sunny Thursday - Exeter

We were lucky to pick a nice sunny day to drive down to Devon, to the Creative Stitches & Hobbycraft fair at the Westpoint in Exeter. A mixture of various crafts, I did not find anything new or exiting, and I missed some of the retail "stitching" stands which did not take part this time. Still, worth a trip, mainly for the exhibitions.
Back this year, after UK tour, Afghanistan Inspiration. This is a part of a German-Afghanistan project, which you can read a lot more about here . Some of you might remember me writing about this project 2 years ago, when I first learnt about it at this show.

This part of the project is to help Afghan women to retain their embroidery craft, and at the same time earn some money. They embroider small squares, which they get paid for, and those are then sold in Europe. Many European artists incorporate them in their work, which is a part of a competition "Threads Unite Women".

These are just some of the exhibits by British artists, who were given a theme "vessels" and you can read more about the Afghanistan Inspiration Challenge here .

These are the 3 squares I bought this time.

Then there was a small exhibition of costumes "Jane Austen - Fashion and Films".

Exhibition by WI from their collections.

A pretty Madelaine Millington's stand, you can see more of her stuff here .

and other interesting "side shows"

block no 4 finished

I have finished the 4th block of the Yoko Saito's Mystery Quilt. I am now getting very curious how all the blocks will fit together, because not any two are the same size. All will be revealed in the next issue of Quiltmania in November.

Until then, more houses to build for the block no 5.

More parcels from the postman. Today arrived a package from Tracey at Quilt me Happy, with some beautiful new fabric, just look at the reds:

Also some blue and "Zucchini" Kona Cotton to match the Stof "Apples" fabric I got from Fabric Inspiration last week.

                                                Because there will be life after houses! :-)

voyages textiles

Did you get the impression that I have become addicted to "building" houses? Well, not quite yet, but I am well on the way to this addiction. I have been enjoying stitching Yoko Saito's Mystery Quilt, creating small settlements and imagining who lives in those houses. Of course, Yoko's "architect's" plans make it so easy.

A couple of weeks ago I came across another, and at the same time very similar form of "house building", but also so much more.
On my visit to Janet's blog  "aiguilleanglaise" I saw a book by Anne-Marie Bertrand and some of her pictures from an exhibition, you can see more at Janet's here . I could not help myself, I just had to get the book!
The book was published by Quiltmania and it is in the format of a "coffee table" book. You can buy it from their web shop, but I have found it on the French site Decitre for a better price. Although the Google translation told me that this was a paperback version, the book which arrived is actually the original hardback.
It is written in both French and English.

The minute I opened the book, I felt "at home" and as I started browsing, I fell in love with it. Fabrics, threads, embroidery, patchwork - all so close to my heart.
This is Anne-Marie's stitching journey, which starts in her early childhood, learning from her grandmother, a very familiar journey for most of us, being it grandmother, mother, aunt......
Later she started stitching pictures of houses, from all over France; from then she went to stitching nature scenes and incorporating painting into her work. From French scenes she went on to recording scenes from her travels, some very colourful and all very beautiful. I feel very inspired by her work

This is not "how to" book, but at the end of the book are step-by-step instructions for a sample picture, where Anne-Marie explains "her technique", as she calls it.
You can see some more pages from her book on Quiltmania website here (click on the bottom right hand corner of the book to turn pages) and read more about Anne-Marie and see more pages from her book here .

busy post week

It is hard to believe that another week has gone by. The pleasant start to autumn is still with us, sometimes sunny, sometimes windy, but mostly dry. There is still plenty of colour to be found in the garden.

Our postman was really busy this week, having to walk the path to our house nearly every day.

The most important and exiting was a packet from Australia. This was the prize from a giveaway on Katherine's blog Rose Cottage, a needle case made by her.

This pretty little needle case has already found its way to my basket. 

No, I did not make the pin cushion either, this was another present from a friend. A needle case is something I have been promising to myself for a long time, but never got around to making one.

But as you see, this wasn't the only present from Katherine, there was also a nice little fabric card and a bar of CHOCOLATE! Well, I think we can take care of that! Thank you so much, Katherine!

What else did the postman bring this week?

Magazines, some new, some old and trusted.

                      

With the new Quiltmania magazine arrived latest "architect's" drawings for the next housing settlement in the Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM quilt.

This is the largest one to date, not in size of the block, but in number of houses to be "built".

While in the meantime I am still busy building block 4.

Another arrival this week are the instructions for the next block of Lynette Anderson's Fernhill BOM.

Last night we saw on our television the last of the re-run of Downton Abbey, both series one and two, as tonight starts the brand new one, starting with Matthews and Mary's wedding, with the appearance of Shirley MacLaine as Cora's mother. Can't wait! See you there!

I wish you all a happy stitching week!