Exhibition in Langlade, Gard

I have received an invitation about an exhibition in Langlade, the heritage day at the local windmill. I wish I were visiting next week when this is to be held ! For textile lovers, there is a collection of traditional shawls in cashmere, there is a market of local products and of course meals and music. If you will be nearby, go if you can ! Langlade, 19 and 20 June 2010.

Provencal Scraps

I had a small bag of scraps of provencal fabrics bought at a quilt show, none of the pieces were very big and I wanted to make the best use of them. I pieced a top hardly cutting the fabrics at all, just rearranged them to make the most of them. I used the top a few times to transport my boutis, and yesterday I decided to finish it. Simple quilting, because this quilt is only going to be used to roll up and protect the boutis !!!!

Boutis Finishing CLass

Yesterday we had a finishing class in West Pasco, with 10 delightful ladies participating. While I did take my camera, I forgot to take any photos.
As I was setting up the handouts for the class, I realized how very many options we have for finishing a boutis, much more than I had originally thought. I enjoyed the class a lot and hope the ladies who participated will continue on with the boutis and love it as I do. We had one lady who had made another version of the beginner class project stuffed with colored yarn, which gives a soft shadow effect on the finished piece. It was very pretty and she had done such a good job !

Pour nos amies en France, je vous souhaite une bonne fete des meres - j'espere que toutes les familles sont ensemble et vous passez une bonne journee.

Happy Mothers' Day Bonne Fete des Meres Beste Wuensche zum Muttertag

Happy Mothers' Day to everyone ! Not much blooming outside just now, but these flowers are for all of you. We have all experienced a lot of joy with our children, and some heartache too. I hope yours have all remembered you today, and I wish you a wonderful day with your families.

Procrastinating Quilters Retreat

Every year our quilt guild spends a weekend down at Dayspring in Ellenton for two days of fun, stitching, eating ......you get the idea. This weekend we were wondering just how long we have been doing this, and I think it is at least 8 years. I set up the first one when I was guild president, and I am pleased to say that the tradition has continued

We are spoiled, we stay in little cabins, and have three meals a day cooked for us. No cleanup necessary ! We have a large meeting room to set up our sewing, and we can sew to our hearts' content.

Here are a few pictures of the projects that were finished, and some of the ladies busy at work, so you can get an idea. I am already looking forward to next year !

Oh, the red quilt center is what I was working on - this is just the center, I have made many more blocks but did not have time to put them together yet.

Hearts from Pierrefeu

With great delight I received the hearts from Pierrefeu. Thanks to Lou, who collected the hearts for us and sent them over. Some of them have wonderful Provencal lavender inside, they smell heavenly.

I really enjoyed doing this, so if Henriette plans on it again for next year, we will certainly participate. There is nothing happier than the sharing of a hobby, as I am sure all you quilters and boutisseuses will agree LOL

Un grand merci a toutes les dames qui ont fait un travail superbe. Nous allons conserver precieusement les coeurs que vous avez fait pour nous.

Mystery Quilt Day

The quilt guild I belong to has a mystery quilt day each year, one Saturday in the spring. I have not always been able to go, but have always enjoyed the ones I attended. This last Saturday was the mystery day this year, and here are some of the photos of the finished tops (some of them are even quilted too !) The mystery is planned by a group of ladies in the guild, and this year's theme was "waste not, want not" - the idea was to use up fabric you already had in your stash. I used lots of different blues, and will show you mine when it is finished (I hope you are prepared to wait LOL !)

Anyway, I am sure you will agree that they came up with a great idea, and it was a fun time.

Boutis Show Pierrefeu du Var

This past weekend, the association Lei Roucas dou Barri had a wonderful boutis show in France. I wish I could have been there ! The next best thing though, has been to look at the beautiful photos of fantastic boutis pieces. We are lucky that www.boutis-et-cie.blogspot.com has provided us with a lovely album to look at. Go to Lou's blog and click on the link in the text for "Exposition Pierrefeu". Nini also took lots of photographs, and she kindly made an album for others to enjoy - go to her blog at www.ninipetitsboutis.blogspot.com and click on the link "ICI quelques photos" and you will find her pictures.

It is so inspirational to be able to see such exquisite work, imagine how many hours went into making these pieces ! As I looked at them, I decided to try harder to make my work as exquisite - it's good to have a goal !

We participated in the heart exchange (you will see photos of the many hearts on the red wall in some of the photos) and I hear that there were 170 hearts ! These were then exchanged, so we are waiting excitedly to see what comes back from France for us here ! It was such a great idea of Henriette's to do this, now we will have contact with other ladies in France who share the same passion.

Merci a toutes pour l'inspiration, je suis completement eblouie par ces ouvrages, tout si parfait et original.

Boutis Class

Last Saturday I taught a beginning boutis class at the West Pasco quilt guild. They have been very supportive of my boutis efforts, and welcomed Nicole to teach there last year (it is almost a whole year ago - amazing). I enjoyed the class a lot, the ladies were interested and were doing very nice work already - it is such a pleasure to teach a motivated and talented group ! Thanks to Anne for the photo.

In a couple of weeks I will be teaching a finishing techniques class. It seemed to me that finishing techniques are often ignored in beginning classes, as there is very little time to cover everything and get some stitching done in one day. I have developed a notebook style class in which we will cover about half a dozen different, interesting finishes.

So if you are in the area and want to take a class in boutis, let me know !

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone ! I hope that whatever you are doing today, you have a moment to be happy and joyful with someone you love, whoever that may be ;-)

One more heart !

Here is Catherine's heart for Pierrefeu - hope to get two more tomorrow and then I will mail them all. Catherine made a little map of Florida on the back of her heart, it's very cute.

Boutis Owl

Here is another beautiful boutis made by another lady in our small group, Catherine. She entered this lovely little owl in a local show and won three blue ribbons ! Congratulations to Catherine, who is at home now recuperating from surgery.

Hearts in Boutis - Part Deux !

I received these lovely photos today from Sharon - she is one of the earliest members of our little group here and does glorious, careful work. The second photo is of her completed piece from Nicole's beginner class here in March 2009, which she entered in the Manatee County Fair - and you can see that it won first prize ! I am very proud, because I feel that the work we are doing in our little group is of very high quality and in respect of the tradition.

The first photo is of Sharon's heart for the Pierrefeu exchange - another beautiful piece of work. Congratulations to Sharon for her prize and her lovely heart - she has big plans for her next pieces so I look forward to showing those !

Hearts in Boutis

Our little group here is participating in the exchange of hearts for the mur d'amour at the boutis show in Pierrefeu du Var next month. We have to get ours ready early because of sending them to France. I did post about the show a few times, but you can also visit the link at right (mame83).

These are the first two, Janet's and mine, and I will post photos of the others as I receive them - we are planning on having 6 to send so keep your fingers crossed that everyone has time to finish !

Unsere kleine Gruppe hier beteiligt sich an der Auslosung von Boutisherzen bei der Ausstellung in Pierrefeu naechsten Monat. Wir muessen natuerlich eher fertig sein, weil ich sie mit der Post schicken muss. Ich habe schon ueber diese Ausstelling geschrieben, aber wer moechte, kann den link rechts besuchen (mame83

Diese sind die ersten zwei, von Janet und mir, ich werde Fotos von den anderen zeigen wie ich sie bekomme - wenn alles planmaessig laeuft, werden wir 6 schicken, also drueckt uns die Daumen dass alles zeitig fertig wird !

Voici les premiers deux coeurs pour l'echange du mur d'amour a l'exposition Pierrefeu du Var. Nous voulons envoyer 6 coeurs, j'espere que tous seront bientot finis !

Fil Blanc (White Thread) of France Boutis

In the latest issue of Fil Blanc (No. 9, 15 Jan 2010) Annie Noual of France Boutis, and Claude Pasquie of Loisirs en Garrigue, were kind enough to write articles about my visit last October. I wrote about this when I got back from France, and the pictures are there (Oct 2009 - check it out) It was such a wonderful time, and so much fun to share a common interest with the ladies who have done so much to keep the boutis alive and growing. As Annie says, I was a little apprehensive about learning how to make the lampshade, but under her expert tuition, I was able to complete it and hand-carry it all the way back to Florida - it only suffered *slightly* when I sat on it in the plane :-) Lou at http://www.boutis-et-cie.blogspot.com/ got everything ready for me so I wouldn't have to bring so much (and she didn't sit on her lampshade ! - and even made by hand the beautiful pottery base for it - go and look at her blog).

Spoiled even more !

We have just spent a long weekend on a cruise from Tampa to Cozumel - here are a few pictures for all of you buried in snow still. It was a quiet few days, and great weather until yesterday, where we had a long and rainy day at sea. What this has to do with the boutis ? Nothing, except I did spend the rainy afternoon working on my heart for Pierrefeu - got most of the stitching done, too !

Spoiled !

I have been lucky enough to have received two gifts this week - wonderful handknitted socks from http://www.onlyangelika.blogspot.com/ Angelika, and a beautiful book from Nicolehttp://www.boutis-et-cie.blogspot.com/ with lovely projects I can use some of the Rouenneries fabrics with. Thanks so much, it has really cheered me up. What would we do without the kindness of friends, the world would be a sadder place !

Rouenneries Fabrics

I am so delighted with the new fabrics I ordered and just received - they are absolutely to my taste and just gorgeous ! The line is Rouenneries by Moda, I have been thinking about ordering these since about November, but with all the holidays, etc. it wasn't a good time. Now I have got them, I want more ! In my opinion, these are the best and most authentic looking French designs I have seen in a new collection, and the fact that they have a cotton-linen blend toile that is wider is very French. I should probably say that I have no affiliation, etc.etc. LOL

I think a pieced quilt would be great for these, and I have been looking at all the wonderful patterns Bonnie Hunter shares on her website http://www.quiltville.com/ Bonnie has a great system for scrap quilts, and if you visit her site you will see what I mean - be prepared to spend some time reading about how best to use scraps !

Ich bin vollkommen begeistert von den neuen Stoffen die ich gerade bestellt und gleich erhalten habe, sie entsprechen ganz meinem Geschmack und sind sehr schoen. Es handelt sich um Moda Rouenneries, und ich habe schon seit November vor, diese zu bestellen, aber mit allen Feiertagen usw. ging das nicht. Jetzt wo ich sie habe, will ich noch mehr ! Meines Erachtens sind sie die besten und authentischsten franz. Muster, die ich in einer neuen Kollektion gesehen habe, und ich finde es sehr franzoesisch, dass es sogar einen breiteren Baumwoll-Leinen Stoff mit Toilemuster gibt. Vielleicht sollte ich noch sagen, dass ich keinerlei Verbindung zur Firma habe LOL !

Ich denke, ein Patch waere am besten, und ich habe mir Bonnie Hunter's viele Muster angeschaut http://www.quiltville.com/. Bonnie ist die Koenigin der scrap quilts, ihr werdet sehen - frau soll einige Zeit einplanen, um durch die vielen Beitraege zu stoebern.

Voici mes nouveaux tissus Moda Rouenneries - c'est absolument mon gout et je trouve qu'ils sont tres reussis, enfin les nouveaux tissus dessin vraiment francais. Je pense un Patch serait tres beau, et je suis allee voir http://www.quiltville.com/ les bons patrons de Bonnie Hunter - la reine des scrap quilts ! Il faut rester un peu chez Bonnie, lire toutes ses astuces a propos des scraps, et voir beaucoup de jolis patrons.

Happy Sunday - hope everyone gets some time to sew today !