Beautiful exhibition of Quilting in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin today and running until March the 15th : Hands Across the Border, the image I would have selected is not available at the Irish Patchwork Society Webpage, but I am including a link to both the Society and to the National Botanic Gardens at end of this post.
The Northern Irish Patchwork Guild and The Irish patchwork Society are a friendly crew who like small kids and were able to tell the stories of whichever quilt was asked about. The work varied from the hand-dyed artistic to the tale of a life in quilt and embroidery, with a stunning example telling of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition. There was a small patchwork christening robe adorned with the names of babies in gold simple lettering, by Breege Watson and Elizabeth Mc Cartney’s Hand Dyed Picnics in Ravensdale Woods.
Best of all was the raffle for a hamper of Patchwork doings, and the visitor’s book adorned with the scrawls of kids and the very intelligent writing of grown-ups. Sadly we did not win that. The Herbarium space in the rejuvenated National Botanic Gardens is a wonderful lit space for exhibitions. I am adding in here a short piece that I wrote on the NBG restoration project , entitled The Brightest Jewel , by E Charles Nelson and Dr Eileen Mc Cracken.
- The Making of An American Quilt, by Angela Carter (from Burning Your Boats)
- Irish Patchwork Society Irish patchwork Society
- The Brightest Jewel , the National Botanic Gardens
A Saturday Woman Poet Amy Lowell used the Pomegranate Embroidery as Illustration.
Chris Murray 