Winter in Paris

Rooftops Under Snow by Gustave Caillebotte 1878

My daughter Kate, is spending this year au pairing in Paris, working as an English  Nanny for a lovely family with  two young boys who live in the centre of Paris. She lives in a garret apartment over the family home. It all sounds rather romantic but perhaps a bit drafty and cold. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to make a quilt.

Kate's fond of neutrals and she wanted a white quilt. She suggested that perhaps I get lots of different kinds of white fabric and piece a quilt with it. As I'm very fond of colour myself I struggled with the idea. It seemed pointless to spend lots of time cutting and piecing white fabrics. Then I got a brilliant idea. Forget the piecing. Do a wholecloth quilt but in a modern style. Keep it simple and use wonderful materials.

I wanted the fabric to be special so I ordered 4 meters of a 'snowy white' from Oakshot Fabrics. I'd looked them up online and then rang to ask about what was in stock. They were so helpful! I mentioned that it was for a Christmas present and they posted it right away so it arrived the next day. Impressive service. Gorgeous fabric! I'm really looking forward to getting some Oakshot fabrics in colours for a future project.

Piecing the fleece with my JUKI Exceed 600

I wanted the quilt to be warm and soft and cuddley so fleece was my best choice for backing. It's an economical choice too as fleece serves as backing AND wadding. Since I splashed out on the Oakshot fabric for the top it was nice to save a bit of money on the other layers. I purchased some snow white fleece from Boyes for £5.50 a meter. The fleece is 64 inches wide from selvedge to selvedge, which is just perfect for a single bed quilt. But Kate wanted a double so I needed to piece the backing to get it big enough. Piecing fleece is simple; butt the ends together and use a zig zag stitch to join them. This creates a join with no bulk which is perfect for quilting projects. More to follow...

zig zagging to join the fleece

Back from the Festival

We had such a good time at the show!  We're catching up on emails and still unpacking and sorting. All the new orders are now under way. I'll be contacting everyone next week to let you know about the progress on your Art Quilter and NEQ2 frames, Tables and Nifty Grip speed control Handles.

 Meanwhile here are a few photos. The days seemed to fly by and so I tried to catch a few photos of the stand on Sunday afternoon.

One of our favourite things about the show is watching the faces of people who try our frame for the first time. And this little guy really does capture the astonishment and fun of being able to draw so easily with the needle.

His mum had a try later.

 Emily's keeping up with the paperwork. It's Sunday afternoon, she's been demonstrating for 4 days, taken the Art Quilter frame apart and put it back together over a hundred times and she's still smiling!

Just in time

Sunday, I finished sewing the binding on the flag quilt, just in time for our trip to the Houston show. I'm thrilled to be taking it with us to put up in our booth! If you're at the Festival please stop by - we're at Booth 726 -728!