France

The streets at the base of the hill of Montmatre are well known for their myriad of fabric shops, but the first fabric shop we visited we stumbled upon while looking for a Metro.

We found Toto on Avenue d'Italie, however there are 10 other Toto shops in Paris and many more throughout France.

Toto sells fabric and haberdashery and the store we visited was on 2 levels. Upstairs they sell precut pieces of fabric by the kilo! The pieces vary in size from just a few centimetres to over a metre. After a bit of a rummage around I found these 3 fabrics:

A cotton made in Austria! The fabric has a sheen and reminds me of a handbag or purse lining, so that is what I will use it for.

This pale blue is also a cotton but from London. It also has a sheen.

 This toile fabric is in a slightly heavier weight than the usual quilting cotton fabrics.

Next I went downstairs to look at fabrics on rolls.

A beautiful floral linen..

Another toile, also a heavy linen. There were quite a few toile fabrics with different designs and colours.

Lastly a red fabric. This one has a chintz like finish.

 Toto also sells African fabric.

The lady at the register was very polite and helpful.

We eventually found the Metro and headed to Anvers.



The shops around Montmatre sell every kind of fabric you can think of!!

 There are dozens of shops!!

 I remembered Reine from our last visit to Paris. Out the front you find tables of rolls of fabric. Inside there is much more fabric and miniature mannequins, about a metre tall, dressed in outfits from the fabrics. They have lots of Liberty fabric there too. Last time we were there we got a very stern look when taking a photo, so this time I just took a photo from across the street!

Adjacent is one of the most well known fabric shops in Paris.  Marche Saint Pierre (aka Dreyfus) is 5 floors of fabric!!!

I could have spent hours in there! They had a quilting fabric section, but the fabric was no cheaper than here in Melbourne. There was a huge array of furnishing fabrics. We saw a fabric that would have been perfect for new drapes here at home, but I couldn't bring home 30 metres of fabric!!! There was also a huge range of furnishing weight toile fabric. I didn't visit all the floors.



On the ground floor I found a small table of African  fabrics. I choose 2 to bring home.

While wandering around we passed a small shop that had lots of linen toiles at a lower price than some of the larger shops.

This fabric I plan to use as the back of a quilt. (No idea what the front will be yet! Lol)

Next we visited Moline Mercerie. It has a small  quilting fabric section, but is mostly haberdashery and books. Moline has been trading since 1879!!!

Here I found this!

 The book is in French but has lots of photos.  I found lots of hints by looking at Google too.

I have already chosen a pattern, found fabric, needles and thread. I haven't tried Boutis before, so I am going to experiment on a small piece and try some different threads and see which I like best. The 2 top yarns are cotton, acrylic mixes of different plys. The other thread is DMC Perle 5.

 The last shop we visited was Mercerie Saint Pierre. I was the last person to leave at closing time, so I didn't have a lot of time to look around!! I did buy a small pair of embroidery scissors.

While strolling the streets of Dinard after lunch we came upon a small book shop.  The book above (written in French) is more a a beginner book for embroidery, but has many pages set aside for notes and pages of graphs for your own designs. I stitched the Eiffel Tower in DMC 321 from a graph with the book.


I hope to go back to Paris again some day and have another walk around the fabric shops! :)


This morning I visited Quilts in the Barn.

Linda and her friends have once again done a magnificent job of creating a stunning display of quilts! There are red and white quilts small and large. There are also several antique quilts from Mary Koval's collection. Mary is there with her  DH and she has a selection of fabric old and new.  Mary also has some antique boutis quilts which I really loved to see!!
I encourage everyone to visit.  All funds raised over the 3 days are donated to breast cancer research.
(Scroll down to the bottom of this post on Linda's blog for all the information about the Exhibition)

A catch up post and more photos

Before I left I had some photos ready to post but I ran out of time to get them on my blog.

I finished another block for the Roseville Album quilt.

I love the 2 flowers in the top corners of this block.
Next I plan to start one of the larger side panels.

I made some fabric purchases.

This one just because its quirky and cute, and I can see lots of fussy cutting opportunities.

I managed to find a fat quarter pack of Mary Koval's Baltimore Album fabric collection.
The quilt on which these fabrics were based was made in around 1847. The Chester Country Criswell Quilt was made only 5 years later. so I will be using some of the reds and greens in my blocks.

I have plans for several of the other fabrics also.

I have been looking at chintz fabrics in several places and found some when Purl Soho had a sale. The strips are 4 inches by 60 inches.

Each of the patterned strips has small, medium and large patterns.

Here are a few more photos from our holiday. First some colourful shots from Singapore. The first 2 were taken from the window of a moving bus!

Paris from the Montmatre Hill.

St Malo.

Honfleur.

Next post will be books and fabric I found while we were away.

Im Back!

After almost 4 weeks and over 1400 photographs I am back home from holiday.

We visited Singapore and Paris, Normandy and Brittany in France. The main reason for our trip was the wedding of our niece in Paris.

Our first stop was Singapore. I was brave enough to take a ride on the Singapore Flyer! Below is a view from the wheel.

Our days in Paris included a visit to Sacre Coeur in Montmatre,

and the grand shops Galleries Lafayette

and  Printemps.

Later we spent some days near the Brittany and Normandy coast.

Mont St Michel

Honfleur

Deauville

and St Malo

Coming from Australia where almost all of architecture is less than 200 years old I found it amazing to see buildings that where many hundreds of years old.
The food was delicious! I loved the cheese and charcuterie....and the cakes and pastries!

I managed to grab just a few minutes for stitching.

A few 3 inch star blocks

and I prepared a few more half inch hexies

 The washing machine has been going all day and when I can see over the top of the ironing pile I will be back with lots more, including pictures of some purchases from the treasure trove of fabric shops in Montmatre!

To finish a Singapore orchid.

Dressmaking

I have been dressmaking mostly rather than making quilts during the last couple of weeks.
I have made myself a traditional outfit (like the one I  made for my daughter's wedding here ..... scroll down to the last photos)  to wear to a wedding in a couple of weeks.

The skirt fabric and scarf come from Laos and were given to me by my sisters in law. The band at the bottom of the skirt comes separately from the skirt fabric. It is woven with metallic threads with the silk.

The scarf has a similar pattern to the band on the skirt.


The top is made from silk dupion I bought here in Melbourne. It is embellished with guipure lace and has covered buttons using fabric from the skirt. My daughter helped me get the pattern for the top right.

 (the colours don't show true, my photography isn't the best)

Now a bit of showing off about my daughter.  (I'm a proud Mum!!! :) )
My daughter has also been sewing for herself. Below is a dress she made to wear to a wedding. It is black lace over a pale pink satin.

Covered buttons finish the back.

She also has shoes to match! :)



Last week we went to a runway show that included 3 wedding gowns from the shop where my daughter works.

My daughter's job is sewing these gowns.


Photos below.
All 3 gowns are made from silk. All the draping is hand stitched and most are hand beaded. Every gown is made for each bride individually and there are several layers of construction in each gown.
My daughter worked on the 1st and 3rd gowns.

The first gown is finished with hand stitched prebeaded lace that has extra beads hand stitched on. It took a week to make this gown.

The draping on the 2nd gown is tulle. Three ladies worked on this gown.

The 3rd gown has over 150 meters of silk organza in the skirt. All those frills have  folded edges (no raw edges here!) and are stitched individually to the skirt. It took 3 ladies 2 months to make this gown.

These creations are a lot more than mere dressmaking! The amount of work that goes into creating gowns like these is amazing. I love the attention to detail and the finishing touches in each of these creations. The way the fabrics are draped and the lace placement complement the female form.


All photos below from Stonnington Fashion blog here. You can see many of the other clothes in the parade by scrolling through posts for August 24 2012.
My daughter works here.

New Block of the Month.

For quite some time I have been admiring lots of red and green quilts I have seen on blogs and the Internet in general.

Recently I have been drawn to one in particular. Partly because the patterns are coming out as a block of the month, partly because it is an appliqued quilt, but mostly because of the story behind the original quilt.  The Chester County Criswell Quilt was made in the 1850s in Pennsylvania as a wedding quilt. The blocks on this friendship quilt were all made by different people and all are appliqued signature blocks. The quilt now is in Australia and lives with the Great Great Grand daughter of the bride who the quilt was made for. (click on the link above and scroll down to read more about the quilt's history) Sharon is going to share photos of completed blocks on her blog.

I completed the first block last night.

The fabric in this block is from the Friendship collection. I used needleturn applique to stitch the block.

I plan to use different backgrounds for each block.



For the sake of completeness ( and my perfectionist tendencies!!), I remade one of my Blogger's BOM blocks. Thank you to Debbie for pointing out my "blooper"!!! I didn't notice until you pointed it out.
Here is the block with everything the right way around!

The sun is shining here. Spring is on its way!

Have a great day everyone!

Lots of sewing!

The last week or 2 has been very productive, sewing wise. Plenty of progress on current projects, some new things, an old project being brought back to life and even a little finish!

Firstly, I completed my 2 Blogger's BOM blocks for July. The Split Ohio Star block comes from Victoria of Bumble Beans.

Bright block...

Repro block...

Only one more block to come now and we have all 12!

I have prepared some leaves ready to applique on my Liberty and linen quilt.

The current Roseville Album block is coming along well.

Last night I finished appliqueing the flower in the top left corner, so the next set of pieces have to be attached before I can progress on this block.

Last week I went to the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Show where I took 2 classes. I had never made socks before or made a clasp purse. Yesterday I put my new skills into practice and made this little purse.

The inside is lined with shot cotton.

You may recall the 2 fabrics from this post when I went to Amitie a few weeks ago.
 

The socks are still a work in progress. They are being made on circular needles, another first for me. :)

There was a wonderful show of quilts to see, including a special exhibition of 16 quilts, several of which were made by ladies who attend the same Friday sewing group as I do. You can see the Mrs Billings Coverlets and read more about them here, here and photos of them all here.




I have started another purse. This one will be made from lots of hexagons. I have about half of the 200 I need to prepare done. Here are a few.

Yes, more hexagons!! This time they are 1/2 inch.

The fabric I am using is the small pieces I had left over from the Morrell Quilt BOM.

The Morrell Quilt will be making more appearances on my blog because I have started to hand quilt it!

 

Hand quilting the Morrell quilt is going to be a marathon effort! It is my project for watching Games. (A huge thank you to Karen for squeezing in basting my quilt so quickly!)  Do you have a special project to work on while watching the Olympic Games on TV?
I have made a start on the centre and I can't wait to get out to some of the more interesting blocks.  The quilting thread I am using is Aurifil 28 and the batting is a wool blend. I have mostly used YLI quilting thread before and so far I am happy with the Aurifil. The hoop has a lap stand so I can quilt while comfortably seated on the couch!

Have a great week!