Pour l'Amour du Fil Part 2

The name of the show translates as 'For the love of thread' and I'm sure we can all relate to that. Here are a few more photos of the great quilt show in Nantes which I visited on 26th April. I make no apology for showing you so many (though I have kept back quite a few even so) but do stay till the end to see the elephant....

First up are the amazing hand pieced quilts of Willyne Hammerstein which remind me of looking through a kaleidoscope as a child.

I believe that Willyne pieces over papers and hand stitches everything together. The fussy cutting gives wonderful variety and movement.

If you want to see more she has two books, Millefiori and Millefiori 2 which is new out.

I did not expect to like these quilts but they are absolutely stunning, the colours glow and I can only apologise that you don't really get a proper sense of their intricate beauty from my photos.

In complete contrast are the applique quilts of Irene Blanck from Australia.  Also exquisite but a totally different colour palette, style and technique.

The quilts were beautifully displayed and I would love to be able to show you more - I am not great at applique but these quilts just make me want to have a go.  I did buy Irene's book, Focus on Applique, so who knows, you may see my attempt on this blog in due course...

Two Japanese quilters next:  Fumiko Nakayama makes extravagantly coloured  quilts using the Mola techniques of applique and reverse applique.  The designs are exuberant and not at all what one expects when one thinks of Japanese quilting, but there is the same meticulous stitching and attention to detail that seems to characterise Japanese work at the highest level.  These photos cannot really show the way the fabrics are layered and cut back and stitched with absolutely invisible stitches to give just the right colour in just the right place.  Extraordinary.  And some of the pieces were huge!

These next photos are more of what one thinks of as traditionally Japanese, made by Tomie Nagano from recycled antique kimonos.

I'm afraid the camera flash has bleached out the smoky dark depth of the indigo but the pictures will, I hope, give a suggestion of the grainy texture of the cloth.  Again, these were large quilts made of lots of small pieces: the squares in the Double Irish Chain at the top were about 1 1/2" finished and I believe it was all hand pieced and hand quilted.  The last quilt which is a sort of Rail Fence pattern must have been hand pieced as you will see that the pieces all interconnect - no quick tricks here!

And here are just a few photos of quilts I liked but cannot attribute:

And some boutis, because it was France after all!  Such beautiful work, though not something I am ever likely to attempt.

And here is the elephant, as promised:  if you want to see him walk, this is the link to the video and you will be able to find out more at this site.

To finish, an amazing weekend.  Thank you for letting me share what were for me the highlights. There was so much more but I think you will have to go yourself one day.

My WIP this week is a New York Beauty which I started back in 2005 in a weekend workshop with Valori Wells.  Inspired by the sight of so many wonderful NYB's at the Nantes show I have dug mine out and will show you more in coming weeks (once I have mastered curved seams!).

Linking to Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday: always love her WIP's.

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.