Carrefour 2024: Quilts II

October 16, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

I’m writing about the experience my husband and I had at Carrefour European Patchwork Show in 2024, in Alsace France.

All posts in order are on the European Patchwork (Carrefour) page.

Previously, we arrived in Saint Marie-aux-Mines, and hit the Vendor Mall to start. Then we looked at the exhibits in the Theater (amazing), and now, we head on down the street to Venue 4: the Église des Chaînes, where the exhibit on the Amish is shown. The Anabaptists originally hail from this region, so this show always pays tribute to them by showing their quilts and their handiwork, including a tiny doll bed. (Click to enlarge any photo.)

I love Amish quilts, and many credit them with impacting the Modern Quilt movement, with their strong colors and simple shapes, although that was the first time I’d seen a Jacob’s Ladder block set like this (blue/red quilt).

Okay, leaving Venue 4 and heading to 5, Temple Réformé, where Val Patch was exhibiting. It is “an association from the Silver Valley (Val d’Argent in Franch) region (Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, Lièpvre and Rombach-le-Franc), which is composed of over 20 friends. Its members are patchwork enthusiasts and some of them have been patchworking for over 30 years” (from the program).

I loved seeing all the color and forms; more info is found on the Carrefour site. But wouldn’t you like to have one of their pins (if they have one?) I would!

After that, we double-back to Venue 3: Église St. Louis to see the Anne Bellas exhibit, From River to Ocean, passing some street scenes on the way (it’s really a small village, but love all the sights).

It’s a challenge to light these older churches for quilt exhibits, and I give all kinds of credit to Carrefour European Patchwork Show for the bunches of light they bring in (you can see the scaffolding in the two photos, above — a long rail at the edge of the benches with lights aimed at the quilts). So I’ve tried to adjust the photos on this end, at the computer, to compensate as well.

Anne Bellas’ work was between improv and modern interpretations of different scenes. Often I traipsed to the end of a bench to get the best view I could, as she was inventive with her materials and thread. Here are a few of my best photos (not all of the photos were ready for blog-prime-time).

The program notes state:

“After living for a long time on the Atlantic coast, and now residing in Nantes on the banks of the Loire, Anne is obviously sensitive to the theme of the ocean and water in all its natural forms: coastlines and estuaries, rivers and lakes, stormy or dry seas, ice floes and storms are words that her imagination tries to recreate. For this series, on which she’s working…her sister Cécile, a budding writer, came up with a short text to accompany each of the works, developing the emotions and memories they evoke for her” (from Carrefour European Patchwork program, 29th edition).

(I did my best on the title cards as they were over my head in height; please forgive.)

I love the Saint peeking out overhead, watching over us quilters. Really, old churches and quilts might possible have a natural affinity one for another.

She also had a few small quilts for sale, too:

The white signs advertise Tissus (fabric) for sale.

We’re heading back across the tiny river to Venues 6 and 8, but I’ll save 6 (Espace des Tisserands) for the next post.

Many places were decorated, some with traditional items (geese and swans are big around here), and some with quilts (Pharmacy of the Swan):

Église Ste. Madeleine, venue 8 (with DH at the base of the steps).

Viewpoints, an international fiber art collective, exhibited here and many of the works referred to the poem “Ithaka,” by Constantin Kavafis (inspired by Homer’s Odyssey). The program notes say “Ithaca is the path, it is both a journey and a goal. Ithaca is life itself.”

This is where — several weeks later — you really hope you got the right title card with the right quilt. On these two, I don’t really know. (Click on any in the galleries to enlarge.) I did head to Hsin-Chen’s website and she does have a bit about Ithaka, so my fingers are crossed.

I also looked up Betty Busby, and maybe I’m right?

Get out your scraps!

Giving you a feel for how things were, in this exhibit.

Time to get to work in our sewing rooms/studio/garage/basement/wherever you and your fabric find each other.

Next up: Carrefour: Quilts III: All the moderns, Victoria Findlay Wolf’s new exhibit, and others.

European Patchwork Meeting · Quilt Shows · Travels

Carrefour European Patchwork Show 2024

October 3, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

All posts in order are on the European Patchwork (Carrefour) page.

The Carrefour European Patchwork Meeting was held September 12-15, 2024, in a series of small villages in the Alsace region of France, and ever since my husband Dave and I had decided to take a trip to France this year, visiting this quilt show was on the docket. We’d come before and I so enjoyed it, that we planned again to visit. Carrefour means crossroads in French, and this area, where France, Switzerland and Germany meet is a perfect place for quilters to gather. Not only were there many European quilters, but a couple of quilters from the USA that I know also had representation, due to the Modern Quilt Guild’s traveling show (shout-out to Yvonne Fuchs and Ginny Robinson), which I’ll get to in a subsequent post.

This post is about getting there, and the Vendor Mall.

Other posts are:

Carrefour Quilt I: Theater (Venue 1): Red and White quilts, Sarah Luise Kaminski’s art quilts, Pavillon Osmont (Venue 2): Ocean contest quilts, Carmen Netto, and others.
Carrefour Quilt II: Église des Chaînes (Venue 4): Amish, Temple Réformé (Venue 5): Val Patch, Église St. Louis (Venue 3): Anne Bellas, Église Ste. Madeleine (Venue 8): Viewpoints.
Carrefour Quilt III: Espace des Tisserands (Venue 6): Victoria Findlay Wolf, The Modern Quilt Guild, Quilt Art, Léna Meszaros; Chapelle St. Joseph (Venue 9): PatCHquilt’s Concours Round Bobbin Invitational Challenge.
Carrefour Quilt IV: Église St. Blaise (Venue 7): Virginie Peyre
Espace D’Exposition (Venue 11): Quilt en rêve (remakes of antique quilts), France Aubert (Passion for Samplers), Selma Huisman-Hilderbrand (Walk Down Memory Lane)

This year it was in four villages: Saint-Marie-Aux-Mines, Saint-Croix-Aux-Mines, Lièpvre (which I could never say), and Rombach-le-Franc. There were multiple sites in the first two towns, and only a couple of venues in the last two. We learned to keep track of where we were by the numbers.

However, the day started here, in my hotel (above), when I noticed this woman’s quilted bag at breakfast. Quilter! I thought, and soon we were trading photos on our phones, and speaking in broken French/English. Her name was Marie, and yes, she was headed to Carrefours.

Saint-Marie-Aux-Mines (yes, this area is also known as the Valley of Silver, where there were a lot of mines) was about 35 minutes away through lush green hills…which turned into 45 minutes away because a road had washed out and we had to take a detour. Luckily we were following someone, who we rightly guessed was going the same place as we were, so we didn’t get (too) lost. Parking was good, and close by.

Okay, yeah. The map (again). We figured out we were standing right in front of Val Expo, the “Espace Commercial” which I took as a sign that we should buy the catalogue, the tote bag and do the shopping first.

Everything looks similar to the US quilt shows…and not similar. I had learned from before that I would not be buying large quantities of American fabrics, or large quantities of anything, even if I wanted to (luggage restrictions), so I spent a lot of time enjoying the booths visually.

Until I hit Atelier des ABCDaires. Whoa–these were screen-printed velvets that could be made up into bags. (I got permission to take these photos.) The colors were vivid, the product unusual, and she spoke perfect English. I spent some time here.

Three projects came home with me, but I could have purchased waaaay more.

Chifonie Studio‘s booth was filled with wonderful bits of polymer clay, for rings and charms, and she had a whole section of jewelry (yes, I bought some — it fits in the suitcase really well). [I’ve linked her ETSY shops.] And then I saw:

Marie! She was there with her two friends: Marie Claude, and another Marie. And then she told me her full name was Marie Claude, too. Quick quilty friendships–it was fun to see her again.

I love the embroideries from Un Chat Dans L’Aiguille, but I’m still working on the one I bought last time I was here.

I had determined not to buy fabric from the states, but here was a whole booth of fabric from Germany.

Beautiful cottons with unique designs. Sometimes our fabrics tend to look the same in America, so it was nice to see something different (I got permission to photograph — she’s smiling on the left, in the red shirt). Here’s a link to the Christmas Garland, one of the fabrics in this group I loved.

Fabric from Africa–a riot of colors and prints, and only bought a 1/2 meter of each. They were very stiff, but she promised me they would soften after washing.

I noticed a lot of quilters who looked like me: comfy shoes, and a bag to carry things in. There was also a booth I recognized from last time:

From a booth titled Les Editions de Saxe, I purchased a book of 37 different tote bags and projects, which they slipped into a brightly colored floral bag along with a catalogue. Bonus souvenirs!

The book was written by a Japanese quilter, but published in French. I looked for any magazines that might replace our beloved QuiltMania magazines, and there were some, but alas — not any in English.

Okay. Enough shopping. I had my tote bag from the show, the catalogue (map), and it wasn’t raining. All good things. We bought a couple of demi-baguettes with ham and butter (French butter!), took a seat and ate lunch. Then we left the Espace Commercial, and headed to other sites in town. Above, you see something you wouldn’t find at an American show: history is all around us here.

Next up: Saint-Marie-Aux-Mines quilt venues: Theater, Pavilion Osmont with the Ocean contest.

Travels

Eclipse Road Trip 2024

April 14, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

This is a picture-book post of our recent trip in the Southwest of the United States of America, partly to see the total eclipse (it was cloudy where we were, but we made the most of it). More text and descriptions are on my Instagram; both my husband (who is a great photographer) and I posted using the hashtag #SW_eclipsetrip

More quilty posts begin again next week (if you are new here, they are usually on a Sunday morning.)

Gallery 1 (click to advance): Salton Sea, Felicity The Center of the World, stitching on my quilt Twilight Garden (a constant throughout the trip), Gardens of the LDS Temple in Tucson Arizona, wildflowers, roadrunner at the Las Cruces rest stop.

Lunch in El Paso, tiles that intimated an eclipse.

Hotel El Capitan in Van Horn Texas, Love’s blue sky.

Gallery Two: Eclipse Quilt made for my son and family, still stitching, beginning of eclipse, Texas hill town wildflowers, the old courthouse in Brady–which calls itself the Heart of Texas, a quilt shop (it wasn’t open yet).

North Texas prairie, with the red soil of that land.

Roswell sign, White Sands National Park.

Trinity Site Marker: I can’t separate the events on Trinity from what followed about a month later.

Gallery Three: One of three big reasons why we wanted to take this trip (family and the eclipse, the other two): The Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Here are three shots, culled from the many that I took of this place, but it is incredibly difficult to have photos give a sense of that New Mexico high desert, ringed by dark mountains, with these twenty-eight giant dish antennas spread out (sometimes as far as 13 miles), aimed high into the heavens. As I write this, I have on the soundtrack from the movie Contact, where the main character (played by Jodi Foster) uses the VLA to make a life-changing discovery. The three people standing next to the fence (to the right) of the dish help give you a sense of its size.

Mural in Magdalena, New Mexico (about 27 miles from the VLA)

San Miguel Mission in Socorro, New Mexico, founded in 1598.

Kingman Arizona train with four engines. Trains are everywhere along Highway 40.

My son-in-law built these quilt racks for my daughter’s collection of (my) quilts. Some were made by her children, though, with my help. Out of all my grandchildren, only these have come to see me and make quilts, so I’m happy this family loves them.

A very happy view this early morning, welcoming us back to our home state.

Statistics
Elevation range: from 1258 feet above sea level to 7200 feet (Ruidoso, New Mexico)
Overall Mileage: 3301.4
Days: 12 and a half
Gas Mileage: 27.3 mpg on average
Repairs: only an oil change in Albuquerque
Quirkiest: Roswell, New Mexico, with the giant pistachio near Alamogordo a close second
Weirdest: Felicity, The (self-declared) Center of the World, a little collection of buildings, and long granite slabs with engravings; near Yuma, Arizona
Prettiest Wildflowers: Sides of the Road in Hill County about an hour outside of Austin, with the fields in the Mojave a close second (with totally different terrains and flowers)
How Many Times a Day We Were Cranky: I’ll never tell.
Stories on Instagram with more on our trip

Happy Road Tripping to you–

In case the website link above fails, here is the info on the Roadrunner Sculpture (from Jennifer Bourn, from Inspired Imperfection):

The Roadrunner, designed by artists Olin Calk and Dan Smith, was created in 1993 as part of a recycling education program for the Las Cruces Foothills Landfill. The large-scale artwork was meant to draw attention to the landfill and the issues regarding consumption, the potential reuse of some materials, and the recycling of mass consumed packaging residuals.
The giant Roadrunner has become an icon of Las Cruces and in 2001, it was moved to the Scenic View Rest Area. Unfortunately, over the years the harsh desert climate negatively affected the materials of the sculpture, which were never designed to be permanent, and vandalism by visitors who wanted to put their own spin on the artwork took its toll.
In 2012, the Roadrunner Statue was dismantled and moved to Olin Calk’s farm so it could be refurbished. The renovations were completed in 2014 and the statue was returned to its place at the Interstate 10 Scenic View Rest Stop, this time placed atop a giant base designed to look like a big rock.
The current version of the Roadrunner Sculpture uses multimedia recycled elements like Volkswagen headlights, used sneakers, golf clubs, a trophy, old plastic toys, metal from the City of Las Cruces’ recycling center, and things gathered from local thrift stores.

Travels

A Pattern Language

November 1, 2023August 31, 2025 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

“Every society which is alive and whole, will have its own unique and distinct pattern language; and further, that every individual in such a society will have a unique language, shared in part, but which as a totality is unique to the mind of the person who has it. In this sense, in a healthy society there will be as many pattern languages as there are people–even though these languages are shared and similar.

“…patterns are very much alive and evolving.”

from A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, et al.

Santo Stefano, Bologna, Italy — dating back to the 5th century

I’ve been in another’s society’s pattern and language for the past week, and every day I felt as if there were a little pop! in the brain when I’d see something familiar…but not quite knowable. When the brick above resembled what I know as quilt block shapes, but I’m guessing the people of Italy didn’t have quilts like the ones we make in the fifth century. So what were these?

This sidewalk pattern reminded me of what Yvonne has done in her recent quilt. I was reading her posts on Instagram and every day I’d think of her as I walked by this pattern.

I definitely recognize the hexie-flower pattern, seen on a shop floor.

So recognizable, but with a twist of unfamiliarity. Here’s a 4-inch version of the center block, called Arrowhead:

Arrowhead 4″ templates Download

It wasn’t until it rained (darker area) that this tile underfoot because interesting. When wet, it looks like seed stitch punctuated by French knots.

I definitely recognize the chick wearing the spool of thread. Now these things are definitely in my territory.

Would we ever see a thimble and spool of thread in a high-end, fancy-schmancy store on a swanky retail avenue? Not likely. But here they honor the “art of craftsmanship,” and yes, I know, that referring to quilting as a craft can be a nails-on-the-chalkboard experience for some. But here, when it’s related to way-pricey bespoke shoes, I’m okay with the connection.

So the cream of all patterns — when in Florence — has to be in the Piazza del Duomo, with its cathedral, baptistry (front left) and bell tower (right). I wanted to take photos of every band, every design. I was in pattern heaven:

It also helps that we were waiting in line, held captive by the tourist experience, so I had the chance to study the designs a lot.

If I turn this screen pattern on a diagonal, it resembles the quilting pattern I chose for my new Christmas quilt.

If you have ever traveled to a pattern-rich place, do you do the same thing that I do? Try to figure out what patterns are workable, and which ones you could cart back in your memory or camera to try to spark what you are working on?

Or do you just let things empty out of your brain, letting things fall out and leaving them behind at home, and then slowly allow what you see to filter in? I’ve done it both ways, notebooks filled with sketches and cameras filled with snapshots. Some become quilts:

from the tiles of one of Gaudi’s houses in Barcelona, to my quilt Annularity.

While other things I see are just parked in the brain somewhere. (Do those side guards look like rabbits to you?)

The first thing I bring home with me is a way of cooking, like this bruschetta. It was not on the menu at the local trattoria, but we saw it served when the local postman sat down at the table next to us. The next day, my husband ordered it for lunch. Now you can bet I’m trying to find a good focaccia recipe. I have already purchased the tomatoes. And when my jet lag eases up, I’ll be in business.

Given my experiences with the moon lately, I so want to do something with these ideas that made my brain pop a little bit. Maybe that family who designed a crest also had an affinity with the heavens?

So welcome home to me, with a brain full of patterns, ideas, new sights, jet lag (which makes this post drift a little), food ideas, and hunger for Bologna’s own Majani chocolate. I’m sad to leave Florence and Bologna behind, yet happy to be back in my own bed, in my own place, back to my own pattern language.