I made some bags

I am a bit absent from my blog these days. I don't know where my blogging mojo has gone.If you feel like me, maybe a visit to this site will help you to find it back....

Maybe it's the bad weather here in France, it's raining and raining and chilly and so on. Yesterday i was in Paris, only for a one day visit. Th sun was shining in Paris,  I drank my coffee and my glass of wine on a terrace outside ! It was so good to sit there outside,  enjoying the sun and the Paris atmosphere!

No blogging mojo but YES I was in the mood for sewing. I had a very successful motherday's market, I even sold some bags..... I wanted to do something with the flying geese pattern, so I made this shopper.

Another shopper with a logcabin pattern.

I Nantes I bought some beautiful japanese fabric for this shoulder bag.

Do you like them?

I bought a Sophie Digard scarf in Nantes;

Do you know Sophie Digard? She is an artist who lives in Paris and creates beautiful  crochet scarves and bags . The patterns are very complicated, so many details, and made of handdyed merino wool and linen. For a scarf she often uses 60 different colors.

The entire collection is handmade by hundreds of local woman in Madagascar, using traditional techniques.
For the first time I saw her scarves in Nantes in the Selvedge booth. (Selvedge is a magazine for interiour and fashion designers)

Her scarves are a bit expensive so I did not buy one the first year and not the second year, but this year I could not resist this amazing crochet work.
So now I can say that I am the proud owner of a Sophie Digard scarf!!! Tadah.......

There are really tiny pompons and so many colors crocheted in a grey 'frame'. Its not easy to capture the colors and the small flowers but believe me the scarf is GORGEOUS.

On this site you could read more about Sophie Digard. The auther also did some research about the question if here work are fair Trade products. She found that sophie is client of a company that supports the  idea of humanitarian craft work.

Months ago i started to make my own Sophie scraf, crocheted with two threads of auriful wool and a 1,50 hook. I love the result and I 've got a lot of compliments in Nantes but the result has nothing to do with a real Sophie piece of art.

But I don't give up. I bought gorgeous, wool/silk thread here  , to crochet with hook 1,50 , so ....to be continued!

Au revoir Nantes 4

I promised you more Di Ford quilt pictures . Here they are:

The center piece of her Phebe quilt, one of my favorites!

Look at the quilting, so beautiful!

I did a 'fussy cutting' class with Di Ford.  She was a very good and inspiring teacher.

Again a picture from Helen. Do you see Mary Koval on the left?

She showed us to look at fabric in this way. Quite an eye opener for me!

This was the quilt we were going to make in the class.

And the last one.... Di in her 'room' and behind her Ann's Legacy, Another of my favorite!

Finally spring arrived here in France! This is one of the apple trees in full bloom.

Au revoir Nantes 3

Some more quilts to admire!!
This the Kaffe Fassett room, so colorful!

The Boro exposition:

Some Petra Prins quilts.

And now my favorite quilts, those from Di Ford. Some of you asked why i do not want to make a Dear Jane quilt. But I am really not inspired by all those different blocks. But the composition, the fabric use, the beautiful colors in the Di Ford quilts are for me .

And of course I bought her new book with all the patterns. For me the Phebe and Ann's legacy quilt are my favorites.

She signed it here....

Two pictures from the book.

More Di Ford in my next post.....

Au revoir Nantes 2

I already told you about the 150 anniversary of the Dear Jane quilt. If  you want to know more about the quilt  you could go to THE Dear Jane website here.
It was a great pity that the original Dear Jane was not there. Brenda Papadakis  should bring the quilt with here, she became ill and could not come so there were 113 copies .....
I already showed you Marian's quilt, there were about 10 Dutch copies.

Here is another Dutch one, a very small one. It was made bij Els Feteris (Bobbin).

Enjoy all the Dear Janes......

The three pictures above are made by Helen.

This last picture was made by Sue, I met her in Di Fords class, here is her blog.

If you want to see more Dear Jane's take a look here!!!! 

I was really impressed by all these beautiful Dear Jane quilts, but i also know, having seen them hanging in Nantes that I am not going to make one.

Au revoir Nantes....

Those 4 days in Nantes were fabulous!  When I cam home I was totally DONE.
I walked a lot, talked a lot, met a lot of people from all over the world, sat on terraces drinking white wine and of course ... I bought a lot.
I met Helen (from Helen's blog) and her friend in Di Fords workshop,  I had lunch with Will (from not so zen quilts in Paris)  together with Vera and Marlies from Holland. I talked to Linda Collins (Quilts in the Barn) and to a lot of other woman!!

Every morning when I walked from my hotel to the Salon, I visited the famous Garden in Nantes (Jardin des Plantes). And every morning I saw this.....

After about twenty minutes I arrived at the Salon and there was this....  (and a lot more, like birds hanging in trees , flowers between the bushes...), made by the knitters from Nantes.

The first thing you saw when entering the salon was  a Dear Jane and a patched cake for the 150 anniversary of Dear Jane. 

And isn't he cute? 

I suppose you want to see pictures of quilts , for today I only show you one of the Dutch Dear Janes who was hanging there between the other 110 ones.

This is Marian's quilt made with the original fabric. 

More pictures to come, I promise!

I am off to Nantes

Tomorrow morning I take the train to Nantes, to visit the craft fair :
Pour L'amour du Fil ( for the love of the thread).  There will be an exhibition of 100 Dear Jane quilts from all over the world and the original antique Dear Jane also will be there!!!

I hope to meet there a lot of other bloggers, from Holland, France and the United States.

I made myself a new purse , again with vintage kimono fabrics in the front panel.

And here is my finished shawl...

Do you see in the right corner the amelanchier in full bloom? I have about 15 of them, they are so beautiful. All the fruit trees are also in full bloom. 

Finally spring has arrived and everything is growing so quickly now, also the grass and the herbs!!! 

On the terrace are my pelargonium cuttings and the pumpkin plants. 

When I am back from Nantes there is still a lot of work in the garden....