Pour l’amour du Fils • Quilt Show in Nantes, France 2026

May 9, 2026 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I’d read about this quilt show — For the Love of Thread — in the QuiltMania magazines for years. This year my husband and I were finally able to travel to Nantes and attend the show.

First, some basics: Nantes (pink star) is in Western France, near the Atlantic side of things; most people head to Paris, which is north-central France. The orange star is in Eastern France, and that’s where the Carrefour European Patchwork Show that’s held in the villages of Val D’argent is located. There are commercial tours to both shows, but we were able to plan and travel there ourselves. The Nantes show is held in April; the Carrefour is held in September. (Just do a web search if you are trying to find tours.)

Having traveled to other parts of France, Nantes was a total surprise to both of us — a delightful surprise. It’s the sixth largest city in this country, and has a different flavor than other regions we’ve visited. We arrived at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport at about 1 p.m., then took a train across the country (train left at about 5 p.m. and arrived in Nantes about 3 hours later). This gave us time at the airport to clear customs, catch a bit of lunch, check out the convenience store for chocolate (I’m crazy about the chocolate in France, even the drugstore variety), and then catch our train. While in Nantes, we stayed within walking distance of the Gare (or train station), which also allowed us to catch the tram to the quilt show the next morning.

We checked with the hotel clerk, who confirmed what we planned and after buying our tickets, we got on the tram with other women, carrying interesting bags and totes (a sure giveaway for a quilter). I saw so many interesting bags and totes while there, that I made a video.

After riding for a bit, wondering how we would figure out where to go when we got off the tram, a woman (I later learned her name was Sylvaine), got on the tram and started doing embroidery, so we struck up a conversation. After about a 20-minute ride, she walked us over from the tram when it arrived at the convention center, or Parc Expo. The quilters were already lining up a few minutes early.

[Note: Here’s a link to a collection of photos of people I met this day.]

We came in the main door (in the white building in the first photo) where they checked our bags, and walked out the other side. We followed the crowds as they walked over to this building, where the quilt show was being held. The white tents you see are the lunch places. We showed our tickets, got our wristbands (we had purchased a two-day ticket), and were in!

[Hope this video works…] Yes, everything’s in French, but fabric and smiles are a universal language. Most of the booth vendors spoke English as did many of the guest artists (many were from Australia), so I didn’t have a problem. Even buying tickets at the tram stop you can switch to English, and I kept Google Translate handy on my phone for places I needed to know the language.

The guitarist was in front of The Red Dress, and both were beautiful. Haven’t heard about The Red Dress? I hadn’t either until I went to the show’s website before the show and read about it.

The photo on the left was when we first arrived, when the show opened. The photo on the right was taken after lunch. Quilters had arrived! But it wasn’t just quilters: it was embroiderers, sewists, crocheters, purse and bag makers, and I even saw a jewelry booth. Here’s a slide show of the vendors; click to advance the images:

Note: except for a few crowd shots and candids, I received permission to take photographs.

I saw so many beautiful things and purchased a few, here and there. Here’s something I didn’t see: pre-cuts. That whole American-merchandising thing seems to be missing from here as well. The vendors are small, specific, art-driven, and some of the things they sell are kits, new ideas (like the leather handles from Miyako that you can move from bag to bag, instead of having to have one handle per one bag — genius). But unfortunately, because of the tariffs here in the US, it is nearly prohibitive to ship to the US market for many of these vendors, but I can sometimes find them on ETSY or other small marketplaces.

In several places around the show are make-and-take tables. This was the embroidery table. On the left, at the opening; on the right, after lunch. It was popular!

The crochet table, top left. The “Corner for the Bloggers” are the other three photos…and me! It got busier and busier as the day went on. When my husband was tired of following me around, he retreated here.

The crocheter setting up a display. It was fascinating to see. There were four or five booths for those who liked to crochet.

On one side of the Vendors Hall were the “classrooms.” These were surprisingly quiet, and I saw several classes in session.

On the other side of the Vendor Hall were the quilt displays, rooms created out of movable walls, done in brilliant colors. I used my Google Translate on some of the signs. Sometimes I even used my Husband Translate (he speaks French).

This exhibit was Collections, from Hungary. We talked to this quilter, Ildikó Kalocsa, about her work, and thanked her for coming to France. I loved the texture in her work. We also asked her about Hungary’s recent elections, and she said “Oh, we are so happy!” It was evident in her smile.

Slideshow for Inmaculada Gabaldon, from Spain (photos on this post were taken both by my husband and I):

Click to advance the images. She does all her own quilting on a domestic machine, not a long arm. In the photo I took of her, she chose the background, and it was a photo of herself as a child. The last photo is of me in an adjoining “room” looking back toward the main hall, with Inmaculada talking with quilters.

I put up a couple more slideshows on Instagram:

Denim by Elisabeth Dubbelde

She is known for her denim work, as well as recycling to keep the fabrics out of the landfill.

Quilts En Rêve

I’ve followed them on Instagram, as they make beautifully perfect quilts, many by hand. They are interested in reproductions of antique quilts.

Carolyn Konig

Carolyn was a joy to visit with, welcoming and happy to answer questions about her unique approach to doing her reproduction quilts: she actually has the background fabric printed to mimic the spots and bits and discolorations of antique quilts, and uses it when she makes her reproductions. (Carolyn on Instagram) If you go to her website, you can order some.

Finally, it was time to leave, but not before I tried to find Carol Veillon and thank her.

I felt invisible in the quilt world until Carol, in her magazine QuiltMania, published a quilt of mine that was hanging in the Road to California Show, where I first met her. She is kind and charming and encouraged me to continue submitting. I had several more published by her and every time it was like Christmas had come.

I thanked her for this, and for her kindness towards me, and grabbed a quick photo as she was incredibly busy. She is someone who had made a different in our quilting world, for all of us.

We walked back to the tram, and as we rode back to our hotel, were joined by families, strollers, children, mothers, teenagers; it was a far cry from the quiet ride in the morning. I will probably post the quilts I did take photos of here and there as I go forward, but I can’t leave this post without giving you some photos of Nantes.

The old LU biscuit factory, around the corner from the Gare, taken in sunset.

A store selling the town sweets: Les Rigolettes Nantaises. They seem like hard round little candies, but once in your mouth the outer hard shell dissolves and they are chewey and delicious. They come in five traditional flavors: lemon, raspberry, blackcurrant, mandarin, and pineapple.

They come in these charming tins (well, the elephant was a different candy), and I’ve already repurposed one for straight pins.

Joan of Arc is big around here. This statue inside the church is dedicated to her, as she hails from Orléans, which is up the road a bit in the Loire Valley.

The Elephant, one of “Les Machines” on the small island in the Loire River adjacent to the city center. A huge mechanical creation, it moves slowly around as it takes a walk, squirting tourists and children with water. We had a great time seeing this.

A few more sights (click to advance):

And what did I take away from the quilt show?

A book from the SAXE bookseller booth, and some fliers
a preprinted canvas to make a bag (Stenzo Textiles)
sweet mini-quilt with papers and templates (Somerset Designs)
a panel to make a small bag (ABCDaires), a favorite
buttons from Chifonie Studio

My suitcase is compact so while the purchases are small, the memories are huge!

Pour l’amour du Fils has not yet published their 2027 dates. Here’s a link to the visitor section of their website.

QM published quilts:
Riverside Sawtooth (in QuiltMania)
Elizabeth’s Lollipops (in QuiltMania: a photograph from a quilt show, but I’m counting it!)
Crossroads (in Simply Moderne)
Santa’s Night Ride (in Simply Vintage)

During the pandemic, I agreed to let them share my blocks with readers of the QuiltMania newsletter. The patterns have now come home to stay, and most are free (see tab, above).

Quilt Shows · Quilts · Road to California

Road to California 2026 • Part II

March 15, 2026March 21, 2026 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

The first post for Road to California 2026 was published previously. A downloadable show guide is here, but they do remove things from their website with frequency, so if you’d like it, get it now. Here we go with more beautiful quilts.

For those who are interested in coming out for Road, their website is here. They’ve already announced dates for 2027: January 20-23, and their website says “Classes begin on Monday, January 18. Preview Night is Tuesday January 19, 2027.” Sign up to on their website to get their announcements as they are good reminders.

This is what we all see when we arrive: the tall atrium filled with hanging quilts, chosen from a local guild.

I’ve had this one on my list of quilts to make like forever. So, not only can we see quilts in the show, we can see them in the sky, in the vendors’ booths, in the hallways…everywhere.

It’s an abundance, so I’m leading with this quilt, Abundance, by Linda Steel, from Australia — a riot of color and shape and a feeling of you-had-to-be-there.

(Click to view any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.

Crocker’s quilt harks back to the fused art quilts of the previous post, but in a dramatically different way.

Grace Crocker: Sasquatch

Red, white and blue and a broken heart.

As always, click to enlarge the smaller images, above.
Mimi Ghauri-Young: Heart. Broken.

Sherry Priest: Single Card Keypunch

This is hand-quilted. Check out the closeup shots, below.

This was inspired by an antique quilt. I’d love to know how long it took her to make this.

Jan Frazer: Tangerine Tango

A very large quilt, and it radiated with energy.

Naomi Otomo: Blessings of the Sun

(In case you didn’t know, I’m writing the maker and the quilt title with every quilt for ease in searching online.)

This was a favorite exhibit, since we travel near, and live not to far from Route 66: The Mother Road. It’s celebrating its 100 years this year. The makers depicted various well-known sites along the road:

Click to enlarge any of them. I’ve put the quilts into a slide show (below) which you can advance by clicking the small arrows on either side.

The first two photos are two of the quilters that made the small quilts, and I’ve included some pictures of how the row of quilts looked.

A couple of years ago we were in Chicago, and took a photo of this sign. If you were like me (of a certain age) you were always piling into the car with your brothers and sisters and parents and driving on your trips (airline travel was too pricey).

My historian sister wrote a book about this, titled “Are We There Yet?” which was an often asked question on these trips.

Right across the street from the Art Institute is where the Mother Road begins, and I have a tote bag to prove I was there, and yes, I was toting it around that day at Road to California. So many roads! (Now I need to go find where the END of Route 66 is!) Okay, back to the quilts.

So…this is happening this year. I recently read that my church is donating 250 semi-trucks full of food for 250 different food banks across the nation, in order to “recognize the freedoms established by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” I feel I can honor that, too, and a couple of posts back, I wrote about what quilt I’m considering making.

So we had a quilt exhibit at Road of quilts all around this theme. I put this one also in a slide show, to make it easier to go through (if it doesn’t work on your phone, maybe head to a regular computer and browser).

I’m impressed that they finished up their quilts so early. I really have to start planning ahead.

I visited YLI threads booth…

…did some shopping (this one from here)…had some lunch (great offerings this year) and then got back to it.

This is an exhibit of Modern Day Heroes, a series of quilts honoring notable figures. Again, to make it easier and less scrolling, here it is in a slideshow:

Quilters: Berene Campbell and various Modern Day Hero quilters, who sent in blocks by the dozens. I headed to their website to read more, and appreciated the detail on President Zelensky’s quilt; the write-up also includes a free pattern for the sunflowers.

Sahara Lion by Lys Axelson, won Outstanding Artistry.

Outstanding Hand Work Award

Sachiko Chiba: To My Father

Another winner was Outstanding Machine Quilting Frame:

(Lighting was tough, but I’m doing my best)

Molly Hamilton-McNally: East Meets West

This won Outstanding Original Design. Her designs are always so happy and they seem to always involve children and dogs.
Hiroko Miyama: My Favorite Things

Glad to finally get her photo!

Best of Show Award
Aki Sakai: Happy Days

The amazing detail in this was a delight, including moving parts, such as doors that open.

(Click to enlarge any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.)

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Electric Snails #2

Another almanac of quilting stitches for you.

This year’s Cherrywood Fabrics exhibit was outstanding in all ways, from the colors, the quilts and their designs and interpretations of the Abyss.

Slideshow, below:

Almost done, I promise.

One of our local Guilds had a special exhibit with multiple quilts. Shown here is the quilt made for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Community Quilt Challenge, made by the members of the guild, shepherded by Patti Reyes.

Another special exhibit was from Road to California itself.

A row of their annual quilts.

In the early days, Road would have an annual group quilt, made of blocks submitted by those who were interested; we’d get some cuts of the focus fabrics and then mail it back. One year I submitted a block, but the quilt was never made. I always wondered what happened to it.

Found it this year.
I think this is about 20 years old if it is a day, but I can’t really remember. I do know I was in school in my Creative Writing course of study, so of course, I wrote a tiny poem. I also had to use a very interesting focus fabric (!), but it was all the rage then.

The unquilted quilt has obviously been stuffed in a box for many years.

It was great to see these quilts.

And it was great to see the show. I did put some up on Instagram at the time, which you might have seen, but I think over these last two posts I hope you feel like you saw a good overview.

See you next year!

New York Beauties · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilt Shows · Quilts · Road to California

Road to California Quilt Show 2026 • Part 1

March 8, 2026March 10, 2026 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

The Road to California Quilt Show was held January 20-24, 2026 in Ontario, California — a location about 45 minutes to the east of Los Angeles. It is close to the Ontario California airport, so we attract many attendees from all over California, the Mountain West, and others who may drive or fly in.

I’ve been attending for many of these years, and aside from the blows of Covid-19 in 2021 and 2022, it’s a strong show with many international entries. Road is a juried show, allowing just three entries per person, so those that are accepted have already self-edited their choices. This show also has multiple special exhibits.

I can’t show you all the quilts I saw, nor would you want to sit here and read through that kind of blog post, but I did want to write about some of the ones that caught my eye, although (again), there are many more wonderful quilts here. In the second post, I’ll focus on group exhibits, show you a bit of the flavor and people I met and visited with. Come on out — it’s a wonderful show!

First up are my two quilts: Mercato Square and New York Beauties — for Barbara.

Mercato Square was accepted, and as is the usual with Road, they showed it with all the red and white quilts. (Yes, all the animal quilts are shown together, all the moderns are shown together, and so on. It’s a bit of a visual tic that has been going on for a while, so we just expect it now.) My husband and I went up on Opening Night to see the show, and he was a great help in photographing quilts, and cheering me on (thanks, honey!).

The second quilt accepted was New York Beauties — for Barbara.

It was lovely to see it hanging here! Their title cards:

They omitted the quilter’s name on Mercato Square, so I wrote it on: Jen Boyer. The original posts about these quilts can be found here and here.

I don’t know if you’ve ever entered a quilt show, whether it be nationally ranked (like this one), or a local guild show, but no matter what the show, it’s kind of a big deal, as this is our “art gallery” or “museum” for quilters. So I celebrate all the following quilters and a hearty congratulations to them!

This quilt was my neighbor on the right: a scene from Cuzco, Peru.

(Click to enlarge.) Lynn Jurss: Cuzco Fruit Stand (I’m writing out the maker and title to make it easier for searches.)

And this was my neighbor to the left: a gorgeous Star of Bethlehem.

Jean McElherne: Red Radiance • Quilter: Vicki Ruebel

Stunning thread painting, all the way from Spain.

Isabel Muñoz: Beyond the Seas

I loved how the maker combined an image and appliqué.

Great detail of the shell. This isn’t a huge quilt, but the little details are charming, especially the sea star in his back pocket.

Laura Golden: Ocean Rescue

This was across the way from Mercato Square; I loved it.

Sherry Priest: Core Memory

A beautifully colored Sarah Fielke design.

Renee Miles: Coming Home

I love that we are still seeing quilts made during the Covid experience.

Robbi Eklow: A Bit Garish

You saw some of Vicki Ruebel’s quilting earlier, on the Star of Bethlehem. Here is one of her quilts.

Makers: Vicki Ruebel, with her mother, Judy: The 95

What a gorgeous bouquet of a quilt!

Gareth Griffin: Spring Bouquet
Her quilting was worth studying, and was so detailed.

Here’s another quilt, full of beautiful quilting, which won the Outstanding Machine Quilting (Stationary) Award.

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Tricuspid Biomorph #1

I’m still trying to get used to digital prints being “quilts” but I’m making progress on accepting tri-layered, quilted rectangles as quilts, no matter how they started. Seeing some of the entries in the Carrefour Patchwork Show in France this past year helped me on this journey.

I noticed, also, how many “layered” quilts there were this year. I’ll be showing more later, but this one is more modern, and is not raw-edge appliqué. Stunning work.

Here’s an almanac of quilt stitches for you.

Sandy Curran: Survivor

Amy does it again, with her beautifully worked miniatures.

Amy Pabst: Pink Lemonade

I’m always curious: when she says they were foundation pieced, does this mean she did it over a fabric or non-woven that stays in, as I would hate to think of her having to take out all those teensy bits of paper. (As always with these smaller gallery images, click to enlarge.)

This was just down a bit from my New York Beauties quilt. I saw Cassandra putting up the blocks on her Instagram feed while she was making it.

Cassandra Beaver: 100 Days of Apple Cores

From apples…to eggs.

Nikki Castro: All My Eggs. Quilter: Isabell Prado

Loved the repetition here, of boys pretending to fly and the quilting.

Katie Henrich: Flight of Wonder

Sacred Threads Quilts

You can read more about Sacred Threads online. Here are a few of the quilts that were in Road this year.

Patricia Caldwell: Connections
(As always on these groups, click to enlarge.)

Living within driving distance of the Manzanar Internment Camp, we took a drive one weekend to visit, gaining an appreciation for what these citizens suffered. If you haven’t had a chance to see one of these camps, I hope you can do so in the future.

Patty Kennedy-Zafred: Tagged

Given that we quilters are so dependent on our eyesight, this quilt’s story was sobering.

Susan Price: Insight

These simple shapes evoke history.

Bonnie Bowman: Striped Stripes

Christine Vinh: A Quiet Oasis

QuiltCon Traveling Exhibit

We had a few quilts from the QuiltCon traveling exhibit here, too.

Lucy Engels: Fugue

Did you see that? HAND-appliquéd circles!

Nora Bauser: Dot Your Eyes

This was from a different exhibit, but for some reason, I only have just this quilt.

Janice Willis: Connecting With Your Roots

Free to Sp%@k Special Exhibit

A very interesting exhibit, but one that had a lot of comments from visitors. I was there on Saturday, shortly after the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, and many of the pieces in this exhibit resonated with the visitors.

Kathryn Pellman: The Revolution Kind (2025)

Kathyn Pellman: My Thank You to Hillary Clinton (2017)

I was interested in the choice to use writing to illustrate some points in these free speech pieces. While Pellman could have gone abstract with shapes and colors and design, the very fact that she’s chosen to use speech dovetails with the subjects of her quilts, and also gives a nod to the idea that freedom of speech is protected in our Constitution, although sadly that weekend, we witnessed the betrayal of that freedom.

Kathryn Pellman writes out the First Amendment to the Constitution on this piece. The title is Donald Trump Made In China Owned by Putin (2025).

MartyO: Weight of Letters (2025)

MartyO: Scrubbed

Kelly Hartigan Goldstein: OLD BABY, MAD KING – July 4th (2025)

So much in this exhibit to think about, such as, is a paper “quilt” a quilt as we think about it? I don’t know, but that’s trivial compared to the issue being raised. The fact that it is cut out from a single newspaper is remarkable.

Layered, Collage Quilts

Sandra Mollon: Crossing the Mkuze River
This quilt won the Stevii Graves Memorial Director’s Choice Award.

Sandra Mollon had more than one quilt in this show, and several of her students also had quilts; I liked that all the photographs were attributed. In addition, Road hosted a special exhibit of some of her landscape quilts. They were all so beautifully rendered.

Sandra Mollon: Toroweap Overlook

I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but they look so daunting!

Sandra Mollon: Valley View Yosemite

This holds a special fascination for me, as this valley is where my husband proposed to me.

Sandra Mollon: Smoky Mountain Vista

Sandra Mollon: Boulders at Lower Yosemite Falls

Ricki Selva: Isbjørn

They had lights shining upwards underneath the quilts, so the value on this is slightly changed: the entire quilt was richly hued.

Angie Tustison: Cathedral Trees

Ricki Selva: Emerald Miles

Another amazing quilt by Ricki Selva (and great story).

Mimi Ghauri-Young: Stag’s Leap

The detail in the lower river was quite perfect.

Are your eyes crossing yet? So many beautiful quilts, and I know this has been a long post. Just a few more until next post, when I show just a few more.

Kestral Michaud: Echoes of Time and Magic

Similar techniques, but such a different flavor of quilt.

How about this for a change of pace?

Anne Kobus: Let’s Get This Party Started!

More color!

Carlton Brown: Destiny Calling 2

Robyn Phelps: Jasper

Made from Maggie Walker fabrics, which inspired her design. Gorgeous quilting, too.

Last one for this post.

Ricky Tims: The Visitation (loved the quilting in the background).

Time to end!

I’ll link over the next post when I get it written. Hope you enjoyed seeing these quilts!

(It’s been windy here for several days!)

Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Quilts · Travels

Carrefour VI: RachelDaisy Dodd, Ruth De Voss, Lorena Uriarte, Diane First, France Patchwork & Ulla Hoppe

February 12, 2026February 12, 2026 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

This is the sixth, and final post about the Carrefour European Patchwork show 2025. The post covers:

• Venue 13: Villa Burrus, with RachaelDaisy Dodd
• Venue 14: Église de l’Assomption, with Ruth De Vos
• Venue 15: Salle Polyvalente, with Lorena Uriarte, Dianne Firth, ASL Liépvre, EQA, France Patchwork
• Venue 16: Ulla Hoppe

I have a main Carrefour Quilt Show page that lists all the posts of all the meetings I’ve gone to, and includes the posts from this year too. If I haven’t mentioned it before, you might enjoy these posts more if seen on a desktop computer or even a tablet. Cell phones re-format the layout and can sometimes do strange things to how it looks on the screen.

If you are interested in going to Carrefour, I wrote two posts for them about our travel, and how we put the trip together. You can find them here and here. Their main website is HERE, where you can subscribe to their newsletter (scroll to the bottom).

Thank you so much for reading and traveling along with me by way of these posts. Enjoy!

This venue, Villa Burrus, was just a few short steps from the Party Room (Salle Des Fêtes, from the previous post) and although we’ve been to Carrefour twice before, it was new to us.

Sited on Le Parc de las Villa Burrus, this mansion was built in 1900, at least as I can figure out for the literature we picked up was all in French, printed for their Patrimonie — or Heritage — Days, when many buildings are open to the public. Whatever its origins, it was a great place to see quilts, and RachaelDaisy Dodd had her solo exhibit here.

She was always thronged by, and visiting with, quilters, so I’m afraid I didn’t get the best photos of her. But her we go with some of her quilts.

In the front hallway, just across from where her table was, and I apologize, but I have no title card for this.

Her signature is a variation of the pine cone (or pine burr) block.

Followed by another motif she commonly uses: the yo-yo, a gathered circle with the gathers on the top.

Title: Yo-Yo Bloom
Title Card: “Yo-Yo Blooms is a quilt designed to make you smile and to celebrate just how fun Suffolkd Puff Yo-Yos can be! The quilt brings together all my favorite elements: happy colors, cheerful fabrics, playful Ric-Rac, my signature pieced Yo-Yos and big flowers. Which is your favorite Yo-Yo bloom?”
Technique: Yo-Yo Suffolk Puffs, Appliqué, Machine Piecing.

Several rooms held her quilts, with large moveable frameworks. In the next room, the frame was set up in the center, and the large mirrors and windows and her quilts all echoed with pattern and color.

Click to enlarge.

Where does she get all her ric-rac? I think a lot of it is vintage, as she alludes to in her title card.

This one was always hard to get a photograph of. I also kind of liked that the man is carrying his wife’s (his??) purse.

Yo-yos galore, along with doilies and appliqué; she is not a minimalist, and I love it all.

Apologies: no title card. But what do you think? Did she quilt the background, and then add the giant circular pine burr blocks afterwards? My brain is always whirling with questions at these shows.

Another scrap quilt, another inspiration.

A couple of random tourists, haha.

I just saw a smaller version of this on my friend’s IG feed. Link. Makes me want to put it in the queue for a handwork project while traveling to Pour l’Amour du Fills in Nantes in 2016.

We only noticed two of the triptych of quilts. Click to enlarge the title cards and banner quilts. These were hanging by the entry/exit hall, and we were on our way out.

Loved her dress. I need to get a patchwork-appropriate dress for quilt shows.

The small towns of Val d’Argent; we are currently in Sainte Croix-aux-Mines, heading to Lièpvre. The church above is Église St. Nicolas, venue 11, written about in the previous Carrefour post.

This reminds us that this portion of France went back and forth between Germany and France several times. If you’ve traveled in this area, it gives you an appreciation for the diverse, yet subtle differences between these neighboring countries (and add in Switzerland, too).

Venue 14: Église de l’Assomption, with Ruth De Vos

A small church in the town of Lièpvre, one of two sites in this village. Inside were new works from Ruth De Voss, she of flower fame. You can find her on Instagram @ruthdevosart.

Now she has turned her piecing and printing and surface decoration skills from flowers to children. Her children, which I loved. Many women seem to avoid this side of their lives, and often in the art world they are expected to, but De Voss celebrates it.

(click to enlarge) The church had many of her art pieces; I’m only showing a selection. They were colorful, drawn with strong lines.

Click on small arrows to advance this slideshow to see more of her pieces.

Venue 15: Salle Polyvalente, with Lorena Uriarte, Dianne Firth, ASL Liépvre, EQA, France Patchwork

Lorena Uriarte is a well-known Australian quilter, who has been active in teaching, making patterns, and championing good design in quilts for years. You can follow her on Instagram @lorena_in_syd, as well as enjoy her quilts, below.

Title: Wingdings: A Variety of Symbols
Title Card: This quilt “is my red and white interpretation of Chuck Nohara’s Symbol Quilt Using self-drafter blocks from her book 2001 New Patchwork patterns, I explored every piecing technique to create a playful and personal visual language.”
Techniques: Hand and Machine; Quilted by Michele Mason

She had a range of her quilts hanging in this venue; they had a bold and colorful impact.

France Patchwork, and others

As always, France Patchwork, the national quilting guild, had a few quilts on display.

“France Patchwork is the French quilting guild, with over 6,000 members. Founded in 1984 and still thriving thanks to its volunteers, its mission is to promote quilting and its various forms through competitions, Friendship Days, and a quarterly magazine: Les Nouvelles de France Patchwork (from website).

They can be found on Instagram @france_patchwork_news. Happily this year I was there early enough to snag one of their tote bags. (One can never have too many tote bags!)

The quilting is done by hand, with heavier thread, and is more spare. I believe these quilts are the cover quilts for their magazine, Les Nouvelles, but I can’t find any working links to their magazine or their organization, beyond the Instagram account.

I wonder if Françoise Rigaud is with the group quilt_en_reve on Instagram? If so, they always do such beautiful work in making reproductions of antique quilts. They had a display in 2024 at Carrefours, and I wrote about them here.

I loved the use of that ombre fabric in the one block. Gabrielle Paquin is a favorite of mine; I saw her the first time I went to Carrefour (link) and began to see I had a lot to discover and learn about our beloved patchwork.

I recognized the France Patchwork logo in the center of the quilt.

And I loved the combination of appliqué and these interesting little butterflies.

A tribute to Japan, from France Patchwork.

Title: Koïnobori
Artist: Tom Mace, France
This is from the category of “Les Jeunes Poussent” in the grouping In the Land of the Rising Sun, and was in the age group of 10-13 years old. (Literally it translates to “The Youth Are Growing.”)

The Challenge 5-25 was to encourage the interest of the youth. The website says:

“For the 30th anniversary of the European Patchwork Meeting event, we’re inviting budding artists and young prodigies to take part in the “HEROES” competition, inspired by those people and characters they admire, on screen or in real life.

The challenge is to create a patchwork quilt: a work made up of different pieces of fabric, illustrating the theme of heroes. Think of everyday heroes and heroines, cartoon characters, bright colors and comic books for inspiration!”

Diane Firth

And now, for a complete change of pace in quilting, here are some transparent quilts made by Diane Firth, of Australia. This is titled Scatter, which was inspired by the dispersal of seeds.” The title card also notes, under techique, “Assembled and Machine stitched on Bernina 770.”

Title: Bogong
Description: The moths emerge from the black soils
Technique: Machine and hand-stitched

Bogong is a type of moth.

Title: Floriade #4
Description: Floral Abundance
This black mesh netting was in several of her pieces, holding the circles (which looked like felt) in place. The Carrefour website says this about Diane: “Dianne Firth, a quilter for almost 50 years, is a landscape architect and academic. She exhibits regularly in juried exhibitions and her works are held in public and private collections around the world.” The OZquilt Network has a page about her where you can read more.

Title: Black Mountain
Description: An exploration of changing landform
This is one of the larger pieces, but the entire display was intriguing and again made me ask the question about what is a quilt? Clearly, hers has three layers, but it is so inventive and structural.

EQA: European Quilters Association: Contrasts (2025 Exhibit)

The EQA is a cooperation between the European quilt guilds, and has a yearly challenge of small quilts (35 cm square, which is about 14 inches). As always, I spent a lot of time looking at the artworks. Here’s the Challenge:

(If you right-click to open this in another tab, it may enlarge for you.) What intrigued me was the line in the last paragraph: “Contrasts are a constant given in our daily lives and make up some of the differences between European countries. And yet, when looking at the collection overall we can clearly see that there are not really that many contrast between us after all.”

Here are a few of the many, many wonderful quilts.

After this, we leave the venue and try to decide if we hungry, as this year…they have a full lunch service just outside. Tempting, but we went to the market at the edge of town, grabbed something and drove to Rombach-Le-Franc, the last town. We parked outside the Espace Raymond Hestin, and ate our shared lunch in the car, in the shade as the day had grown hotter.

We were on the last two venues of the show. We’d started the day before, and went through the vendors and other spaces in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, then headed to Saint Croix-aux-Mines and got to Venue 12, before calling it day and driving back to Colmar.

We got up early the second day, picked up again with the Australian quilters in Venue 12, and progressing through the show. Now, eating lunch there in the parking lot, we talked about if we’d be back next year (no), and what we liked and didn’t like. My husband is a great partner in this adventure and I regularly talk quilting with him. Many of the photos you’ve seen have been taken by him.

Along the road to Romach-le-Franc. We tried for this three times, pulling U-turns to double back to get the wind just right in the banner.

Venue 16: Ulla Hoppe

Here we go! This venue is quite small, and while there were a couple of exhibits there, I’ll mention only one.

Ulla Hoppe, from Germany, was exhibiting her stitching, embroidery. Not quilting, but I thought it was amazing.

The range of blackwork stitches really brings the complexity of the young woman into focus: aren’t we all full of discreet “countless blocks?”

I loved the title of this piece.

“That one” lives across the street from me!

What is notable in this one is the inversion of the stitches, although done in different colors: what is foreground in the black rooster’s image is background in the white rooster’s image. (If you open it in a “new tab” it will be enlarged.)

You can find her on Instagram @ulla_stickt

She even stitched in Dürer’s insignia. Last one:

Title: Der Nobelpreisträger
Artist: Ulla Hoppe, Germany
Description: Nobel Prize winners: often “grey eminences,” yet crowned with gold.
Technique: Gold embroidery, collage, partially gilded

Alas! We could come back in two hours, but alas! alas! we wanted to see another small town on the way home, so we missed seeing Fabia Diniz. We missed a LOT! I went onto the Carrefour website and downloaded this:

I hesitate to put a link because I know they change their website a lot. But head to her Instagram, and click on her Story, Carrefour, and you’ll see her story about coming to France, along with some of her creations.