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

May 9, 2026 Elizabeth E.5 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).

300 and Beyond · PatternLite · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilt Finish · Quilt Patterns · Quilts

Pursuit of Craft with Spring Dots & Stripes • Quilt Finish

April 3, 2026 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

One of the challenges in our modern life is to deal with disruptions, distractions, and never letting us have a minute without someone telling us the five steps to a better life, to better breathing, to being a better whatever. Or as tech, culture and political writer Derek Thompson observed on his podcast Plain English, these voices tell you “everything is figureoutable. And if I just listen to these five steps, I can figure out all my life’s problems” (from here).

But for me, I escape to quilting to not figure everything out. I mean, yes, sometimes just cranking out on a pattern and whipping up a quilt is a good time and I like that as much as anyone. But hopefully, as Thompson noted, “you can have intimacy with a craft.” The challenge “is if we are constantly being distracted or interrupted, it’s hard to find that intimacy. It’s hard to get into the slipstream or the pocket of a creative project” (same source as above).

I like my pursuit of my craft. Of taking a well-known-to-me pattern like my Blossom, and seeing what I can do with it that sends me into discovery, of finding a new way to see what I’ve seen before. Because, really, haven’t we all seen it all before: make a cut, stitch a seam, sew it together, quilt it, and don’t forget the label?

For this quilt (Spring Dots & Stripes), I chose to work with just two elements:
• dots and stripes (had to be white dots on bright colors),
• Tula’s Tent Stripes (in only four colorways).

It was this challenge that coaxed me into flow.

What is flow? The Czech psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the word “flow” to refer to the psychological state of optimal performance.

“He recalled in an interview how he would watch painters in their studios and how he was fascinated by their ability to forget everything while working. He was also surprised by what happened when they were done: They’d finish a work of art, and instead of enjoying it…they would put it against the wall and start a new painting. They weren’t really interested in the finished painting. What these artists were after, Csikszentmihalyi realized, wasn’t the finished work itself but the experience of full immersion and absorption in the act of creation” (from here).

To understand it better, I watched several videos online, and liked the one from John Spencer, titled “What is Flow Theory?” He highlighted it like this (click arrows to advance):

Since no matter what I tried, the slides kept getting out of order, the basics are:

The task has to be intrinsically rewarding;
The task has to have clear goals and a sense of progress;
Clear and immediate feedback is critical;
It’s a balance between the challenge of the task and the set of skills needed to complete it; and
The person in the flow state has an intense focus on the present.

I cut out pieces in certain colors — the ones I thought I would want — and started putting them up on the design wall. And then in an a-ha! moment, I could see that I could group them differently to create a pattern of interest. Maybe that came from trial and error, maybe it came from being in the flow? I was able to discover a different way as I grouped the petals into colors, cutting and discarding and pinning up and sewing, as I ignored all that was going on around me.

I took the finished quilt out into the garden for some photos this week.

Side Note: I’ve decided there are two categories of fabric design that I don’t like on the front of my quilts: the first is sharp things, like anything on this fabric. The second is insects, so these often end up on the back. (Cute small bee prints are the exception.)

I needed a mini-quilt of just the right size to fit in a specific space (photo near the end), and it needed to be spring colors.

So when I turned to the Blossom pattern (which in turn has it beginnings in the traditional Flowering Snowball block), I didn’t have the right size. Because…

…last spring I discovered that over half of my computer files were corrupted. Not a virus. Just gone (it’s complicated). And 50 percent of those were my more recent pattern files. So many patterns that I’d written could never be updated. Unless…unless…I recreated all the missing, corrupted files to revise the pattern. Like this one:

So I have been busy re-drawing the files I lost, and while I was at it, adding a new size (7″ block), and re-writing the pattern. If you’ve purchased Blossom from me before, you can go to the email you received with the pattern and re-download it. And for those who haven’t made one of my patterns, and want to try it, I put it on sale for a few days if you want to grab it now in my pattern shop.

This a photo of another quilt, Aerial Beacon, that is stuck in re-write-land. I was about a month away from the release when I discovered the corrupt files. Talk about a way to stop the flow! I’ve slowly been re-creating this one, too. (Slowly is the operative word here, but it’s coming.)

Yes, I should have had it done by now, but this is what I call a “reverse flow” task. All those glowing ideals in the list in the beginning have their counterpart: discovering and ferreting out and crying inside over lost work and then redoing the lost work, I would say are just about the opposite of the bliss of being in the flow.

Since I was in the Blossom flow, I re-made the larger 12-inch block version as well, especially since I found that outer border fabric at Road to California this year. It’s in the needs-to-be-quilted stack.

Quilt #316 • 28″ square, shown in that space where I needed a quilt

I’ll let this paragraph from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience, close up this post:

In the course of my studies I tried to understand as exactly as possible how people felt when they most enjoyed themselves, and why. My first studies involved a few hundred “experts”—artists, athletes, musicians, chess masters, and surgeons—in other words, people who seemed to spend their time in precisely those activities they preferred. From their accounts of what it felt like to do what they were doing, I developed a theory of optimal experience based on the concept of flow—the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it. (from here)

I wish you all a week of flow, of enjoyable quilting, and a most happy Easter–

Earth Was Once A Garden Place • Quilt Finish

March 21, 2026April 4, 2026 Elizabeth E.27 Comments

One Sunday morning, mulling over the stunning news from the day before, I drove to church along a residential road. I had a view of the low mountain range in my city, the hills turned verdant green from the winter rains. The sun was bright and clear, the sight was glorious. A favorite hymn was playing as the choir sang “This earth was once a garden place, With all her glories common.”

The song finished, I went into church, but the idea of a place so beautiful and fresh lingered.

I wrote in my journal that night: “All day I couldn’t help but think about Eden, and how much we mortals seem to have missed the boat. To live with ‘glories common’ would be the best….I thought then — realized then — that perhaps it was I who was below my best abilities in bringing about ‘all glories common.’ “

I paused, reflecting: the best of the earth, the most beautiful flowers, the clearest streams and tallest mountains — our glories. Shared all together, without rancor, viciousness, greed, cruelty and just plain old revenge and stubbornness. It felt like too big of a task; I closed my journal and went to bed.

With this experience as backdrop, I sat in the quilting room the next morning, trying to tackle one of the prompts in the Stay At Home Round Robin. I knew I wanted to figure out how to write those words of the hymn, and to let this quilt be a garden quilt, a reminder that I could bring about my own version of Eden in pieces, in bits, in my best moments. I struggled with the “how to” of the words, working it out letter by letter. Many times I was discouraged. With encouragement from friends and from my always-supportive husband, I finally finished and pinned the word borders up around the existing quilt.

Then I looked at the center: it didn’t work at all. So I took that out, went to remake a new one but couldn’t find the pattern. So I drafted up my own, remade the center and carried on. (There’s a metaphor here somewhere, I think.)

So here it is: Earth Was Once A Garden Place. And it can be again, day by day, moment by moment, with gallons of forgiveness, bushels of forbearance, and volumes of truth and charity. It’s that dailiness that can be the hardest: to not cuss out the driver who cut you off, to be more patient with those you live with, to speak up when necessary and to find stamina to do the hard tasks in our lives. I often turn to quilting to have a respite, as well as to be a part of a community of others who are exercising their creativity, planting their seeds, growing their quilts and creations.

Over time, working steadily at the task, we may yet find a way to have our glories common–

Earth Was Once a Garden Place Greatest Hits

First, a huge thank you to the co-hosts of the SAHRR for 2026 (names and links at end of post). It was wonderful! The final Link-Up Party of all the participants’ quilts can be viewed *here.*

Beginning: choosing the center
Round 1: Hourglass
Round 2: Double
Round 2, Part 2: I made it a Double
Round 3: Animal Kingdom
Round 4: Curves
Round 5: Two Color
Round 6: Quilter’s Choice

This is the SAHRR 2026 Final Quilt.
I’ve revised and cleaned-up the free tip sheets I made for this journey, plus a couple more new ones for the final quilt. Click to download. Please do not copy or digitally distribute, but send anyone who wants one to this website to get their own. (NOTE: The tip sheets will live here on this post; the earlier versions will soon be removed.)

Many thanks.

#1 Free Download: Double Square Border

Double Border_OPQuilt Tip Sheet Download

#2 Free Download: Trees for the Neighborhood
(Houses are from my pattern Merrion Square Mini Quilt, enlarged to the size of the finished trees)

Making Trees_OPQuilt Tip Sheet Download

#3 Free Download: Curved Leaves All Around, aka Orange Peel Blocks

Orange Peels_OPQuilt Tip Sheet Download

#4 Free Download: Making Letters/Words

Making Words_OPQuilt Tip Sheet Download

#5 Free Download: Center Propeller Block 9″

Propeller Block_OPQuilt Tip Sheet Download

Quilt # 315, 62″ square

The founder of the Stay at Home Round Robin is Gail. The other cohosts are listed below:

Gail @ Quilting Gail
Brenda @ Songbird Designs
Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

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!