Happy Mother's Day.

It is today in France!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums reading my blog.

I wish you all a wonderful week,

Until later,

Finishing...

It's a period when I have very little time for my hobbies. This is the reason why I don't post very often these days as I don't make much progress.

Nevertheless, I thought it would be nice to share with you what I have been doing lately.

When I came back from the Quiltmania quiltshow, I thought it was time to finish a project that only needed a few hours of work.


Do you know what this project is? Do you like the colonial knots stitched with an overdyed thread on the pouch handle? They were hard to stitch... but I really love the result!
I also love the fact that there are two different fabrics covering the zipper.
It's a project by Yoko Saito that I started a while ago. I still need to quilt the two sides of the pouch and to sew them to the zipper gusset which is completely finished.


I am also (slowly) working on Yoko's basket. I started the project in class with Yoko Saito. I am now doing the appliqués on the last side of the basket and hope to do the embroideries today.


I really love this project and, at the same time, am a bit afraid at the challenging finishing of the basket. I'll go slowly as I want it to be neatly finished.

A second challenging finishing is waiting for me to have some time. Here again, I am waiting to have two complete days off ahead of me to start. Do you remember the online class with Jackie Du Plessis ? I had finished the stitching part last month. The basket and all finishing supplies arrived last week.

Well, I am really excited by such a beautiful design! Love it, love it, love it...

I wish you all a wonderful week and hope to be able to show you these projects finished soon.

Until later,

Sheep Hug

You remember that before leaving for Nantes I had started a quilted project.

As soon as I came back, I decided to finish it before working on Yoko Saito's basket. I knew that Yoko's basket would take me all my attention and while having fun working on it I would not be able to work on another project at the same time....Sooooo, I finsihed it and am now doing the appliqués on the basket.

Want to see the Sheep Hug pouch which was designed by Natalie from L'Atelier Perdu ?




All my Valdani threads are stored in it now :-))

I have another pouch which will soon be finished but I still have one side to stitch. More about it when it is finished.

The pre-stitching for Jackie Du Plessis's finishing online class is complete. I really enjoyed stitching the queen stitches. I am now waiting for the wooden basket and accessories. The finishing class starts on May 16.

I can tell you that I am having so much fun working on Yoko's basket!! And I never go to bed without watching and touching the beautiful antique indigos from Shizuko ;-)

Until later,

The other artists.

Well, you have understood how fascinated I am with the Japanese quilters. But the quilt show in Nantes had other designers invited.

First, the American designers.

As you know, I like folk art and I was thrilled to see Jan Patek and her quilts!

Have a look :







It was like being invited at Jan Patek's.

Another folk art artist was Bonnie Sullivan. And she is from Oregon!!! So it was fun to talk about her state for a little while.







And finally, the quilts of Piece O'Cake Designs.






Second, the beautiful and elegant quilts of a Dutch artist : Petra Prins





Third, the Australian quilter Lynette Anderson. Her booth was very busy and it was very difficult to take photos so here are the only ones I have!
I was really happy to have met her in person and to have had a little chat with her as I have been following her blog and creations for a long time. I like her quilts and patterns very much.







And finally, the very creative French artist Cécile Franconie who had a beautiful booth. Lucky I could take this photo as there were also a lot of people at her booth all day long!


I also went to say hello to Beatrice Meillac who taught me rug hooking last year and look what was exhibited in her classroom's wall! Don't you like this beautiful hooked rug panel ?


An finally my daughter took her first class with Marie-Claude Iperti from Les Secrets de Marie to make this :


She is busy finishing it and she seems to have fun. She gave me permission to put a photo of her and Marie Claude on the blog.


Until later,

Yoko Saito

Yoko Saito is a Japanese quilter I also admire. Her work, though completely different from Shizuko Kuroha's, is breathtaking.

I think that what defines it best is her use of taupe fabrics. She does a lot of appliqué and I have discovered throughout the years that she uses a lot of printed fabrics or checked textured fabrics as a background which gives extra dimension to her appliqués.

A class with Yoko Saito is something you can not forget. It goes very fast as all the different techniques are explained and taught. I wish this class could have been a whole week class...

The day began with this kit in front of me.

Then I had to cut some fabric and to start preparing the backgrounds and the templates.


I also noted down all the different instructions (8 pages!!!) and took many photopraphs so that I could remenber everything to finish it off at home.

This is when you see the basket in "real" and very close up that you realize how perfect everything is!!!


This class has been another reason for my being SO happy ;-)

Yoko Saito's house at the exhibition waas stunning! Quiltmania did a wonderful job in the atmosphere created and I also took several close up photos so I can share my admiration for Yoko's quilts with you.















There were also many pouches, bags and accessories on display but being behind a glass photos were not easy to take. So here is the only correct one I have.


Another quilter, another day in paradise...

Until later,