January 2013

A rather belated Happy New Year to everyone !  I hope you all have a good, healthy and happy year, with plenty of stitching time.
I have been setting up some new things to stitch, and have made a little progress on older projects.  I received some lovely gifts from afar which I want to show, and my new project for the year is a large boutis of an original design which I commissioned.  I have finished tracing it and basted it yesterday, and I even enjoyed doing that because I looked at the design more closely.
Hiromi send me a lovely gift of a silver sewing set from Ireland, plus some Japanese fabrics and beautiful little pins.  She bought herself and Lou the same, as she says the 3 boutis sisters !  I love that since I don't have a sister ......
Lou sent me an antique handkerchief with an elaborately and finely stitched monogram.  It is amazingly fine, and I am in awe of the ladies who stitched these fine pieces in candlelight or daylight, without the benefit of the superfine needles we have today.

Looks like I will have to post the photos later, blogger won't let me access the photos on my computer .....Update:  I am still not getting the option to upload photos from my computer - Monika told me that others have had this problem.  How did you solve it ?  For now, I made a Picasa album and uploaded from there. 

Pochette for Pierrefeu completed

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I have just finished the pochette for the exchange in Pierrefeu.  What do you think ?

Boutis for Pierrefeu

I have made some progress on the boutis pouch for Pierrefeu.  All the stitching and stuffing is complete, washed, and here it is on a towel drying.  Next will be to trim and attach the bias binding to form it into a small bag.

Petasson Finished !

For a while I have been working on a new petasson.  On my last trip to France, I was able to purchase a very old, very damaged petasson.  When I got back I used the old one to reproduce the design, adding some changes here and there.  The center had to be re-interpreted because of the damage, it was very hard to see exactly how the original motif was drawn.  I have just finished it, here are a few pictures.  I am really pleased that I was able to save the pattern, since the original was simply beyond any kind of repair.  It has worn through in so many places. 
I am also in the process of binding a couple of quilts I finished recently, and will post those when they're done.  I am so pleased to be finishing a few things !!  I already have a list of the next projects, of course !