This post covers:

• Venue 6: Espace des Tisserands, with OZQuilt Network, Libs Elliot, Caroline Simm, Esther Delgado, and the Aotearoa Quilters

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.

This exhibit place, call the Espace des Tisserands, is sort of like your town’s gym and event center, all in one. In the following photos, you’ll see some of the basketball hoops (drawn up) as well as all the partitions that Carrefour brought in to subdivide the large space. At the front door, they sold us booklets, stickers, and it was where we could pick up our tickets. Because I had done some writing for the Carrefour European Patchwork Blog, they had two wristband passes waiting for my husband and I, and I am grateful for Carrefour for providing these for me.

If you haven’t figure out yet what this is all about, every year in a small town in the Val D’Argent (Silver Valley), the Carrefour Patchwork Show is spread out over several small towns, and exhibit in event centers, churches, and other places. Plan now for September 17-20, 2026!

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) had a large area in Espace Tissurands. They also had companion interviews on Textile Talks with three of the artists who exhibited in France, and it’s worth a look to get the background on their work, and especially the giant blue lobster.

So much texture and that beautiful blue color, and I loved this piece for how interesting and surprising it was.

I’m showing these in random order; not all of the exhibit will be shown.

Once in a Blue Moon, by Lorraine Woodruff-Long, was “made entirely from repurposed men’s blue shirting.” First she made a giant Log Cabin block, then she cut it up and re-arranged it, while taking the Biscotti Quilt workshop with Brandon Wulff.

Indigo and the Murex: I lightened this as much as I could, but not so much you might miss the intense saturation of three kinds of indigo blue dye: (on the left) Isatis is European woad, and on the right, the stroblianthes curia hails from Asia. In the center, the Murex branders seashell is from the Mediterranean sea, and the artist, Carol Anne Grotrian, writes on her title card that the dye from this animal has a similar chemistry and is nearly identical molecule to the indigo plants.

Urban Grafiti, by Alison Charlton

(Note: photographs were taken by both my husband and I.)

MiJoo Jin, from South Korea; The Bond of Blue Flowers.

(Click to enlarge photos.)

Love You x2, by Joanna Ellis. Unfortunately, the title card photo was so blurry it’s difficult to read (the hazard of a quilt show!), but the artist does mention the Celtic knot, quilted into the center, which symbolizes a love that never ends–in this case, between a grandson and his grandfather.

I loved the shibori technique, coupled with the small one-inch hexagons. The smaller folded hexagons attached here and there bring to life the idea she writes about: “Blue as an emotion is always changing.”

Another creature! And so many blues and so many textures, not only in the Blue-Headed Tree Agama, but also in the quilting in the background..

Last one in the blue series for this post.

The SAQA blue quilts were sort of over in the far upper left of this building.

This is what greeted us when we came in: this triptych of folded and hanging quilts.

Esther Pico had quite a few quilts, and this is the title card from the one in the center of this group (unfortunately, no photos of the other title cards).

Turning to my right, I see this quilt, of the artist (maybe?) peeking out between the leaves of her plant.

And then just beyond the shy woman with the plant, was this burst of floral energy! We took more than a few photos:

This is how it looked most of the time: a place to gather with friends and to study and look at all those blossoms!

This is a piece from Linda Steele who belongs to the Ozquilt Network (OZQN), an Australian organization for art quilters and those interested in art quilts (from the catalogue). Tropicana is the title, and she writes: “I happened to be at a bird sanctuary at feeding time, and I was delighted to have birds flying all around me.” It’s not a huge piece, and I realize that this time many of the quilts did not have their dimensions listed, so it makes it hard to visualize the relative sizes (sorry).

This is also a smaller piece. It’s by Dianne Firth (also with OZQN) and is titled Evening. It was done with torn-strip appliqué, machine stitching and quilting. She writes: “Each evening the sky takes on a different characters. Sometimes it is clear and serene while at other times it takes on a brilliant display of red and orange.”

Julie Haddrick makes a keen (and startling) observation about the different mammals that are now gone.

Below is a collection of quilts by Caroline Simm, who lives in Western Australia, and who has been quilting for over two decades. She likes to use mixed media, art quilting, and collage.

This was a larger quilt, with complex construction and collage.

(Click in order to enlarge to read details.)

A design by Ruth deVos, who also has her own exhibit here!

Sammy. He was the mascot of the show, as shown by the T-shirts below. Details are in Simm’s IG post.

Click to see how Simm layers in different fabrics to bring out the texture in Sammy’s beard.

A trio of smaller quilts, now, of the wildlife in Australia and also by Caroline Simm.

In the far right, in the corner of the Espace des Tissurands, was a small exhibit with quilts by Libs Elliott. She was not there when we visited (probably teaching or speaking).

Are you still with me? Now some quilts from the Aotearoa Quilters, and as a treat, they gave me one of their giveaway pens (I’m big on souvenir pens). This organization is the only quilting group in New Zealand, “that operates at a national level. The principal objective of Aotearoa Quilters is to promote the art and craft of patchwork and quilting within New Zealand” (from the catalogue).

You could almost reach out and pet this cat.

Arden’s piece was a favorite of mine, with the different materials and that fabulous binding.

Organized Chaos, by Sheryl Madigan.

I love all the “hidden” piecing in here, in the background, in the figures, in the halo. So many interesting parts to study.

Oh, I want to meet this bird!

Here are two quilts constructed in the same way: with parts made by several quilters, and a band of pieced fabric at the top.

I love how I could learn about this area of New Zealand, just from studying the images.

While this quilt had the pieced bands at the top, it was not made in strips. It was, however, made by a group of quilters.

And now one that really caught my eye, to close out this post. I know this post was long, but there was a lot in this exhibit building, and I liked that it was all grouped together. So I kept it that way in writing it up.

Chris McDonald: My Little Corner of the World

She writes: “My Little Corner of the World refers to New Zealand’s location in the South Pacific Region. My quilt represents both land and sea. The flora and fauna which are featured are all native to NZ and are but a tiny number of the interesting species found here. Inspired by the Japanese quilter Harumi Asada.”

It was pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and used the quilt-as-you-go method. Here are some more photos:

Thank you for reading about these quilts. It was a lot to take in, but so much beautiful work. I’m turning the comments off on this post, as it came on the heels of the other one. You can always reach me by leaving a comment on any post; I’ll see it.