Carrefour IV: Shin-Hee Chin, Tara Glastonbury, and Janet O’Dell

December 21, 2025December 18, 2025 Elizabeth E.Leave a comment

This post covers:

• Venue 7: Église Ste. Madeleine, with Shin-Hee Chin
• Venue 8: 86 Wilson, with Tara Glastonbuy
• Venue 8: Chapelle St. Joseph, with Janet O’Dell

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).

Venue 7 is the St. Madeleine Church.

Inside, the organizers set up a metal scaffolding framework to see the quilts. The lights are strong and the quilts are well-lit (sometimes with shadows, but we tried to work around them). I appreciated the effort they made for us to see the quilts. Sometimes, we’d have to walk down the bench to see details, which is what you see going on here with people moving in, then back out to the main aisle.

Okay, here we go with Shin-hee Chin.

She was born in Seoul, and earned her BFA/MFA from Hongik University and an MA in Fiber Arts from Cal State Long Beach, in California. She is now a professor at Tabor College (Kansas), where “her work explores identity, hybridity, and belonging through feminist traditions and spirituality” (from catalogue). The catalogue goes on to say that her work also “honors the deep bond between humanity and nature. Through meditative hand stitching, she reflects on our share facility and interconnectedness. Each stitch connects with nature’s rhythms, creating texture and depth to celebrate the patterns that sustain life.”

Now here’s the surprise. Perhaps you glimpsed through the threads a different quilt.

She uses quilts and blankets as the basis for her thread work. This caught me by surprise, and at first I didn’t know how to think about it. We quilters get our knickers in a twist if people make coats, etc out of old quilts. How do we feel about someone obliterating the quilt with their own work? Well, generally that is one reason that I come here: to have my eyes opened to what else is going on in the quilting world. I just needed to accept this artist on her terms, and look at her work. We all have seen quilts at guilds and local shows that surely might be well-suited to a second life (I’m looking at you, pre-printed panels!), and what an impressive life they would have with this quilt and fiber artist.

(Click to enlarge the photos.)

Confession: somewhere along here, I lost track of which quilt belonged this title card (sorry).

Fronts of quilts…

…and the backs of the quilts.

A quilt from her nature series, a collection up on her website. One of the reasons I was interested in this was because her materials: a thick thread with little squares attached, which I’ve seen knitters use to make decorative scarves.

Her work appears literal, like — yes, this is a reflection of tree branches — but then you get closer, and the thread stitches and tangles add another dimension.

The tiled floor, of course.

Last look: the interplay of the church’s stained glass with Chin’s threaded images.

As we walked to the next site, we loved the brilliant yellow against the wood-carving on this small house.

We notice the quilts in all the windows around town. We’re headed to Venue called 86 Wilson, which is really just a street address. It’s where Tara Glastonbury is exhibiting, another quilter from Australia.

The view across the street.

Now do you recognize her work? She has a pattern line, as she has “a background in graphic design, and a long history in textile crafts” (from catalog). She titled her exhibit “Balancing Act,” as it “explores her evolution as a design-led modern quilter through her use of bold color and striking geometry.”

Tara and her mother sat inside, just a bit away from the front door, in front of a sunny window lighting the space. She had copies of her newsletter and patterns (yes, I bought one). The atmosphere was genial and happy.

I struggled to get the right color balance, because the lights cast a really warm light.

I love that she had tote bags that echoed her quilts.

Two quilts that I don’t have title cards for are below, but you can find them in her pattern shop.

I love that she “jazzed up” her Log Cabin with some triangles.

See her card (below) for a truer representation of the colors. It’s such a terrific design.

Tara’s penultimate quilt:

She uses small pieces of fabric in an interesting way. Scrappy-not-scrappy, but more ordered.

Last one from Tara:

We jumped in the car and drove to Venue 12, passing another house with a carved wood exterior. We’re skipping Venue 11 for now, as it’s not on the way. After finding a parking place around the corner, we arrived.

Venue 9 is a tiny little church where we saw the European Bobbin Spool Invitational Quilts last year. What will it be this year? Again (you’ve heard me say it before), I am always just blown away by the diversity of quilts and quilters at this quilt show — it really pulls me out of the US manufacturers/quilters/design loop and makes me think and appreciate the diversity we have. I hope these posts help you see your quilting and creativity with new eyes, or maybe spark a new idea.

Photo of stained-glass taken by my husband. As always, we both took lots of photos, so many of the images in these Carrefour posts are his.

This time, we will meet our great-grandmothers of quilting.

Not in the flesh, but in the work they left behind, courtesy of quilt collector Janet O’Dell, from Australia. She (as the catalogue says) “is a keen collector of antique quilts. Her collection of hexagon and medallion quilts has been built up over the past 25 years from a variety of sources. All have been chosen because they appeal to her personal taste.”

And the one quilt that I will flood here with photos and which I loved-loved-loved, I did not get a photo of the title card. Interestingly enough, it was inspiration for another quilt in Venue 12, from Fiona Lindsay (a future post). Okay, back to Janet O’Dell’s quilts.

Here’s the one I loved and I’ll intersperse my comments with the photos. Just keep remembering. These are OLD.

So, the Big Picture, to closer-up, and then to these hearts with their worn spots.

This block, with its free-form cut “corners” of minty blue-green, the broderie perse flower in the center, and those random circles was another favorite. It was interesting being in that space, with these very old quilts. People were quietly moving around them, and then taking a minute to sit and gaze. In so many other venues, we are dashing to take it all in, but here, sitting with the quilts was the point.

Okay, maybe I was just tired.

Or maybe I was fascinated with their technique on their appliqué stitch, each bit of thread taking a bite over the top of the shape, so different than how I do it now: trying to come out on the fold so you don’t see my bits of thread.

And the back — it didn’t appear to have any batting at all in the quilt, so they must have just done the stitching over two layers of fabric, then did a “quilt-as-you-go” to get those flat-fold seams on the back? I’m not usually that over-the-moon about antique quilts, but for some reason I really liked these.

I read a piece this past week about how difficult it is for us to go back in time and really know how people 100 years ago thought or felt or processed image or feelings — or, since most of these quilts were from around 1830, nearly 200 years ago. And we are so “feeling-centric” these days that we even use the term in all our phrases, such as I felt you might like this — or–I felt badly for you, and so on. Did fatigue register the same way for them, or were they always tired (thinking of their housework)? Did that feeling we all have of a lovely quilt finish, register on this quilter the same way? I’d like to think that this woman, as she put the last stitch on that now-worn red zig-zag binding and unfurled it onto the bed, had a sense of satisfaction over the many years it took to stitch.

(If any reader sees this post, and has any information about this quilt, please leave me a comment. Thanks.)

Love that border print! Click to enlarge the title, which is Wood Hey, from the country of Wales. It was made in 1833 and displayed at the National Eistedfodd of Wales in 1933. It’s hand-pieced, with appliqué and is unquilted.

In case you can’t read the title: Sailing Ship & Manor House, from Pays de Galles in Wales, c. 1833. Check out the sailing ship, below.

This quilt was another stunning example of applique, and I love the title: Animal, Vegetable, & Mineral. It’s appliqué and unquilted and was made c. 1842 in England.

Check out this type of appliqué! Criss-cross, a type of tailor’s stitch; I learned this in my clothing and textile classes when I was a freshman, and have rarely used it since. There is a smaller bite of fabric on one side, and then the needle travels before taking the next stitch, and you are stitching backwards, from left to right. I don’t know what the “official” name is, I just know we used it to tack down our wool jacket facings.

It appears they went over a raw edge. I’ve seen variations of this animal-vegetable-mineral quilt pop up every once in a while. Lovely to see it here. Note the pieced backing, even though it “reads” as a whole piece of fabric. Would we add “digital” to the categories? And how would we depict that…with images of our hardware?

So, a form of offset nine-patches? With a spacer?

Normal quilt show pose.

That is a lot of quilting!

Who was M.A.R? and what was the world like in 1818? (You do realize this quilt is over 200 years old, right?) Some notable events (just to get you in her head, and which maybe she never knew about?) are listed below.

Historical Events when this quilt was made:

Official reopening of the White House
Netherlands and England sign treaty against illegal slave handling
First steam-vessel to sail Great Lakes launched
49th parallel forms as border between U.S. and Canada
1st known Christmas carol (“Silent Night, Holy Night”) sung (Austria)
Handel’s Messiah, U.S. premieres in Boston

I love the name of this. Apparently BallyGawley is a town in Ireland, north of Dublin, so perhaps the quilt came from there?

Last one for this post.

This is Broken Dishes Square, and from the United States, c. 1830. It is hand-pieced and unquilted, in the medallion style. These fabrics are so interesting, so busy and I love the bands of color in between each section of the triangles. Some woman spent hours and hours piecing this quilt.

I’m really grateful that the organizers of Carrefour Patchwork Show arranged with Janet O’Dell to have these brought to the show. As always, this show has something interesting around every corner!

Like this replica of the Eiffel Tower, stuck in some sort of a construction yard. We saw it last year in two pieces, so we’re happy it was put together this year.

More Carrefour Patchwork Show posts to come!

Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilts

Carrefour III: SAQA, Aotearoa Quilters, Libs Elliot, Esther Delgado, Caroline Simm, and the OZQuilt Network

December 2, 2025December 5, 2025 Elizabeth E.

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.

Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Quilts

Carrefour II: Lois Parish Evans, Ina Statescu, AFHAM, and ValPatch Quilters

November 29, 2025December 2, 2025 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

This post covers:

• Venue 2: Osmont Pavillion, with Lois Parish Evans
• Venue 3: Église St. Louis, with Ina Statescu
• Venue 4: Église des Chaînes, with the French Ananbaptist and Mennonite History Society (AFHAM)
• Venue 5: Temple Réformé, with the ValPatch 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.

Lois Parish Evans, a quilter from New Zealand, has the skills to make a small, densely quilted piece come alive with design and stitching. I included the title cards after each piece to provide her thoughts and techniques. I also loved the way she finished the edges of some pieces: with blanket stitching, instead of traditional binding.

If you want to see further details, click to enlarge the photos.

I loved the festive colors in this mandala. And the next one is a veritable horticulture index, with all the different shapes of leaves…but still in reds and greens.

I was also intrigued by the insertion of thread lace in some of the cutouts. The title of this is Red Alert For Going Green. She writes: “We are at a critical point for going green. Using a variety of green leaves as a symbol for nature, against a red alert square and with some ‘dissappearing’ leaves, I have sought to portray the strength of the danger that our planet faces. Red alert means it is time to take action.” This was made in 2020.

Leaves? Trees? Reflections?

Reflected Light, 2022

Even though she was working in a series, the two pieces project different moods, given the colors.

I thought the use of hand-stitching completed all the machine stitching, especially that teensy meander in the background,

I fell in love with this one.

Her use of repetition, and drawing the trees in geometric shapes only enhances the feeling of being in nature.

Click to enlarge the photo on the left to see the complete mandala.

A different kind of small quilt, this time, with fabrics on a black background.

It’s easy to see that her attention to detail really elevates this work of art. I love the wafting of the breeze, the feathers on the fronds and the intricate reflections of the rock.

Her work is timeless, and intriguing. I realized that working in small scale can really open up ideas that would simply be overly repetitious if done in a large quilt (like all the stippling, or the hand stitching). It was a pleasure to meet her!

We come out of the Osmont Pavilion (Venue 2) and head up to Église St. Louis. I’m very appreciative of their good signage!

This is one of my favorite venues, with its beautiful stained glass art, in a light and bright old church. Ina Statescu, a Franco-Romanian artist, is exhibiting here. She uses a variety of shapes and materials in her artwork. Before we get to some of the smaller pieces, let me show her main work, up near the altar area.

I think my husband shot this photo (he’s taller), or maybe he did the next one. All I want to say is that he was a partner in picture-taking, throughout all of Carrefour.

Title card for Chemin de Lumière, which translates to Path of Light. Notice it took her four years for this one, and while I can’t give you complete detail (we were roped off from getting closer), here are a few detail photos:

Click to enlarge. Her technique is so interesting, with longer and varied threads and intricate embroidery.

Many of her quilts just had numbers on them, without title cards.

Please forgive the cell phone shadows. This coloring is very subtle, but exquisite.

Many years of people ascending to the choir loft bring a patina to the stairs.

Her colors are not contrasty, nor vivid, but are quieter in their intensity, such as the yellow and green pieces, above.

Saints watch over the quilts (one of the perks in exhibiting in a church, I suppose), the one above being St Therese of Lisieux. (A reader wrote to say that her brown habit is the clue.) I love the juxtaposition of the more traditional church iconography and art with the contemporary quilts.

In some ways, Statescu’s pieces remind me of Rothko, with great fields of color.

Then out we go into the sunshine (it was a fairly hot day) to head to the next location.

This church is just down the street, and holds the exhibit for the French Ananbaptist and Mennonite History Society (AFHAM), a society dedicated to the Anabaptists and Mennonites from France in honoring their heritage and past. It traditionally exhibits a large collection of traditional Amish quilts, and this year it carried on the same.

Love those red ceilings!

An exhibit at the front, with more traditional quilts. I would have loved to seen that variation on a churn dash hung up, as the subtle color shifts were fascinating.

That quilt is just made more interesting with that lower right variation. (Did they run out of cloth?)

Facing the organ loft.

To honor their Anabaptist/Mennonite heritage, at the Carrefour main building they had this buggy, with sheaves of corn.

Out the door to Venue 5, the Temple Réformé, another church. I include these photos of the town just to remind myself I’m in France, in a series of small towns and at a quilt show!

We walk down, and hang a right at this driveway.

ValPatch is a local association (the visitor’s guide says) “from the Silver Valley (Val D’Argent)” which is comprised of the the towns Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, Sainte Croix-aux-Mines, Lièpvre, and Rombach-le-Franc. Twenty friends “regularly meet up and share their passion for all textile arts. Some of the members have been quilting for over thirty years. They all have different backgrounds and experiences in the textile industry, which leads them to make pieces in a variety of styles” (from show catalogue).

I love this group, and was happy to see they were selling small items for sale. I bought this little owl and Michelline, the maker, agreed to pose for a photo for me.

Owls were their theme this year, with the focus being on autumn.

I loved seeing what the quilters in this area were making. I used to belong to a group here of about 20, but we have dwindled down to just a handful and no longer meet together. (I miss them!)

A happy, convivial group!

Now, out the door and onto the next venue which exhibits the SAQA collection, and others. It will be in the next post about Carrefour.

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, if you celebrated, and are ready to think about your end-of-year sewing and parties and gifting and surviving the holidays.

How many days until Christmas? (I don’t think I want to know!)