French quilt show photos

Well, I'm back and just about sorted out the semi-chaos at home, so I can share some photos of my amazing trip to Nantes in France this weekend past.

I went with my friends Julia and Gwen and the purpose of the visit was to attend the quilt show Pour l'Amour du Fil organised by Quiltmania, the French patchwork and quilting magazine. Having seen the photos of previous shows in Quiltmania over a number of years it was wonderful actually to be there, and the show did not disappoint.

We managed to negotiate the tram system (very easy once we worked out where we were going...) and travelled to the Parc des Expositions at Beaujoire at the very end of the line.  The exhibition hall was spacious and calm with gardens and river nearby, and the stalls were beautifully decorated with quilts and merchandise, a feast for the eyes.  There was an emphasis on quality, of the goods on sale and the workmanship of the samples on display.  Despite our faltering French everyone was very kind and helpful (and many spoke very good English).

We had particularly wanted to visit the show because of an exhibition of nearly 60 vintage New York Beauty quilts from the collection of Bill Volckening.  The quilts were absolutely stunning and beautifully displayed in two tiers along the main wall.  These are not small quilts and it was wonderful to have the space to stand and view them at a distance, as well as to get up really close and examine the stitches .



The quilts are mostly made in plain fabrics (solids) and look so modern, with a limited number of colours used in each quilt, high contrast and strong graphic design.  Lots of negative space to show off wonderful hand quilting.  Seeing so many of the same pattern in one place really showed up the variations in sashing and layout: then as now we quilters like to tweak a pattern to make it truly our own!

I apologise for the fact that my small camera insisted on using flash so the colours aren't quite perfect, but they are better than I expected.  And if you are keen to see more, Bill has a book out published by Quiltmania which will tell you all you have ever wanted to know about this quilt pattern.



I couldn't choose a favourite so here are a selection, all hand pieced and hand quilted, without the benefit of foundation (paper) piecing and rotary cutting, many are more than 100 years' old.  I would be proud to have made any of them.

There was so much more to see and I have taken so many more photos that I will post separately over the next few days.

I am slightly embarrassed to show photos of my own work having seen such wonderful sewing by others, both named and unknown masters of their craft, but I did make up a little purse kit I purchased from a stall selling Japanese fabric.  I wasn't mad keen on the applique flower to go in the centre so when I got home I dug out a spare square-in-square from my Quartet BOM: with the addition of narrow borders it fitted perfectly.

So I can link to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, and to Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day: my favourite project from April was the Disappearing Hourglass, it was such fun to do.  I know it still needs to be quilted, but I'm planning a shopping trip for the backing very soon...

Here's to a productive, and merry, month of May for us all.

Lozenge layered

Forgot to post the photo of actual Spring flowers last time so here they are: early dog violets in all their modest beauty.



There is not much depth of field with my little automatic camera so please forgive the less than professional shot, I just wanted to capture the intense purple and green, not colours I tend to choose for my patchwork, but so lovely in nature.

On the sewing front, I have almost finished my second batch of small taupe circles for my Quartet BOM, but I thought I would show you the Lozenge EPP top which I finished putting together recently.  Here it is all layered up ready for handquilting.



I started the quilting today so it is my WIP for today's WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced. This little quilt will be a WIP for some time as I am pretty slow at hand quilting.  And EPP for that matter - this has been my take-along project for quite a while.

I am off to Nantes on Friday for the quilt show organised by Quiltmania, Pour l'Amour du Fil.  I will be away all weekend with two quilting friends - what a treat!  Hope to show you some photos next week.  Till then, enjoy your quilting.

Spring flowers

My finish today is the Disappearing Hourglass which I started here and continued here: a flowery quilt for the spring flowers and blossom we are enjoying at present.  It is not quilted but the blocks are all made and the top is together.  As I have to go shopping for a backing, that's as much of a finish on this project as I can manage for the time being.

The top ended up measuring 42" x 56", that's 48 seven-inch blocks set 6 x 8.  As I write this I think I might just add a narrow white border to float the blocks and give the eye a place to rest before the binding.  But I'm counting it as a finish all the same!

Lots of gardening at the moment, the plants are growing almost visibly in the glorious warm sunshine.  So quilting is taking a bit of a back seat.  Here is a glimpse of some of my ongoing projects though: I hope you will see them come to a finish in the next few weeks.

I'm linking today to Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish it up Friday.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Friday finishes x 2

Yes, I have TWO finishes today - amazing, feels so good, as both have history.  It is great to get them completed.  I especially enjoyed handstitching the bindings, that final stage when you can take time to enjoy the process of completing.  It is almost sad when you get to the last stitch, as it's farewell to that quilt and on with the next!

So here we have the Flannel Square in a Square quilt with Flying Geese borders which was stitched on to Foundation-by-the-Yard.

All from stash, using up some flannels which must be at least 10 years old, ditto the foundation. Started here, so quite a quick turnaround for me.  It ended up being a fairly easy little project and I didn't agonise too much over which fabric went where - more a case of how big the pieces were and would I have enough...

Anyway I did have enough, and I even had a piece large enough for the backing (with a strip of green pieced in), and I also found I had enough large patches in a pink/tan/navy palette to make another small quilt top (41" x 52") in half-square triangles (5 1/2" block).







































This one isn't finished as I don't have a backing, so it will have to wait a while longer.

The completed Square in Square quilt was small enough (33" x 41") for me to quilt in the ditch around the shapes, as it did involve a fair amount of turning.  However there's not much point doing fancy quilting on flannel as the thread sinks without trace, and a grid of any kind I thought would be a bit heavy.




















The ditch stitching looks quite nice on the back as it echoes the geometry of the front. Lovely sludgy greeny gold Aurifil thread matched the backing perfectly, and I used a green Mettler thread I had in my box for the front.

Even the wadding was from scrap - so a totally stash project: hurray!

The flannel scraps that are left (remarkably there still seem to be quite a few) will be donated elsewhere - I am done with them.  Such a good feeling.

Second finish is the Remembrance quilt I last blogged about here.  Yes, I know that is quite a while ago.



I messed up the quilting and it puckered horribly - I was trying for too close a grid and I think the 80:20 wadding was just too lofty to lie flat and submit.  It has taken me till now to unpick it all, as I had done rather too much before getting the message to start again.  Also the thread colour was such a great match that I could only unpick in good daylight, which has been in short supply this winter.

Once the old stitching was out I found that I actually did not have to re-layer, a slightly surprising but happy discovery.  Less dense quilting was the answer: I ditch-quilted the verticals between the nine-patches and then went across the diagonals of the hourglass blocks and nine-patches.  It's enough, I think.

(In the photo above you can still see the Hera marked crease lines of the original grid - time to put the quilt in the washing machine...).  

So, after all the delay and despondency I am happy with the finish.  

The quilt measures 48" x 59", a good lap size, and it was made with the leftover fabric from the Album quilt I showed you here.  Backing stripe from stash with a bit of green textured solid pieced in.  Another scrap/stash project done: double hurray!

I hope you are able to press on with your projects this weekend, and maybe even enjoy a finish or two?

Linking today to Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish it up Friday - it's lovely to have Amanda Jean back blogging again.  Have a look at her gorgeous Birch Trees quilt.

WIP Wednesday - Quartet BOM progress

Quartet BOM:  I have managed to finish my first circles block!  Despite my avowed dislike of applique I really got into it with this project.



I have even started on prep for the second circles block: only 49 more tiny treasures to stitch...

Sorry about the threads - rushed to get these photos and didn't check the detail..













I also joined both the Log Cabin blocks, having spent the usual ridiculous amount of time agonising over the layouts...  Mind you, it is a lot easier to shuffle around 49 blocks which only measure 2 3/8" each and can fit on a tea tray, than 49 regular 6" or 8" blocks which need a design wall or most of the floor for laying out.

You will see that the first set of blocks (above) has a more random use of fabric whereas the second Log Cabin variation (below, at the layout stage) has the same fabric for each complete round of logs. Basically I got the wrong end of the stick with the first set, but I am making a virtue of it...  My BOM will be unique.

Linking to Lee at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

In circles

As in, running around in circles...  Teaching, entertaining, cooking and tidying up.  Hospital appointments for my mother-in-law.  All the stuff that leaves you with nothing to show for how you have spent your day, but nonetheless necessary.

Not much sewing done, so all I can show you is a little hand applique of the circles block for my Quartet BOM (and also here).  I am no great shakes at applique so have been putting this off for a while; however, now that I have actually started, I am getting into the swing of it.

I am using YLI silk thread in either soft grey or light brown because one or the other colour blends with most of the taupe shades, and the very fine thread means my not-very-neat stitches melt into the fabric.

Hope to be more productive next week.  Meanwhile, here's a lovely colour study of Helleborus lividus, all dusky pinky and creamy yellow with beautiful marbled leaves.  Spring is definitely on the way...

Linking to Lee at Freshly Pieced: WIP Wednesday.  Love her studio.

Disappearing Hourglass and more...

Quick post this week as I am teaching tomorrow (String Quilts, my favourite, at my LQS) and we have friends visiting on Sunday, so lots of non-sewing things to do.

I have made almost all of my Disappearing Hourglass blocks: here are a few laid out on my small design board.  This number of blocks would be about the right size for a cot quilt, but I want something a little bigger.

Slightly to my surprise, I must confess, the piecing went really well, with nice sharp points.  I have always been a little suspicious of the various 'disappearing block' methods as I think they can give rather inaccurate results, but  (admittedly with careful cutting) these were a delight.  In fact the only block which went awry was one where the ruler slipped as I was cutting.


Spring cleaning turned up a box of ancient flannel fabrics (OK, not all that ancient, but distinctly out of fashion nowadays).  I also found some Foundation by the Yard and decided to make another quilt by this method and use up them up.

I made a small Christmas quilt years ago in just greens and tans with a smidgeon of red, but this time I will be using up all the rest of the colours in the box as well, mostly blue and brown.  It is likely to still be rather Christmassy: hard to escape that look with these shades of red and green, plus the snowflakes, of course....

Final WIP, just a glimpse, is the wedding quilt I have been working on for the lovely daughter of a dear friend.  I have almost finished the blocks and will be having fun soon with the layout.  This will be a cozy quilt for the newly weds this autumn, I hope.

So next week looks like it might be busy...  I have to make hay while the sun doesn't shine, as the garden will be taking all my time soon.  It is a cold, wet Spring here so far and I won't start gardening properly till the weather is more reliable, but it won't be long now: my machine needs to work overtime to get these projects more or less done before then.  Will keep you posted.