questions and demonstrating a little bit about crazy quilting that I forgot all about taking photos. I watched Claire as she demonstrated using a soldering iron to trim and make shapes and designs in synthetic fabrics. I thought it would be a smelly, smoky process, but it’s very clean, easy to do, and makes some awesome images and designs. I am ready to invest in my own soldering iron now!

I also got to see an embellisher machine in action. I hadn’t been interested in purchasing one, but I can certainly see the potential now. You can use it to needlefelt a single layer of fabric, making interesting textures. I think this could be used to make a design in one piece of fabric, then embroider and embellish it. You could also combine this with hand needlefelting too, I’m sure.

Most of my time was spent showing the hat off, and pointing out stitches and embellishments. Ladies kept walking by and handing me fabrics, and collecting my blog address. I was also gifted with several issues of the Irish Patchwork Society Newsletter, a beautiful full color magazine that members receive.

This is a wonderful group of women that is delightfully friendly and cheerful. They are much more willing to try new techniques and experiment than the group at home. Many of them were very interested in the crazy quilting, so I am hoping that I can get together with them again and we can do a little crazy quilting together. I was exhausted by the end of the evening, from talking so much! I just wish I was staying longer, so I could go to another meeting.

Getting back to the house in Broadford was much easier than I anticipated, and I was extremely glad that I’d been to the house in the daylight. Going down a dark tunnel lined with brush is intimidating in the dark! And the lack of signage is a bit disconcerting; I must admit that it’s comforting to KNOW that you’re on the right road when you see the sign that says “N8” on it! I did almost drive by the white triangle that marks the driveway, but a quick backup and I was going up the hill to home.

I expected to find a very quiet dark house (and was regretting leaving my flashlight in my suitcase upstairs), but was surprised to see that everyone except Dorina and Sheila was up and chattering away when I walked in.

We traded war stories – Dorina lost her suitcase and still didn’t have it; Carolyn had a rough time getting out of Dublin and driving to Broadford. Everyone was still recovering from jet lag, so once we’d caught up with each other, Marilyn and Ramona went up to bed. Carolyn and I chattered for another hour or so before we finally gave it up and followed the other two. I’m sleeping by myself for now, as Dorina is sleeping downstairs on the hideabed; her knee is giving her fits and she can’t make it up the stairs. I fell asleep quickly… zzzzzz

Daily Links
Limerick
Mid-Western Branch of the Irish Patchwork Society
Patchwork Plus
Irish Patchwork Society