Paris Mercerie (Fabric) & Paris Markets

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

Now, where were we?

Everyone travels for different reasons. Some to go to a place and look around. Some to escape the routine and breathe some fresh air. Me? I go for fabric. Okay, I’ll look around and enjoy the sights, see the wonders, visit the museums, but it’s like an internal radar: where are the fabric shops?

We recently returned from a trip to the Carrefour Quilt Show in the Alsace region of France, with an additional few days in Paris. Yes, the quilt posts are coming (and will be spread out), but as I’m emptying my suitcase (singular — which is part of the challenge) and my backpack and unpacking what I purchased for souvenirs, I thought I’d share a little. Or a lot. This can also serve as a resource for others heading that direction.

One morning, after stopping by the local boulangerie (this one was Bo & Mie, and that babka cannelle went right into the bag), we headed up to Montmartre, a hilly, historic district in Paris’ 18th Arrondissement. From a previous trip I knew that at the base of the Montmartre basilica were lots and lots of fabric (mercerie or tissus) shops. As I mentioned before, I only had one carry-on bag, so decided to focus on ribbons (ruban), as I was also carrying what small amounts I’d purchased in Alsace at Carrefour.

We rode the metro up to near Montmartre then got off and walked up through streets. I’d typed in “mercerie” into my map program (I mostly used Apple Maps, but my husband used Google Maps and between us we usually made it somewhere).

I could see through the window that Frou-Frou had ribbons. Many people speak English; my husband speaks French, so I brought the bolts of ribbon that I wanted to the front desk. Right there, she measured off what I needed — no walking to a neighboring counter this time — and rung me up.

I purchased fun dots and some basic white ribbon for an article of clothing I needed to mend back home. The elastic, and a different width of white ribbon (for some reason, the size I wanted was out everywhere), were purchased at the next place we stopped…

…which was this jumbo place. There are several large stores in this area with lots of fabrics to choose from. It’s almost like going to the Los Angeles fabric district, but before ICE decimated the area with their raids. I never made it to the rooftop to see those trees growing up there, but I probably wasn’t allowed to go there.

On the first floor, you get the layout of the place, with long tubes of fabrics laid out on tables. This place also had mannequins dressed in sample dresses (in this case, very strange sample dresses–more like they were tucked, gathered and pinned onto the models). Click individual pictures to enlarge them.

The map in the stairwell gives you a sense of what’s on each floor and there is no elevator for customer use. Everyday is “leg day” in Paris.

On one floor I looked out the window to see the Sacre-Coeur Basilica at the top of the hill.

When I see all this, it’s easy to forget that our locations for fabric in the States have sort of dried up, with the closure of JoAnn’s.

This table reminds me of what I purchased at our last stop at the Carrefour Quilt Show: a thick geometric woven tapestry, plus cotton webbing to match. Because of this, I’m drawn to the fabrics on the table.

I found these on a neighboring table (it’s dangerous to walk around in strange fabric stores). There were many other shops to explore, but we pressed on to see the Basilica. Later, when we walked on the other side of the hill, we saw this shop:

Given the weight of the tapestries in my backpack, I asked the shopgirl to cut some small pieces that they didn’t already have cut. “Non,” the girl said. “We don’t have those in smaller pieces.” Given that the yardage above was there and waiting, and that she obviously was not going to cut anything for me, we left without any of this fun fabric, and went down the street for a yummy Cambodian meal at Le Cambodge.

In another section of St. Germain (5th Arrondissement), we window-shopped at Pierre Frey. We were on our way to buy my other favorite souvenir, table linens.

This is Jacquard Français, a linen shop, introduced to me by my big sister. I am a big fan of buying usable souvenirs, like cheap-o shopping bags (we live in a state where we bring our own to the grocery store). Last time we were here, we purchased placemats and napkins and every time we use them, we remember our time in France. We’d purchased cool colors (blues, greens) last time around, so warm colors was what I was looking for. (Available in the states through this shop.)

Julie, an owner of the shop here in Paris, agreed to pose for this shot for me: the cool blues of her suit against these poppy, yellow and bright colors. We bought two of the orange placemats and two of the Half-square Triangle placemats although she referred to them as “origami.” When I explained to her that I’d just been at a patchwork show in Alsace, and we called the pattern by a different name, she understood. “Ah! Patchwork!” she said.

Did I mention how beautiful this shop was? It’s a new one, she explained, as they just moved over from their old one, a few blocks down the street. (We did know, as we went to the old one first, courtesy of our maps.) (This is the correct location.)

The whole shop is just so beautiful, with curving lines, perfect use of backgrounds:

She rang us up and then presented me with a tea towel that was patchwork! It was made for a promotion their company recently did. I was honored.

I’ve written about the Marché Bastille, too, and put up some Highlights you can watch. The scarves (above) are from there.

I’ve posted about our day at the Le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen at Clignancourt, or Les Puces, as everyone calls it, here and here. What I purchased in one shop is above.

I wrote up a document to keep track of the Thursday markets, but there is other info on this, as well as a link to a page that helped me keep track. (downloadable PDF)

Thursday and various Markets Paris Download

Are you still with me? (Hope so.)

Thursday morning, after we went to the Bastille Market, we then walked down a neighboring street into the Marais District (follow the green arrows). We ate at Babka Zana, enjoying an amazing sandwich made on challah bread, and filling chicken salad on the side.

Found this fabulous chocolate shoe on this street.

Chocolate, no kidding.

Keep going along this street which has about a bazillion parfumeries, until you look into an opening and see La Mercerie Parisienne through the courtyard:

So much fun, so many ribbons. The last photo of threads on a rack is just for looks, she said. Real thread is….and she swung open a door to show all the threads. Tiny, but gorgeous. I purchased…white double-faced satin ribbon (again).

Part of being in a new place for a few days is noticing. Like this terrific jeans skirt.

Or The Sky of Paris On The Wall, 2025. Round a corner and there’s some new…

…object to appreciate or to capture with your camera.

It does help to be in a new place, for all the little miracles in our neighborhoods have already been seen a thousand or more times…so we don’t see them anymore.

Concorde Metro Station wall. (Notice the punctuation at the bottom.)

Rough translation: A little breath of poetry around our lives.

I might add that quilting is a little breath of poetry around our lives–

P.S. I’ll probably do another post about the Les Puces flea market and how to navigate that, but first:

I’ve been sick in bed with a bad cold, and memories of Paris.

And more fun upon returning: my computer has eaten about a third of my files (long story, you don’t want to know), but if you are using iCloud as a back-up for your Apple computer, don’t. Get yourself a hard drive and back it up that way. iCloud is just so all your devices can talk to each other, NOT a back-up. And to those who ask, yes, I had both and yes I’m still having problems, but according to Reddit, iCloud is the problem. But what do they know? What does anyone know?

(And I’ll probably remove this rant in the future, but for now, this is the state of my life!)

Something to Think About · Textiles & Fabric · Travels

When You Can’t Create You Can Work

June 1, 2025June 7, 2025 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

Henry Miller, a writer in the early part of the 20th century, devised a list of rules for himself when writing his first book (Black Spring). I found this whole idea while zipping through an exhibit in Kraków, where a designer tried to incorporate pieces of his so-called Eleven Commandments. One of them, “When you can’t create you can work,” was printed on ribbons and strips of whatever. Of course this phrase caught my eye, and I paused a nano-second to snap a photo then moved on. Tourists! (Look at the end of the post for Miller’s complete list.)

So it’s been that kind of a week, still snowed under by jet lag, I didn’t feel up to creating not one quilty idea. But I could work.

Our weather has started to turn to the hot, dry summer kind of weather, which means that the seersucker that I stashed back in October was going to have to get cut up into my summer nightgowns, using the same pattern that I’ve been using for half my life.

I usually only make two at a time, but this time went for three. I scavenged ribbons, which necessitated digging deep into the garage (more on that, later). The laces bordering the woven ribbon (pink/blue) were picked up on a trip to Austria, a millennia ago. The woven ribbons were purchased when I working at a local fabric store before I had my first child, and when they had wonderful local fabric stores.

I’d given the Jemima Puddleduck buttons to my mother, which she gave back to me at some point. (Three for only one dollar??!!)

I found them in my button box, still wrapped in the tissue paper the shop lady in Britain had wrapped up for me. Before JoAnn’s closed, I would have felt guilty for stashing away all these treasures. Now I feel sort of proud of myself. We quilters are funny people.

Last time she was here, my daughter said, “Mom, you need to clean out.” Implied was the rest of the sentence: “Clean out before you die so I don’t have to.” Message received; rafters cleared. Working on the rest…later.

This standing quilt hoop was a heart breaker to leave at the thrift store. The boy taking this treasure from my husband turned it upside, and one side of the stand fell out onto the floor. He kicked it to the side and dumped the rest into the bin. (Perhaps it’s best if we don’t watch what happens to our treasures.)

Sick and tired of podcasts and newscasts, and realizing my stubborn jetlag was still with me — which answers the question about why it took me soooo long to make the nightgowns — I started listening to a new book, recommended by my sister. So far, so good. I will say that I have gotten things put away from the trip, but so much else needs to be dealt with, primarily the emails. Thank you for your lovely notes on the Kraków churches!

I could have used this Pasmanteria (the word for this kind of a store in Czechia) when I was hunting buttons and trim for the nightgowns. Yes, I found a fabric/notions store while traveling! I purchased the usual: two thimbles.

Alphonse Mucha window, St. Vitus Cathedral

I’ll leave you with this two glorious stained glass windows from the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, along with (below) this tiny wrought iron work of a woman spinning thread into cloth, from one of the chapel gates:

Happy Working, if not Creating–

Here are the ELEVEN COMMANDMENTS, if you are interested:

Work on one thing at a time until finished.
Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’
Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
When you can’t create you can work.
Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

This little PatternLite pattern is a reminder of what we see when we get out of our own town.

You can find it in my Quilt Shop, on PayHip. Enjoy!

Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Something to Think About · Travels

Quilting and the Churches of Kraków

May 25, 2025August 17, 2025 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

Traveling is a blitz on the senses, a clearing of the mind, and making connections that are new or novel. I’m always making quilting connections when I travel, I suppose you are too: new patterns, repetitive designs that could be a quilt are not uncommon on our Instagram feeds or in quilt shows.

If you are new here — and welcome — I often take a small diversion from the *making* to the ideas that propel our quilts. This is one of those posts, and it centers around the creativity shown by a group of Polish parishes during the Communist years in this country. And actually, they are all over the country of Poland, not just in Kraków.

I wrote about the church in Warsaw, our first one to see, and believe me — now that I am home — I vow that if I ever go back to that lovely country my husband and I will rent a car and go see more. They are so different that the usual gothic and decorative churches that we tourists usually go to. (I do like some of these and will show a couple more in this post.) I first found out about what’s known as the Day-VII Churches during the usual pre-trip fatigue: searching for what to see in a given city, I typed in “churches in Kraków” and saw a photo of this church:

Our Lady of Częstochowa Parish, Kraków – Poland

Whoa. All those triangles, the different angles, the airiness — some architect had been incredibly creative in making this. I found out that there were about 3600 churches with similar heritage. The man who hunted down and gathered all these — Kuba Snopek — also worked with Izabela Cichońska and Karolina Popera; together they compiled a catalogue, which I ordered and read. I watched his Powerpoint presentation. I hunted and searched and read and soon realized that I was limited by my time in Poland and had to choose what we would go see. Sometimes there was information and in English, and other times there was not.

Interior, Our Lady of Częstochowa (Some video of the interior)

A lot of these churches were impacted by the changes of Vatican II. In reading about this preciously unknown subject, I learned a lot about how the desire to have the priests more in front of the congregation and to include the participants in the worship experience, changed how the architects designed the churches. Communication with the Vatican was spotty, at best, during the early years after the war, so some parishes/architects turned to the ideas found in theater construction; broad expanses became more common instead of the more traditional narrow nave and side aisles.

(looking toward the rear of church, with hexagon windows)

While we did go to these on a Sunday, we worked to not take photos during their services, with only a couple of exceptions. However, there were many photographers around that day, as it was a celebration of First Communion for a whole group of young people, and the joy and celebration was palpable and only added to the experience we had.

(zoom-in of hexies and organ)

Often when I see a new quilt design, I’m asking How did they do that? Why are the colors distributed that way? Why were those colors used? and finally, Can I replicate this?

I was already working on hexies on our train and airplane rides, so I was familiar with this element, certainly.

But what prompted the architect to insert them where they were? Was the lack of materials the reason for subdividing all those larger triangle windows? I knew that many of these churches were made from whatever was available, and sometimes the parishioners themselves were working at night by the lights of car headlights, using their own small concrete mixers to help pour the larger structural elements.

from here. This church has a nickname of the White Batman, which we did not get to see. Be sure to link over to see the construction photos, all very rudimentary, with lots of scaffolding since there were no cranes (which couldn’t be obtained at that time).

Do we arrange designs by the amount of fabric we have? All.The.Time. I found myself thinking about the nature of making, of design. Do our construction techniques vary according to the design we have in mind? Yes.

However, mostly I was in awe.

Another church, close by, was built in a giant housing project, nestled beside buildings, as were many churches. Imposing in stature, they nonetheless adapted to the area they were in.

The entry is behind that square stone wall. We arrived about 10 minutes before their services started. I had done my research, but somehow open hours were hard to find, but I knew from my own experience that Sunday was probably a good day to visit a church.

The full name of this church is Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland, Kraków, but they call it Arka Pana, and it is in the Nowa Huta section of the city. The outside is clad in small rocks, and St. John Paul II, who had been given a moon rock, donated it to the church (although I think it is not embedded in this concrete).

(upper balcony) We left just as the service started, and went outside:

I wrote this on Instagram:
Our Lady Queen of Poland Church, also known as Arka Pana, is in Kraków, Poland and is one of the Day-VII churches. They are a group of churches built from 1945 to approximately 1990 in Poland, and they are mostly modern in style, built by the Catholic parishes themselves, with different architects. This church was about 30 minutes away from the touristy center, and we walked through a huge Communist housing block to reach the church. It was well worth the effort. We snapped a few shots before Mass began, and only after seeing all the rest of the congregation snapping photos (it was First Communion Day) did we sneak a few more. We then slipped outside to admire this church, reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut in France.

Now for the more traditional inspiration, the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. It’s more modern –haha– as compared to some of the other churches in the area. I learned that:

The church, among the first tall brick-and-sandstone built in Krakow, was originally consecrated in the 13th century. Hundreds of years, later, St. Francis’ Basilica found itself in the center of a very different city. Krakow became the center of the “Young Poland” art movement between 1890 and 1918, a modernist style that became known for its art nouveau style. One of the founders of the movement, Stanisław Wyspiański, won a contest to repaint the church and turned it into what is still the most original church design in Poland today. (from here)

It’s that design by Wyspiański which engaged me:

Parts of these images remind me of the economy blocks I’m currently working on.

It’s not exactly the same, but a suggestion.

Yep. I collected pattern and image and ideas and great ideas to fold into quilts in the next little while.

a Wyspiański window; I loved all his wall paintings of flowers!

Our trip tag on Instagram is #poland_prague2025 if you want to see more of our trip.

And because you’ve been so patient in exploring these ideas, I worked up a small idea from the blocks in St. Mary’s Basilica. Below is an illustration of the pattern and a mock-up of colors. Link to quilt pattern is here.

Obviously, I drew color inspiration from the windows of Arka Pana and Stanisław Wyspiański!

(back of catalogue)

Also from the Basilica of St. Mary in Kraków’s main square. I love seeing depictions of the Annunciation.

EPP · Quilts · Travels

Catching Up, Keeping Myself Honest

May 11, 2025May 6, 2025 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

You could skip this post like you might want have to skipped Weight Watchers checkins back in the day…it’s a post that charts progress, keeps me honest and helps me admit my defeats as well as my successes. I watched a well-known recipe developer on Instagram bake her own wedding cakes last week, and I was like…I think I need to go and lie down for a while. It all looked amazing, and I wish I knew her personally so I could taste all her layers and fillings and crumbles.

Is making a quilt like that? We have layers and pieces and threads and in the end, we put a binding on it and call it a quilt? Those who aren’t quilters are amazed, but we just smile and pick the threads off our sweaters.

One of the Important Things is to get your machine serviced once a year.

So I drove out to a neighboring city, and dropped off my machine which caused me some grief (it’s how much?).

To recover, I went across the street, where the delightful ladies of this shop made me feel welcomed. They are in the process of moving, and I look forward to their Grand Opening in June, in a new location. With better parking.

The strawberry quilt was in their back room. Some red, white, and blue fabrics came home with me, and then I popped them in a mailer and sent them to my daughter who is making lots of small, very cute flags. That link will take you to some Stories, and I really like what she says in the last one, that sometimes we have to do a lateral move to keep the creativity flowing. Truth.

Yes, it cracks me up that she still has the wrapping on her ruler, but if that’s how she rolls, I’m happy. She confessed on another story that she purchased some fabric and then her eyes got really wide and she said, “Fabric’s a mood right now!” Translation: It’s expensive. (I’m loving this.)

Mary, of Zippy Quilts commented on her Tony’s Chocoloney Bar. Here’s ours. We buy it at Whole Foods, when we go there (rarely), sometimes Sprouts. Sometimes Walmart, but check the expiration date. We chunk it up and keep it in a covered container for an after-dinner treat.

Sherri dropped her free BOM block for May. I’m using an old line of her fabrics, but I love them, so I’m happy.

Here are the first five. They are giant blocks, like 18″ big.

A new Molly arrived…on her Vespa. The price has jumped about 20% in case you were wondering what girls-on-Vespas-from-China cost now that we are having a tariff fight. I’m sadder about the chaos, the destruction, the cruelty — why NPR? Why PBS? According to a poll about the bias in news sources, they come down just about in the middle of the range from right to left. And why the National Parks? Why are they savaging the science funding? The arts funding (including the Quilt Index)? Have we lost our minds? (Yes.)

I fear for my grandchildren’s world.

(a childhood book)

Starting on this to keep my mind off the news. It’s my New York Beauties quilt.

If you are on Instagram, I’m sure you’ve seen that I’m on a trip in another city, so yes, I did all this before I left. I’ll be home soon. No I didn’t visit EnergyLandia, but I’d like to bottle what they have and bring it home. My brain is most likely overloaded with new sights, new sounds, and all the quilt projects are waiting for me back home.

Well, all but one.

I read this one post on Bluesky where a quilter she said she would just stumble around until she figured out what direction she was going in, and boy did that resonate. I started sewing hexies because I was on a car trip; yes, that’s the whole reason. But this week, I stumbled into the next idea, and what colors I want to use.

I cut some squares a bit bigger than my hexies. I’m using Painter’s Palette solids in lighter colors. Then I creased the fabric square lightly to get them centered, put a small appliqué pin in the center to hold it, and stacked them up.

I cut a manila paper folder to size, as I have to be able to transport them and use this set-up in a small space, like a seat-back table on an airplane or a train. The mini-folder fits right into that blue bag. I’m taking this for a hand-work project on trains and planes, and to help me keep my sanity when everything I own is in two small bags and I’m trying to shove in more. (I modified this idea from Becky Goldsmith, who uses a slightly different folder set-up to transport her pieces for appliqué. She explains it thoroughly in this video or more simply in this post.)

Just so you know it’s me, here’s what I went through to cut hexies to sew:

I exploded my scrap basket, but in the last photo — having gone through it all — I stowed it all nicely back in the bottom drawer where I keep my scraps. I’m cutting one last yellow, below (and no, I’m not taking the tin box — too bulky for overseas travel):