Some more Nantes?Here we go!

A chair from Kaffe Fasset's stand, entirely embroidered.
I didn't dare to ask him how many hours he spend on making this chair, he might have had a little helper maybe............

The pullover had lots of quilty details, stunning result, but i cannot imagine to wear this.

Kaffe and Brandon Mably. Brandon is a cool guy, willing to explain, it was nice talking to him.

With Alma Allen and Barb Adams, sweeties, really.

Their stand was filled with quilts and embroideries, and the look allover was so cosy and country, crowded all the time.

A little pincushion from Barb and Alma.

The next four pictures were from Den Haan en Wagenmakers,Dutch antiques collectors as well as fabric designers, but i suppose that most of you know their story.

A beautiful antique appliqué in the exhibition area from Joe and Mary Koval.

Claude Leguenn and Kim, her assistant on the booth.

Claude is specialised in antique haberdashery, and has a lovely shop in Dinan, Brittany.

The shop is called FLEUR DE LIN ET BOUTON D'OR, she has a website and her knowledge of the subject is endless!

This is what we saw while entering the congress center, mouthwatering.

Petra Prins talking to Nel and Karen Witt, on Petra's booth.



I have more to show you about Nantes, in the Next few days, and thank you for the lovely comments and encouragements.

Will V in Paris, chilly and cloudy.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!

If you go to AN MOONEN 's website, you will learn more about Dutch quilts.
You might be interrested in an English version of her latest book A GEM!
She needs 500 pre-subscriptions .
Until now, she has 198 pre-orders.
Don't miss this wonderful opportunity if you are an antique quilt lover.
So sorry i can't direct you to her website, i'm such a nil with computers.........
Love, Will V.

I came back from Nantes lightharted and with lots of inspirations of all kind, but i will start by showing you some pics of antique quilts and people i've met there:

I fell in love with these:
tiny nine patches, four patches and a framing.
Maybe i prefere the second one:
medallion quilt, rustic, but the chrome yellow surely gives the overall bold impression.

Here is an overview from the ultra modern Congress Center in Nantes,

perfectly situated in the center, and only a few minutes walk from the railway station.

It takes only 2 hours with the fast train to get there!

Carol Veillon from QUILTMANIA.

These girls did a wonderful job, and always in a good mood.

With Mary Koval in her stand, the quilts she and her husband Joe brought to Nantes where from a very good quality,

and i hope they will come back next year.

With LEA STANSAL,

i will tell you more about her in the next days.

Yummy stuff from a local chocolaterie:

MACARONS, to die for, but better for us, the shop was closed when we passed by...................

I could not resist to this fabric, turkey reds and shirtings.

I've nearly runned out of this kind of fabric, so i decided not to feel guilty about buying some

And this book seemed very useful............

Yes , i hear you thinking!

My good friend Joes M is featured in the latest issue of Quiltmania.

The beautiful tree of life quilt is marvelous and belongs to her mother.

A quilt i made for the magazine last year and let me tell you that Guy did a very good job the way he pictured this one, it was a great pleasure to make it.

I'll be back tomorrow with more about this lovely quilthappening.

Hope you all had a good weekend,

Will V in Paris.

My lectures, scarfs, a surprise and another DJ

These are my favorite quiltbooks at the moment:
Childhood treasures is a MUST for doll quilt lovers, and even more because it's written by Merikay Waldvogel, i have all her books.
I met her in the 80ties in Paris, she gave a lecture on antique quilts, so little we knew then about the subject, and what a struggle to get reliable information...........

Stunning quilts is lovely too, but i had no time yet to get to the bones.

And i 'm plunged in Lewis and Clark:
i'm fascinated by travel stories, this part of the American history is breathtaking!
The other books are in Dutch, Bataven relates the life of Dutch immigrants in France, mostly during the French Revolution.
Pauperparadijs is a sad story, about extreme poverty and dictatorial paternalism and the influence on one family during several generations.





















Two scarves i bought at my junkshop:
both are provençal
i intend to use the for quilting,but i'm scared to cut such a nice fabric.

Look what the postman brought me!

A surprise from Francisca, she spoiled me with antique fabric from Spakenburg in Holland, one of the last villages where elder women still wear local costumes.

So precious because THIS IS FADING AWAY quickly!

Thank you so much Francisca, you made my day..........

I hesitated a long while to show you my DJ;

you've seen so many of them!

It's finished since 1998,and i loved to make it.

I'm pretty sure that this one was one of the very first ones finished in Europe.

It's pictured in 4 parts because of the difficulty to spread the whole thing.

I'm leaving on friday morning for Nantes, and will spend 2 days with my friend Jojo, so fun is in the air.

You'll have a nice reportage when i'm back.

Happy quilting ladies and have a nice weekend.

baskets and the canal St.Martin

We had a lovely walk, DH and i, on Easter monday.
The canal St.Martin starts just 4 subway stations away from our home, but we hadn't been there for years.
Just walking along the water, people just sat there, for a pick nick , reading, or playing with the kids.
The 10th is becoming a hot spot for bobo's as you see on the pics, but it's not hectic there and being in the neighbourhood of water always makes me happy.

The 10th is not exactly a touristic area, but there are some lovely archtectural elements to see here and there, like the black shop, early 19th cent.


Strong contrast with the green and yellow:
Antoine et Lily is a sort of post hippy shop and more ( small restaurant and bookshop too) bold colors but all the stuuf comes from China and India.

We stopped a while to see the perfomance, but it was pretty poor, and the guy fell several times, what made the kids hilarious.

Take a closer look to this:

a remnant of a big industrial complex from the late 19th cent.

I'm dreaming of a big workshop in such a place...........

I started a basket quilt last week, a bit ambitious maybe?

But i'm not alone with this, i have help from my friends.

Not the ones from the Creuse Convention, but quilters i know since more than 25 years.

We are all from very different horizons, but quilting makes strong ties, and we all make traditional quilts ONLY, so that makes things easy.

It was my turn this time to decide for the project i like and it will be entirely hand made.

I'm preparing the blocks to take with me this summer.

The reason i make the handles with red rick rack is that i'm lazy, and appliquéing assorted handles is such a long job!

It's not my idea, i saw it on a very rustic antique quilt, but it was with much bigger baskets.

I'm happy with what i've made until now.

Monday morning, Place des Abbesses, these guys played jazz, 40ties and 50ties music, lovely

These guys are American, jazz and a zest of klezmer, the dancing lady is dressed in thirties cloths, but that's hard to see on the photo.

Elder people, but still going strong.

Two tops today:
i had a subscription for several years for swatches from Vintage and Vogue,and it was fun to receive every now and the a big global priority pouch filled with little squares.
This one is really simple: just two squares, right sides together, sewn diagonally, and cut.
The main interest is in the border, the lovely swirl, a red-brown and the mustard yellow from the bigger border.
The more quilts i see, the more i love the very simmple ones...........

So different!

The background fabric was made from a duvet cover, old fabric but in good condition.

The rest is made from old ladies aprons, gathered mostly on fleamarkets and thriftshops.

I have now a random 20 years experience with making quilts from old fabric, and i can tell you that this stuff is a LOT LESS fading than regular quiltfabric.

Dh is holding up the tops, sorry for the mess around, i should at least have put away the ironing board, LOL


Concerning the war against clutter:

i made progress.

Looked for the very last time at clippings an magazines i had not looked in for at least ten years, filed newer ones, did a lot of cleaning and, the best of it: i did a lot of PAPERWORK.

And I HATE that, procrastination is one of my darker sides.

But tonight i will indulge myself with some Ben and Jerry's and working the hexagons.

Leaving you for now, a big plastic bag is waiting to be filled and will leave the house

Will in Paris