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.

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

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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.