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 !

Souvenirs from Caissargues

 I did very little shopping at the expo in France, and I am sure I could have bought many more things !  I did purchase a piece of Den Haan Dutch chintz, a 2 yard piece which I thought would make a pretty, small courtepointe with a plain color on the reverse.  The pattern is from the "Island Marken" design.
Isabelle made me a gift of the fabulous white linen batiste shown, it is so beautiful.  I am planning to use it for the vanne below as my personal souvenir of a memorable weekend spent with the ladies and Hubert.  Hubert also had the idea for the design of  the needles from Bohin, they are specially for stuffing the boutis, are longer and fine, and have a blunt tip.

 France Boutis offered this wonderful pattern for a small "vanne" as the pattern for the expo in full size.  Recently it had appeared in the Fil Blanc but not full size.  Again, I think this would make a wonderful courtepointe if it was enlarged a little.  This is the pattern I will use the fine linen batiste for.

And finally, I picked up Janet's and my pochettes that Lou had patiently looked after since the exchange in March at Pierrefeu.  Aren't the scissors wonderful ?  They are small and elegant, hand made in  Nogent, and have long, thin, sharp tips, perfect for applique.   The scissor and knife maker from Nogent was a vendor at the expo, and he had truly wonderful scissors, some (very expensive) ones real works of art, a once-in-a-lifetime purchase.   These are a gift from Lou, who  spoiled me the whole weekend.  Thank you so much, I will always remember it.

Decorating Progress

 Nicole has made me this wonderful cross stitch monogram which she framed in a white, antiqued frame which goes beautifully in our small cottage.  She does such perfect work, and is very particular about how she does things, and this picture proved quite a challenge because of its size - she explains about it here.  I placed it in a small alcove in our living room wall, and gave it an antique child's head sculpture for company (it is a family piece inscribed Christmas 1908 in German).  I think they look good together.

In these two pictures you can see we are making some progress in making our rooms more livable.  I am not the best decorator and wanted to keep everything light and in natural colors.  I will be making a few bright pillows I think for contrast, and of course a boutis or two will have to find their way here as well.

 For the second bedroom we opted for a rattan sleeper sofa, this room gives onto a roof terrace which is just so pretty with the forest right behind.  We thought we would like to sit up here from time to time.

And as always, I love the view from my bedroom window at the front of the house.  I like to hear the Church bells chime (which they do every 15 minutes, and on the hour, 24 hours a day !)

Santon Boutisseuse

There was a wonderful surprise waiting for me at Nicole's home !  Some time ago, at the show in Pierrefeu du Var, I had admired the santons boutisseuses which had been commissioned especially for the show.  Hiromi had also admired them and we corresponded about it.  Little did we know, that Nicole had something planned for us !
This is what Hiromi writes on her blog:
Last March, after the pouch exchange project at the show of Pierrefeu du Var, Nicole was kind enough to collect my “new pouch” and sent it to me. Before then, she emailed me “I have already sent your new pouch to Tokyo”, so that I was waiting for it. She sent two pouches for us, my friend and myself. You imagine you will receive a small packet like an international package, don’t you? I definitely imagined as well.
Monday morning, 2 weeks after the exchange, I received “a large box” from Nicole. A large box for small two pouches? How large pouches are there? I opened the box and found pouches and another box inside. I opened it and... “she” was there!
After the show at Pierrefeu du Var, Henriette and some participants uploaded many beautiful pictures on their blogs. Heather who is living in Florida and I gazed at them and we were chatting by email about them, especially about the pictures of “les santons boutisseuses”, the traditional costumed dolls making boutis. We loved them very much. Of course, Nicole didn’t know our chat about “les santons”. So, I didn’t believe “she” was here!
I emailed Nicole. “Astonished! Thanks a million!!!!!!." She said “I bought 2 “santons boutisseuses” for you and Heather. I sent one of them to you. As for another, Heather will come here in May, so I will hand it to her. I keep it secret from her.”
I agreed to her plan and decided I would upload the pictures of my “santon boutisseuse” on my blog in May. This morning, I got email from Heather who had come home from Europe. She had finally met her “santon boutisseuse” at Nicole's apartment!
This is my lovely “santon boutisseuse”. I really thank Nicole and was touched by her deep and warm friendship for us.
Thank you again, Nicole.
Heather, I am waiting for uploading the pictures of your santon on your blog!!
                                                                         *******
Here are some pictures of the lovely santon Nicole chose for me (I think it is funny that both Hiromi and I chose to place our santons next to the lamp in boutis we made !)

The ladies of Lei Roucas dou barri made the individual boutis by hand for the santons, they are beautifully done.
Santons are the popular figures made to decorate a Christmas scene in Provence; some a very small clay figures, and others are larger and clothed.  There are several well-known santon makers.  This maker was chosen because of the lovely facial features of the santons.
This photos is courtesy of Henriette's blog - I think I have spotted both Hiromi's and my santon together - thank you

Links to more photos of Boutis Salon

My photos are very poor compared to many of the others taken during the expo.  Here are some links of Boutis friends and designers who took wonderful pictures that will give you a much better idea of what everything was like.  I had very limited time to walk around since I was in a class all day, and only there briefly Friday evening, so take a look at these gorgeous photo galleries:

Pierrefeu du var Henriette's blog

Marie Silvestre - who I was able to meet after admiring her blog and beautiful work - she has photos from each day separately on her blog

France Boutis of course - there are many pictures to see here

Dominique  Fave - her site is gorgeous, look at all her work here

Enjoy !

1st Salon National du Boutis at Caissargues, 11-13 May

I had a fabulous time at the first national salon in Caissargues last week.  I am just posting now since I returned to the US on Sunday night.  The ladies of France Boutis who organized this salon did a wonderful job, and I hear that there will be a second one in two years - a long time to wait !
The salon opened on Friday afternoon, following an official opening in the morning.  I will be listing a few other blogs with better pictures than mine, so you can go there and look at everything in more detail. 
The salon was organized with several very well-known boutis teachers, plus representative work of various clubs, and some specialized vendors.  I was fortunate enough to take a full day class from M. Hubert Valeri, who has a very different, precise and contemporary approach to boutis.  I learned two new stitches from him that are gorgeous and I will definitely be using in my work.  Other teachers present were Kumiko Nakayama, Dominique Fave (a very charming lady who does boutis on silk, making very original jewelry and contemporary items), as well as Francine Born.  Many of the individual stands had boutis used in interesting ways for clothing items, I particularly loved a silk jacket I saw.
There were antique boutis from various collections on show, always my very favorite thing to look at.  Mme Alphand had brought many interesting pieces to study, and she is fascinating to listen to.

Jupon displayed in a panettiere

Mme Alphand explaining details and techniques

Magnificent display of new and old boutis

Lots of shopping going on here !

I did not take many photos, since I was in class all day and honestly, I was so dazzled by so much boutis in one place that I wasn't thinking clearly about pictures !

1st National Boutis Salon 11,12,13 May 2012 at Caissargues

I am so thrilled to be able to take part in the 1st National boutis day organized by France Boutis !  I am going to be in Europe and amazingly, I am able to go to France this particular weekend.   I have signed up to take a class with renowned French contemporary boutis designer and architect, M. Hubert Valeri - so I will be spending all day Saturday enjoying that class, visiting with friends old and new, as well as just enjoying being in the middle of some fabulous boutis pieces.

There will be lots of photos afterwards to enjoy (I bought a new camera especially for this trip), but bear in mind it is not always allowed to photograph things in France, so I will only be able to show those where permission is given.  I will be staying with Lou and we have a wonderful weekend of friendship and stitching planned.  I have one suitcase - and it already has plenty of sewing supplies in it to go to France !

Here are the official flyers for the exhibition - go if you can, be sure to check the France Boutis blog for more information and links to other articles about fabulous first "Salon".

Hubert Valeri go here to see his wonderful designs

PQ Mystery 2012

Yesterday was the annual mystery quilt day for our Guild, the PQs.  The team planning this did a great job and picked a very good pattern.  When you are choosing your fabrics for a mystery, it's harder than usual because you really don't know what the quilt will look like, and in this case there was no cutting ahead of time, so we didn't even know how small the fabric pieces were going to be !

I chose some FQs in blues and browns from my reproduction fabrics, and I am very pleased how this is coming out.  Anyway, here are a few pics of the day.  I have to say the red and white was absolutely stunning, and my favorite, because I love two color quilts.  Thanks go to Cathy, Lynda, Lynn and Pauline, who organized the day and finished all their fabulous quilts to show us !
Sorry about picture quality, think it's time for a new camera :-)

Country Quilts and Bears - New Blog !

The ladies at Country Quilts and Bears in Clearwater, FL have launched a blog ! Go visit them at
Country Quilts and leave a nice comment, they will be thrilled !
I am very partial to this shop. It is the first quilt shop I ever visited, and I learned to quilt here from Becky. Actually, Becky has "infected" many, many people with the quilt virus, and you couldn't expect to find a kinder and more patient teacher. Over the years, I have participated in the Christmas Mysteries - from the very first one - and you would have seen my posts about those - if not, check out the December posts from previous years. Most of those quilts are even finished (gasp !), and some of them are my favorite quilts ever. Not just that, our quilt Guild, the PQs - Procrastinating Quilters, meets at the shop each month on the third Thursday evening.  So you can see, this shop has shaped my quilting life a lot.  Currently, I am working on the House quilt with Roni (also a fabulous teacher and one of the Christmas mystery initiators !), and our little group has really enjoyed the class. There are other fabulous teachers - Pam who does amazing piecing and whose quilts are very original, Diane who teaches handquilting, Francy and her cute bears, and Susan, who actually got me to finish a top in the class - those who know me will realize what a feat that was !
Go visit, and tell them I sent you !

Small Finishes

Hope everyone had a happy Easter !  It is not a holiday here in the US, so I am very envious of the long weekend my friends in Europe have had. 
I had a lot of fun making the knotted basket by Dame Valiste.  It is a wonderful tutorial and I can't wait to make a lot more of these as gifts.  There is another version with a buttoned top, I am going to make that with a small pincushion instead of a button to use as a sewing basket.  There is a surprising amount of room in the basket, just right for a small project.
The small red quilt is quilted, bound and hanging on its wire hanger.  Very simple, but a quick and fun project.  It will hang in the stairway of my new (old) house in Germany.

Small Quilt

Here is a simple, red and cream reproduction fabrics quilt top I made this week.  It's about 23 x 35".
I have a wire hanger I would like to hang it on when quilting is finished, and it will go in our house in Birkenhoerdt to hang in the stairway.  We don't have any pictures for the house yet, so I am planning to make a few quilts to hang up until we do.