French Finds

I have just taught for a week at Crafty Retreats at Mallety about 20km from Limoges. Some fantastic high quality work form a friendly bunch of students working with vintage materials and old bits of quilts. there were a couple of short trips to local brocantes and I thought I would share with you some of the lovely things I found.

a very old cotton net mosquito net

a piece of ragged damask curtain and a piece of needlepoint which matches perfectly

a little suitcase of fine sewing samples by Arlene Guinot

funky embroidered wood egg cup and cosy

bobbles from the curtain

embroidered bits

hand embroidered in wool belt

cute dog

the usual red and white linen

more linen and lace

old gold thread and alligator skin wallet

Free Style Patchwork

I think I do patchwork all the time, (though some of you might disagree!) as I join different shapes and elements together. I use the traditional patchwork building blocks but instead of building up a quilt top I use them to embellish garments. I want them to appear as having a patchwork element without being too heavy handed and I like that this free style approach allows me to let the shapes float away from each other a little. This week I have been working on a new piece incorporating these yellow triangles. I have also included pictures of some older work where I have used this approach.

Returning to Chateau Dumas

Lizzie Hulme who offers workshops from her beautiful Chateau Dumas in France gifted me a small tattered quilt in May and pieces of it have crept into this little book which will be following me to France this week when I board the plane for Limoges and teach for Crafty Retreats.
I will be returning to Chateau Dumas again next summer to run a week's worth of workshops if you would like to join me there. Full information about the course HERE