Progress on Houses

I have been working on these blocks for a while now, it has been a lot of fun.  A group of us are making the quilt in a class at our local quilt shop.  The pattern is from Edyta Sitar's book "Friendship Strips and Scraps".  The fig block I designed myself, the original does not have this in it.
With any luck I will be able to update this by the end of today !

Update Sunday night:  I managed to get everything put together, there are just a couple of stems and birds left to be added:

Boutis Expo Pierrefeu Part Deux

Lou has posted on her blog about Pierrefeu.  She says that the atmosphere is wonderful, a sense of happiness, sharing tips and tricks, makes this show unique.  She was kind enough to collect the pouches destined for Janet and myself, and now I have the photos.  I will pick them up when I visit in May, but more about that later.

The white one is for me, and the red silk is for Janet - aren't they gorgeous ?  I am so happy we participated and we will definitely do it again.  Use the link above to visit Lou, she has linked to her entire web album and you can just enjoy all of her photos.

Boutis Expo at Pierrefeu du var 10 and 11 March 2012

I wish we had all been able to attend this wonderful show of boutis !  Fortunately, we can all take part virtually by viewing the photos and reading the reports of other boutis lovers who were able to go.
This is the 7th time that Henriette and her team have organized this show, to promote the love of boutis and sharing among stitchers.  This year we participated in the pouch exchange, and two years ago, we participated in the heart exchange.

Here are a few links to some photo reports of the weekend:

Henriette who has started showing each pouch individually - she has a way to go since I believe there were 116 !
Marie has shared some of her impressions with us
The ladies of Boutis divins Chateau Gombert have shared these photos
France Boutis has posted a link to photos on their blog

And dear Lou, who was kind enough to collect our pouches and those of Hiromi, sent me photos last night because I simply couldn't wait !  She will post about Pierrefeu in a couple of days.

enjoy !

PQ Block of the Month

I have been working on the next round of the BOM we are offering our quilt guild.  I am just using scraps and the center is an old applique block I had.  I am quite enjoying the process but think I need some remedial piecing help !!!

I am so excited about the exchange in Pierrefeu.  Lou sent us her photo album yesterday and I can tell you the show was fabulous, lots of boutis and all different kinds of projects.  I have made a promise to myself to go one time (maybe even next year !).  You can really see that everyone thoroughly enjoys what they are doing and I am glad that the art is continuing.  I do not know yet which purse Janet and I are receiving in the exchange, I will wait for Lou to send us pictures.  There will be some links in coming days for pictures, I will post them as soon as I get them.

Sunday

I don't have any stitching updates to show you, since I have not done very much lately.  The house quilt is progressing and I am hoping to have that together soon.  A group of us are going to work on Kim McLean's Flower Garden, so I am busy collecting fabrics for that, and will start after the houses are finished. 
I have been to two quilt shows recently, but I don't think I have seen too many new things.  People are using up what they have collected over time I think, especially since cotton fabric has gone up a lot in price.
I want to make a few small quilts for the stairway in our country cottage, but I just can't decide what to do.  I would rather applique than piece, of course !
I am very excited today and can't wait to see some pictures from the boutis expo in Pierrefeu du var.
Janet and I, as well as Hiromi and Lou sent pouches to exchange.  The drawing was planned for this afternoon, so with the time difference they have already done it.  I can't wait to see what we will receive !!!  It was so much fun to participate, and the exchange has grown exponentially since the first one two years ago.  As soon as I have some pictures, I will share them.
Until then, what do you think of the bougainvilla growing in our garden ?  It was a poor pot plant which just looked sad until we planted it in the yard.  It is huge and beautiful now !
Hope you all get some stitching time today

Pochette for Pierrefeu completed

back

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.

France Boutis on TV !

A local TV program made a presentation on the small town of Caissargues, and France Boutis was invited to present the art of boutis to the television audience.  As well as boutis, this program showed the town and some other interesting local things.  The blog has a link to the 3 parts of the program, and you can look at them one after the other.  There are some interesting presentations and explanations by well known boutis stitchers,  as well as some up close photos of techniques.

For those of you who are not aware of France Boutis, it is a organization founded in 2007 by four passionate boutis stitchers, Annie Noual, Huguette Roux, Isabelle Thurin and Nicole Carre.  The association has as its goal the transmission of knowledge of boutis and encouraging a link between boutis stitchers, either in groups or as individuals.

Here is the link to the France Boutis blog and the first part of the program, the other two were posted afterwards and you will see them listed in the blog archive:

http://franceboutis.canalblog.com/archives/2012/01/31/23384510.html

PQs BOM 2012

For our Guild, the Procrastinating Quilters, Janet Roni and I are planning the BOM for 2012.  We decided on a medallion style quilt with an applique center, but wanted to offer options for others who prefer to piece.  The first photo shows the center cut from a very large poppy print, the second one is the center made from an "orphan" applique block I had.  I am still working on the applique block planned for the quilt, it is on a black background.  Janet is making the pieced blocks picked for the center.  I am hoping that a lot of people will participate since there are so many options to use favorite techniques.  We are splitting it up into 6 parts, and offering the patterns every second month.  At the end, the quilt will be about 58" square.  What do you think so far ?

7th Annual Meeting around the Boutis, Pierrefeu du Var

Boutis exhibition at Pierrefeu du Var, sponsored by the association Lei Roucas dou Barri
Henriette has asked me to pass on this information in English to anyone who is lucky enough to be near Pierrefeu in March:
These two days will include 2 vendors selling boutis supplies, a bookshop selling boutis books exclusively, and 22 groups or independent boutis stitchers who will be demonstrating their expertise and working to promote the exchange of ideas.
This year we proposed making a small pouch or purse to exchange as a link between stitchers.  The works will be displayed for the 2 days of the show, and then will be exchanged by pulling names out of a hat.  Each pouch will leave with a different boutis stitcher, thus creating more pleasure and exchange of ideas.
Up to now 92 boutis stitchers have signed up for this exchange.

I wish I could attend, I think this will be wonderful yet again.  Nevertheless, Janet and I will be there in spirit, as we are working hard to finish our pouches in time to send.

Christmas Impressions

This year, we did something totally different for Christmas:  we traveled as a family to Germany to spend the time there, a big change from our usual Florida Christmases.  You may think this was an odd choice - leaving here where the weather is lovely this time of year, for a cold and wet climate. 

We had a special reason too - we now have a small family house for our vacations, and I was anxious that the kids should be able to visit it with us and help us get organized - which they did, and we are especially grateful to our son who did a lot of work outside clearing bushes and even cutting down a tree (no small problem, the tree was hanging over our garden from the edge of the forest)

We did take some time off too, as you can see - these photos are from Kaysersberg in Alsace, the birthplace of Albert Schweitzer.  Kaysersberg has a beautiful and famous Christmas market, spread throughout the small town.  Although it was a cold and wet day, we still enjoyed walking around.

The house decorations are lovely and understated.  Interesting arrangements of natural things and a few touches of color with ribbons are more usual than the flashing multicolored lights seen in the US.

This was especially beautiful as it started to get dark, the nativity in the square in front of the church.  There is a concert in the church each Sunday afternoon of Advent, but it gets very crowded and was full before we got there.

Our daughter got her wish for some snow, here is the church in our new village.  The village is a very nice and lively community, with a living Advent calendar in the days leading up to Christmas Eve.  We were invited to attend and really enjoyed the warm welcome and conversations with our new neighbors.

I took this picture because it reminded me of strength and resilience in the face of adversity - something I should think about more often.

This in front of the church.

And this is a small glimpse of our house and barn.  The house was built in 1898. 

A view of the village from the mountain behind our house.

The chapel on the mountain directly above our house (well, maybe not directly, a half hour steep climb !)

No tree this year for us, we were working on getting the basics set up, but we had to have a little Christmas atmosphere.

You may remember this quilt ? 

So here is our living room in candlelight.

Our first gift for our new house from Lou thank you so much, it is beautiful and just right - there is a niche in the wall and we put this lovely cross stitch in there.

The view from my bedroom window.  I love the church tower.  The bells chime each quarter hour, and count out the number of hours on each full hour after chiming all four quarters.  I woke up at night a lot at first, but then I got used to it and found it comforting. 

Happy New Year Bonne Annee Prosit Neujahr !

Happy New Year to all.  I know I am a day late, but we have only just arrived back from our trip to Germany.  More about that later today with some pictures.
For now, I am thinking about 2012 and what it may bring.  My wish to all of you is for Peace, Health and Happiness in the coming year. 

Christmas Mystery at Country Quilts 2011

Some of you must be quite familiar with my favorite quilt shop now, since I have posted about it several times over the past few years.  The Christmas Mystery has been going on now for 10 years, and I have done them all except one, and so have a fair collection of Christmas quilts (in various stages of completion LOL).  Yesterday we started at the usual time, and the ladies really outdid themselves with the packaging of the kits this year, presented very nicely in a pizza box in the order needed to use them.  I forgot to take a picture, but all was tied up with a ribbon and label, it looked so pretty.
I did finish my top during the class, thanks to our teacher (she is very competitive - yes Susan I mean you !) and I really like the colors, unusual for Christmas, very fresh and pretty.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves !

Pizza box kits

Ready to sew !

Have to shop too ;-)

Hard at work

Visiting and sewing

Eleanor working on her featherweight

The big reveal

 The photos do not do justice to the colors of the quilt - there is ice blue, royal blue, dark prussian blue, the sashing of blocks is dark green and the inner border is LIME green - the quilt is fresh and pretty, but the colors don't show well in the shop light.

Beautiful machine quilting

Wishing you a quiet and peaceful 2nd Advent