news from Paris

I met Carol and Marie Claude at the craftshow in November and they had a delicious little booth with little quilts shown in the new magazine COUNTRY VINTAGE, sure i bought a copy.

Sylvie is working on this starquilt: DO YOU RECOGNIZE THE PATTERN JOES? and it turns out so sweet:yummy colors and nice quilting. We had a meeting at Michèle, she lives in an appartment in a suburb, with a view on a little lake, and the weather was as gorgeous as in early spring or fall, and with unreal warm temperatures.

The cold is on since only a few days, windy and some rain, but i don't complain, with Christmas in one week only.

Remember the serial knitter?She made a darling little bag and the brooch isn't bad too huh?

AnneMarie brought her latest top to show us, the double wedding ring with a stunning crazy embroidery.

One of Michèle's quilts hanging in the hall.

I'm currently working on this: a good friend gave me a tattered top, made from 16 patches blocks,some very damaged , worn out or stained.

So i saved the good squares, cut them into 2.1/4 inches and made four p, atches out of it.

The light blue fabric , very old too, fit nicely in with the little blocks, so see the result.

I'm not even sure it needs an outer border, but maybe some of you have brilliant ideas.....

Still loads of blue available.

This is one of the dollquilts i'm finishing,leftovers from a big bedquilt.

I'm not very much in the mood for Christmas, but i'll do the best i can and we're happy to see Elisa at the seaside.

Take care, Will V in Paris

Hexies in Quiltmania:

What a surprise when i went this morning to my bookshop and saw they had received QM.

Heart beats and sweating i opened the issue and saw that once again they've treated me so well.

The quilt is beautifully pictered by Guy Yoyotte and girls, you can start straight away because all the explanations are available. The paper hexagons are from Paperpieces.com.

Isn't this a lovely reward for all the hours working on the quilt?

I managed to make three more nearly insane blocks and approach the easier ones.......

Greetings from Paris, with this piece of wall art, LOUISE MICHEL, a french feminist and anarchist during the Commune of Paris, long years in jail.

Found on a wall rue Lepic and rue Véron, just on the corner.

The fact that my sister died only a few days before the Quiltmania appeared and was longing to see it as much as i did, just breaks my heart....

Take care you all and happy quilting, Will V

Back home

A few weeks ago a had a meeting with Randy D, my quilting friend from California. After  a lunch rue des Abbesses, we went to my home and pulled out the latest ufo's and fabrics. I adore this kind of reunions, i'm fascinated by other quilter's points of view on technics, whatever. Randy comes about twice a year to Paris with her husband,lucky Randy, wish i could go to the US only once more .....who knows,......... 

In the last period i made progress on  NEARLY INSANE .

I do the most intricated and tricky ones first, i tell you, one some ones i worked several days.

QuiltBook one helps me greatly to choose the fabrics.

All the blocks are shown in this book.

While in the Netherlands after the sudden death of my beloved sister, i digged into family history with her daughters, finding 2 photo albums.The first is my great aunt Hendrina, her husband went to the US to found a family with better future, but he became so homesick that he returned back.

The second one was my grandma as a newly wed, she was the one who taught me sewing and knitting, she was adorable and always found time for me as we all lived in the same house.

She died when i was sixteen.

Thank you for  all the messages, on the blog or mail , letters and phonecalls.

We felt surrounded with love, her daughters gave her a beautiful funeral and promised us we haven't lost a home in Holland......

Take care you all, warm greeting from Will V

IN MEMORIAM 1940-2011

My dearest sister Hans, so happy she was at the quiltshow in Deventer.

She was a flamboyant woman and, as her husband who died only 3 month ago, so open to people in need....

Such a terrible loss to all of us...........

The australian quilts

The absolute highlight for me were the Australian quilts, brought to France by Annette Gero. The wagga's, Australian utility quilts can learn us so much about recycling and make do: they had rather small sizes, and used by workers who went from farm to farm. The first pic is a wagga made from woolen samples.

The hexagons quilts was in a very derelict state, but i couldn't take my eyes off it.

An other wagga.

A feathered star medallion, maybe not the very best sample of Australian quilt, could be as well an American  or a Dutch quilt, but while i looked closer to the fabrics, i noticed the fabrics looked very English, a gorgeous one.

The appliquéd quilt was my favorite, she really did with what she had, the stems shows they were made from all sorts of scraps, not matching at all,yet so charming ...

The pattern are in Annette's book... so if life gives me time, one day...

Framed hexagons, nice quilt , pic is from a poor quality, sorry.

Sort of Roman stripes or chinese coins? Bars? I like the framing, as if the maker just joined rows to get a surface she needed.

Very ornamental chintz appliqué with the dancing dollies as a framing, pattern in the book and also available through THREADBEARS if i remember well

The last pic is a détail  from Edita Sythar's quilt. I liked hers for the perfect technical skills, but seeing them after the antique ones, i felt like a lack of emotion..... 

Well ladies this was written on a very sunny sunday, the ALL BLACKS won from the French in New Zealand this morning , and oh boy, those rugbymen a such GOOD SPORTS, take care and my thoughts go to the quilters preparing a trip to Houston , hoping one day i can go back there..

Willyne Hammerstein in Ste Marie

Look at her smiling face, while she is signing her book MILLEFIORI QUILTS at the Quiltmania booth in Ste Marie. And oh, you should have seen her quilts hanging there, sparkling and shiny, made from the most humble and unexpected fabrics.

I meet Willyne every now and then, and we talk about places where we hunt for stuff.if you look carefully at her pic you may notice that she seems to promote the book called HISTORY OF DUTCH QUILTS, but this is not hers.

MILLEFIORI QUILTS is edited by QUILTMANIA, it's a must have.

The border of this quilt was found by Willyne in southern France.

Aquilt from an Israelian quilter, carefully made and nicely quilted.

The last group of pics concerns the quilts from Brouage,beautiful copies of antique quilts. The last part will be about the antique quilts from Australia, brought to Europe by Annette Gero and her very supportive husband. See you then, take care , Will V in Paris

Ste Marie,some more.....

Thanks for the lovely comments on yesterday's post,the top belongs to Petra, and here is one more block to see, i fell in love as soon as i saw it, and yes i will try to copy this top: that makes me wonder how a quilter from around 1860 made her designs, she had not necessarily the skills to make it perfect and i see on the block that is is a bit wacky here and there. Folding pieces of paper?

I will dig out Jinny beyer's first book and see what she wrote about  designing intricated quiltpatterns.

Look at this marvelous antique palempore quilt from Holland,It's a family heirloom, belonging to Joes' mother, unfortunately you cannot see the backing, very nice , and a wonderful information about fabrics made around 1850

Here the original hexagonquilt i've copied lately, i once saw this quilt in Arnhem, think it was in the early nineties. The reds are from tickingfabric we call BEDDETIJK.

I was in shock, because if i knew this before, i could have used the same: i had a huge amount of this fabric, but used it for another purpose.....

That's the way things go, anyway, what a joy to see this quilt again.

I'm busy on finishing doll quilts at the moment, mess around in town and enjoy the lovely weather.

Look forward to another meeting with Randy and spend a few days with good friend in the Périgord,castles to see, wine to buy good meals and hope to find some junk...

Take care, Will V in Paris