Quilts in the Barn 2012

This year Linda's theme for Quilts in the Barn was inspired by her visit to Infinite Variety in New York last year.
Every quilt hanging this year is red and white.

This quilt hangs above the doorway as you enter.

I loved this house quilt.

There were lots of tiny quilts.

Even a tiny bed..

This quilt is embroidered and appliqued.

The embroidery stitches are perfect and very tiny!!!

It almost looks like the designs were printed!!!

Lots of larger quilts, both pieced and appliqued. (sorry I couldn't get a photo of the whole quilt with all of these)

This stunning quilt was all appliqued.

Pieced quilts.

Amazing!!!

A New York Beauty with a beautiful toile fabric.

 I love the applique on the border of this quilt.

Below is a signature quilt. I saw several well known names here....Linda Collins, Mary Koval, Lori De Jarnatt, Kathy Holland,  Jo Morton and  Dawn Ronningen!!

 Above is only a small selection of the quilts on display. There are lots more to see!!

As well as all the quilts there are raffles, delicious morning and afternoon teas...and lunch!

Linda also had badges made this year! A choice of 2 designs.

The Quilted Crow girls from Tasmania were there with lots of fabric and their new book.

Mary Koval had antique fabrics, blocks and quilts and new fabric also.

I spent several hours admiring quilts and chatting with friends old and new.

The exhibition is still on tomorrow so, if you live close enough, don't miss the chance to see a spectacular exhibition.
All funds raised go to breast cancer research.

Linda will have lots of photos on her blog later.  Right now you can see Dorothy's, Meredithe's and  Jan's, blogs to see more photos and news from the Barn.

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.