Boutis - Vanne 19th C

Vanne boutis, this style of boutis was frequently made for a marriage and is intended to lay on top of a bed.  To my very great pleasure, this one is now living at my house !

Each corner has the same basket depicted

There are wonderful garlands with flowers along each side

Here you can see the oval borders with channels stuffed

The central oval motif with straight channel filling

Recently I acquired a boutis which has been on my wish-list for a long time:  a vanne size approx. 143 cm x 161 cm, with my favorite kind of motifs and style.  I would date this about mid 19th Century, but it may be a little earlier than that.  It is cotton, the cotton on the back is a slightly looser weave, and you can see some remaining "holes" from passing the cotton yarn stuffing.   The straight edge is finished with a hem, and it is in excellent condition.  I still need to spend more time studying this quilt, but for now, here are some pictures.  The overall design is symmetrical, with each corner motif repeated 4 times, oval garlands surrounding oval borders.

Alsace

I haven't been stitching much recently, life has been very busy and sometimes sad.  At the end of September, we had our Guild retreat in Ellenton, Florida, and that was a fun weekend.  I did do some stitching then of course, but there is nothing yet to show from that.  I set up some applique, started a new pieced pattern, and generally enjoyed the company of like-minded ladies.
I am sharing a few more photos of our trip to Birkenhoerdt in September, most of these are from Alsace/Wissembourg, plus  a few villages surrounding our own. The time for these flowers has passed now, and the late autumn is bringing colder weather. 

Our adorable little house, just can't resist taking pictures.  I am hoping to put up shutters once the grouting has been redone.  I was thinking that the plaque in the middle would make shutters impossible, but I have seen some that fold back on themselves if there is only space on one side, so I will be looking at those.

St Gallus - "Ana Selbdritt" about 1500

All the above photos are impressions of Wissembourg

Gleiszellen

September on the wine route ....

The grapes are glorious right now

View from our upstairs hallway

I found a small chest and old wash jug and bowl for the guest restroom

Our village church had the 150 year anniversary of its consecration, so all was decorated in the diocese colors of yellow and white.  I planted two old sandstone pots like this

We love our little house !

Wissembourg

Wreath of dried flowers bought at a farmers' market on the last day

Last week we spent some time in our house on the southern wine route in Germany, and also helped our son get organized for his new degree program at the FH Aachen, campus Juelich.  Despite being a hectic week, we did do some fun things, and just enjoyed being out in the beautiful late summer weather.  So here are a few impressions of house and some local villages last week:

Applique Projects and Fabric Quality

Energized by spending time with stitching friends yesterday, I went home ready to start on a new applique quilt I saw in the July/August Quiltmania - a new project by Minick and Simpson called Rambling Rose.  I loved the colors and thought this could be a good challenge to make using only fabrics from stash.  This is the first block - I am not entirely happy with all the fabrics, but as I said, it is a challenge to use what I already have (and due to some unforeseen work in my house, I can't get at everything right now !)

 So here it is pinned and ready to go - the blocks are large and the applique pieces simple, so it's a perfect relaxing project for the evening.

Up next are the three blocks I have finished of the Flower Garden quilt.  The next two are pinned - the second one is not entirely cut out yet, so the flower looks bulky, but you get the idea.

Playing with our fabrics old and new yesterday brought up the topic of recent changes in fabric quality.  Since we had boxes of our stash fabrics in front of us, together with new pieces just purchased, we could really see how the quality has changed recently.  Our older fabrics are smooth, sturdy and do not distort;  our new fabrics are thinner and stretchier.  Bearing in mind that fabric has also increased in price, we don't like to see that the fabric is poorer quality as well.  I hope that this subject has been brought up to the manufacturers, because I have heard other stitchers complain of the same problem.  We are starting to wonder how our projects will hold up over time.  I have always only purchased "quilt shop quality" fabrics, believing that this will result in a better quilt for the time I am investing.  For now, I am shopping in my stash, until I see an improvement !

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 !

Playing with wool

Yesterday Janet (no blog yet but coming soon !) and I spent some time playing with our new wool block of the week from here
I don't like working with fusible web, it is a personal preference (I know many people love it !), so I was happy to find some new tips in this book:

These ladies suggest washable glue sticks and staples !   Well, it's worth a try I thought, so I got out my little stapler and glue stick, and I have to say - love it !!  The stapler does not leave a mark in the wool, the glue does not stick hard but seems to hold things in place.  Here are the first two blocks:

To be fair to the designer, I changed the flower on the second block drastically, hers was much more complicated.  Another thing about this summer project, is that there is a freebie each week; this summer these are small blocks of wool applique on cotton, here are the first four (not stitched yet, and the last two are glued/stapled, on the others I used fusible web)

I am going to match my thread to the appliques, mostly using DMC and some nice silk floss I have on hand.  I like a lighter look on the embroidery. 
Hope everyone gets some stitching time today !

Tulips

A version of this quilt was patterned in Quiltmania some time ago, a reproduction quilt made by Lucy of an old quilt she had seen.  I adapted it a little, and made it from stash fabrics, except of course for the School Bus Orange (yes, it is really called that !) Kona cotton used for the sashings.  It is really not my color, but I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt, I feel happy when I look at it, and maybe if I call the color cheddar ......  I could learn to love it !  Marlene did a nice job on the quilting, and it  has turned into one of my favorites.