Profile of a boutisseuse - Marie Silvestre

It is always fascinating to me to observe how others approach designing their own boutis.  Marie has just completed a beautiful, original boutis which will be displayed at at upcoming show.  I have had the pleasure of seeing her work before, at the first salon of France Boutis in May 2012.  Go over to her blog and take a look at her latest works, then go back and browse older posts with some of her other projects.  Don't forget to leave her comments, she loves to hear what people think of her boutis.

Marie gave me permission to describe how she designed this boutis so you have some idea of the time and dedication involved.  In October, there will be a boutis festival in the village of Calvisson, Gard, as there is every 2 years (see the link to the right, La Maison du Boutis).  The challenge presented by the founder  Mme  Francine Nicolle, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the boutis association,  was to design and execute a boutis on the theme of "In the Gardens of the King".

Marie started work back in March.  She knew what she wanted to draw, and avoided any problems of perspective by making her work an aerial view.  After a number of hours spent on drawing the designs, she transferred them to a large sheet of paper.  She says this was not easy, but she is patient.  To give you an idea, she spent 60 hours on the design.  Tracing onto fabric took another 8 hours.  She started stitching on April 10 and finished on August 24, taking a total of 551 hours to complete the entire piece.   "My Royal Garden" measures 74 x 63 cm.    Fabulous, isn't it ?

Progress on New and Old Projects - at least a century apart in style !

 Last Saturday, I went to a mini-retreat of a small sewing group called Bee Modern.  The idea is to try something that is in the style of modern quilting.  I have stayed away from this style mostly, since I prefer applique and a more traditional look for quilts.  However, I can't deny the sheer happiness of bright and crisp patterns !  I love white in quilts, and this kit with simple piecing and clean, clear colors appealed to me.  The top picture shows the rows laid out on top of one another.

I got most of the blocks done last week, and this afternoon sat down to piece the rows together.  Here in Florida on the Gulf Coast, it is our most uncomfortable time of year - hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms.  I got about 20 minutes splashing around in the pool before the black clouds moved in again - so a good time to sew for a while !

Here are the first two rows put together.

The quilt has a narrow blue border, then the cornerstones you see in the photo, and the vine print is for the main border.  Binding fabric is the green dot.  I was lucky enough to get one of these prints for the backing - the quilt itself is bed-size, 78 x 102 finished.  I will tackle putting on the borders next weekend.

On to my small petasson in the making.  The pattern is from Christiane Vignal's book, Boutis Traditionnel (one of my absolute favorite books).  I started this as stitching practice for my large boutis, I am still not happy with my stitching and so I sew a little on this one before continuing with the lovely large one.

No real progress made with better stitching, but although they are not very even, these stitches are very small.  I have no issues making very small stitches, but somehow even, regular work is  challenge for me.

Hard to see the overall pattern now that it is stitched, but it is a very simple traditional one.  Since I only have one small corner area of the tunnels left to stitch, I will finish this one now and stuff it, and continue stitching on the large one when it is not quite so hot to have on my lap !

Applique Baskets

I have been making these small applique baskets for a while.  I have some charm packs of French fabrics, so I drew a small basket that fits exactly on the 5inch squares (as I didn't want to waste any !) and the background squares are 6".  There are 30 finished now, and this afternoon I prepped another 70.  I have now used all the background fabric I had and am not sure yet how big I would like the quilt to be.  All the baskets are different, and all shades from pastels to very dark.  I have an idea for an applique center, and I also have some plans for the setting.  They have been so much fun to do - it is hot here now and they are small and not heavy in my lap .

I have made a little progress on my big and small boutis, but as I said, it is hot here and very humid, so having a larger piece on my lap is not too much fun at present.
Hope everyone had some time to sew this weekend.

Vacation

I have just got back from  vacation.  As usual we spent time in  our home in Germany, just on the border with Alsace, France.  I had hoped for better weather, but the first week was very rainy and cold.  The last few days, however, were sunny and warm, just in time for us to leave !  I only stitched on one of the days, because we were finishing up some things in the house, going to wine festivals, and generally sightseeing.  Although I do not want this to turn into a travel blog, I thought you might enjoy some photos.  I love the style of houses in this region, so here is a selection of Southern Wine Route homes and Alsatian ones.

And just for luck, some lavender stuck in our old barn door.

Boutis Exchange Pierrefeu du Var March 2014

The next boutis expo of Lei Roucas dou Barri will take place on the weekend of 8 and 9 March 2014

Every second year, there is an exchange of boutis pieces.  The other years, there is a challenge to create an original boutis based on a theme.

These are the rules for 2014:

Boutis in white cotton sheeting, batiste, silk, linen etc ......

Stitching and Stuffing:  white or color

Size:  8 x 15 cm (no smaller, no bigger) - approx. 3.15 x 5.9 inches

Shape:  flat or with volume (eyes and antenna how you wish)

Examples:  pincushion, scissor case, frame, lavender sachet, heart, .....

There will be a jury to avoid "unequal exchanges" which will check stitches, quality of stuffing, size according to the rules.  Butterflies which don't fit the criteria will not be shown.

For the 9th Boutis expo, the organizers are counting on the competence and earnestness of each individual to have an exchange worthy of the name, respecting the rules, which are there simply to ensure that the items shown and exchanged are of equal quality in research, harmony, precision, originality and fineness of work.

The theme is  A BUTTERFLY



The Association protects beautiful pieces - to give or exchange a boutis is to design and make it as one would wish to receive it.

Three of us from here are definitely going to take part.  In other years we have exchanged hearts, and small pouches.  There is plenty of time to think of a design, and I am looking forward to doing this again.

Le Boutis Ouvrage Divin

On Friday, just in time for our lovely long weekend, I received a parcel from Lou   It was a delightful book that I recently read a review of in the Fil Blanc, and know is very hard to get now.  I asked her if she would send me one if she could find it, and honestly, I did not hold out much hope - but, here it is !!  Thank you Lou, I love it.

The book does not have patterns, rather it is a selection of pieces from the author's collection with information about their provenance where available, size, and materials used.  My favorite is a lovely wedding vanne, made by a young girl in Draguignan, who lived in extremely modest circumstances.  Sadly, her fiancé did not return from a war in 1870, and her vanne was put away.  Later in life, due to financial constraints, she was forced to sell the piece to one of the families she worked for as a laundress.  I am not usually a very sentimental person, but I found this story very touching and thought of the sacrifice involved in buying the materials and spending many hours stitching this glorious design, after a long and laborious work day.

I was thrilled to find that I actually have the pattern for this piece in my collection of all things boutis, and so it is now on the list for "someday".  It is large and will be quite a lot of work.

Quilt Finishes and Works in Progress .....

I have been trying to get some items finished recently, so I can concentrate on what I really want to work on.  It bothers me to have so many projects in progress, and typically I don't like to have more than two or three going, mostly because then you don't see much progress on anything.  So here are a few finally finished !

This is the 2012 Christmas mystery from Country Quilts and Bears - lovely fresh star made of a jelly roll and white Kona cotton - it is quilted in red and green with a Christmas lights pattern (quilting by Marlene Hooten)

This one is another Christmas mystery,several years older - also quilted by Marlene.  Have to add the snowman's eyes !

Another Christmas mystery - bells and poinsettias.  Love this one !  The quilting is great with blue and brown poinsettias, goes well with the background.

 It was hard to keep the quilts draped on the chairs outside - it is a lovely sunny day here but very breezy and everything was slipping down.

This quilt has a sad, sad story.  Made several years ago, pattern was Prairie Flowers by Barbara Brackman.  I handquilted it with a wool batt.  My daughter liked this quilt and "borrowed" it for her apartment.  Meaning well,she washed it and put it in a hot dryer - well, you can guess the rest.  I really didn't know what to do with it, it was totally misshapen and you couldn't lay it flat.   I was ready to throw it away, but I had spent a lot of time appliqueing the blocks and borders,so I decided to try to rescue it.  It took me a week to rip out the quilting, and wash and press the top.  After that, it didn't look bad, so I took it to Marlene to quilt with a cotton batt.  So here it is - restored !

 Still have to put a new binding on it.

 Here are a few more Flower Garden blocks, I have finished 13 now.

 Inspired by a miniature quilt I saw at a quilt show, I drew a simple pattern for an applique basket, and am using a charm pack of French fabrics to make a scrap quilt.  Janet had more of the background and gave me that, so I am thinking of making this as big as I can, not repeating any fabrics.  It will be a true "charm" quilt, so I will be collecting French provence fabrics for some time !  All those so far are Valdrome charms, then I will use Olivades and Souleiado, depending on what I have.

Having got these things done, I really want to get back to my boutis.  I haven't made any progress on it for quite some time.