Birthday Petassoun

I have an early birthday present !  A beautiful broderie de marseille petassoun has come to live at my house.  Here are a few pictures to give you an idea.
 A petassoun is  a small lap quilt used to protect a mother's clothes from any newborn "accidents".  The everyday ones were probably used up, and I have seen quilted examples that were very worn.  These very beautiful ones were reserved for important occasions such as baptisms. 

This one is quite fine.  Most are finished with a tape on the reverse side of the scallops.  Sometimes a straight edge is finished with a knife edge hem.  There are regional variations, and the Marseille pieces are stuffed very well, probably because there was easier access to cotton goods, which would have been harder in small villages further away.
Several different sized pieces were made for important family occasions, always happy affairs like weddings and baptisms.  Each event was represented by certain symbols with different significance.
In this way, the women stitching were able to transmit the story of their family and their personal history.
I adore this work, I love making these pieces, buying them sometimes when I am really lucky,  reading and learning  about them and showing others.  I think I'm hooked !

A Start, a Finish, and a Gift !

I picked up my Houses from the quilter this week, and was SO pleased with the design !  It really enhances the quilt.  I have bound it now and so here are some photos - unfortunately it is rainy here today so the light isn't very good:

The quilt pattern is in Edyta Sitar's book, the figs are an addition of my own.

If  I finish something, I can start something else, right ?  Last Sunday I traced the lovely boutis pattern from France Boutis 1st Salon which I attended in May.  It is on the linen gifted by Isabelle, and I ordered linen thread this week.  I will have to redo the basting, I put plain cotton on the back and I don't like it, it is too heavy and not white enough.  A good Swiss batiste is going to be taking its place:

And last but not least ..... my husband was recently in Germany, and much to my surprise, brought home these three absolutely lovely thimbles for me.  They are very old silver, I haven't even cleaned them yet, and the best part of all - all three fit me to sew with !  I love old silver thimbles to work with, they seem soft and comfortable to me, and as Sharon says ... they already know how to sew !

Antique Petassouns

Just recently I was able to add to my collection of petassouns.  These two are very firmly stuffed, finished with a bias, and have the traditional design elements.  I always wonder when I see an old piece about the person who made it, whether for their own child, or as a gift, where they lived and what their lives were like.  For things like this to survive so long, through two world wars and many generations, they must have been treasured.
I am still hoping to find a beautiful big "vane" one day.  However, I enjoy looking at how these were made, what the stitching is like, how they were finished.  There is as much variation in the old ones as we have today in terms of quality of stitching, etc. 
J'ai trouve ces deux petassouns pour ajouter a ma petite collection.  Ils sont tres bourres, avec une finition bias, aux motifs traditionaux.  Toujours quand je regarde ces ouvrages anciens je pense a la boutisseuse, si elle l'a fait pour son enfant, ou comme cadeau, ou elle habitait et les circonstances de sa vie.  On les a garde bien, pendant deux guerres mondiales et plusieurs generations. 
J'ai encore l'espoir que je trouverais une vane.  J'aime bien les regarder, apprendre comme on l'a fait, les finitions et la qualite du travail, comme aujourd'hui il y a beaucoup de variation.
Un bon dimanche a toutes

Antique Boutis

I am always hopeful that I will be able to expand my small collection of real, antique boutis, and so it was with great joy that I acquired two more petassons recently.  These are difficult to find and sadly very expensive, so my collection will remain rather small  !
Here are a few photos taken outside this morning.  We have had so many thunderstorms and a lot of rain recently, so this is the first opportunity I had to take some pictures.

Je suis si contente d'avoir pu acheter ces magnifiques petassons.  Je suis passionnee depuis ma decouverte du boutis, et j'espere toujours ajouter a ma collection tres petite.  Les boutis sont en bon etat, bien bourres, et beaux. 

Ich bin sehr gluecklich, dass ich letztens noch zwei kleine alte Boutis habe kaufen koennen.  Leider sind sie extrem teuer, und obwohl ich immer gerne zu meiner kleinen Sammlung beitragen moechte, passiert das eher selten !  Diese sind in gutem Zustand, fest gefuellt und ich finde, sehr schoen.

Brocante in Arles

Lou and I went to Arles on the first Wednesday for the brocante market. It was a bright and sunny day, ideal for wandering along looking for treasures. We both bought a "pique fleurs" to hold our embroidery scissors, such a great new use for the old-fashioned vases which were never very kind to flowers anyway ! Lou spotted hers first (she has a very sharp eye LOL) and so she got a very nice one with a base of pewter and elegant little feet. I bought a very nice monogrammed linen sheet, a long rectangular table runner ideal for my long table, and of course the pique-fleurs. We spent some time looking at old embroidery newspapers, there were even some with our birth years ...... no, I will not tell how old we are !

Afterwards we had a great lunch at an unusual restaurant serving tajine and couscous ..... and then we went in search of (what else !) a little quilt shop. Such a pleasure to visit this tiny shop in a very quiet and unexpected corner and chat with the owner, Cornelia Pradel. She has been featured in a number of French quilting magazines.

The next post will be about the expo in Calvisson .......

Antique Needlework Tools

I love small needlework tools in silver, and I do wish I could have a large and varied collection. However, these things are hard to find, and of course are expensive. This first picture shows everything together, I do have two contemporary thimbles and their cage in this picture, as well as a reproduction silver needlecase, the rest are antique. The front needlecase is Dutch silver, which I have had for many years and was my very first purchase of this kind,
These are the new thimbles, thimble case and needle case I added to my collection for Christmas. I was delighted to be able to find them, and just love them for what they are - I do not have a system of types or manufacturers, just what appeals to me at the time - most of all, I love those that have been used - paradoxically, these are not as valuable generally as the pristine examples, but, as my friend Sharon says, they already know how to sew, and that is why I love them.

Here are some close ups - the needlecase on the left is from Birmingham, England, hallmark dates to 1899. The thimble in the middle, also Birmingham hallmark 1891, is my favorite, as it is the most worn along one side, just the way I stitch myself.

Aren't they beautiful ?

I hope you are enjoying the start of 2010, I went shopping yesterday with my friend and am now set for the New Year ! As with most people, I have a vague list of resolutions, but have purchased calendars, to-do-lists, and notebooks because I am determined to be better organized this year. Of course, I have a long list of works in progress and UFOs, at the very TOP of this list is finishing my large boutis, which has had no attention for some months now. Hope you all get some sewing time today !