Schoolhouse Quilters celebrate 30 years with Athlone exhibition

By Rebekah O'Reilly

The Schoolhouse Quilters have held an exhibition in St. Mary's N.S. to celebrate their 30 year anniversary.

The exhibition, which featured many different quilts created by the members of the group, took place from Friday, November 22 to Sunday, November 24.

"We are a patchwork and quilting group who meet for one full day each month," said Maureen. "Our current membership is 45 and come from Westmeath, Offaly, Roscommon, Longford, Laois and Galway.

"These meetings are workshops to include demonstrations, one day tutored classes or DYOT (do your own thing). This could be working on a current project or maybe continuing working on a class that had been taken. The tutors for our classes are all members of our group."

Although this year's exhibition had a special meaning for the group, it is not the only occasion that the Schoolhouse Quilters have displayed their work for the publics enjoyment.

"Every two years we run an exhibition in St Mary’s National School in Athlone of our members work. All of the work exhibited has been completed within the last two years," Maureen said.

"A quilt is made especially for each exhibition by our members, with all fabric and work given on a voluntary basis. This quilt is raffled, during our exhibition, for a chosen charity."

Over the years, charities that have benefitted from the raffle have included Athlone Hospice, St Hilda’s, Alzheimer’s Association and RNLI. This year’s charity was the Kevin Bell Repatriation Fund.

The Kevin Bell Repatriation Fund was established in 2013 to alleviate the financial costs on bereaved families repatriating the bodies of family members who died in tragic circumstances abroad.

The Trust was founded as a result of a personal tragedy when Kevin Bell died suddenly in New York, and family and friends helped financially to repatriate his remains back to Ireland.

The Trust was set up to help other families, in a similar situation, and has returned more than 2000 remains since its foundation.

The Schoolhouse Quilters are proud of their craft, and wish to extend it's life by teaching new members the art of patchwork.

Over the period of the last year, the beginners group has introduced 10 people who had no previous experience whatsoever in patchwork to the craft. The only experience needed for the beginners course was how to operate their own sewing machine.

Maureen said: "As a group who has survived 30 years, we must have done something right. That 'something' was definitely all the work and effort put in by all our members and committees over the years.

"It has been a happy, helpful, and supportive group during that time and hopefully will continue to be so into the future."