Toilet quilts.....

In the old days people who lived in the countryside had their toilet outside in the garden.

Some of these toilets even had several ‘places’….. and they were used by several families.

For cleaning afterwards, they used old newspaper and other recycled papers. In the Quiltmania, nr 79 was an article about these toilets and especially about  the ‘privy bags’ where those papers were kept. 

Between 1820 and about 1920 those bags were used in  the region of Lancaster County.

Some of those bags are beautiful small quilts. I really love them more than our modern toiletpaper holders!

I really love this picture, do you imagine sitting there with your neighbours?

IN my garden is also a toilet , we made it into a hen-house. 

Au revoir Nantes 4

I promised you more Di Ford quilt pictures . Here they are:

The center piece of her Phebe quilt, one of my favorites!

Look at the quilting, so beautiful!

I did a 'fussy cutting' class with Di Ford.  She was a very good and inspiring teacher.

Again a picture from Helen. Do you see Mary Koval on the left?

She showed us to look at fabric in this way. Quite an eye opener for me!

This was the quilt we were going to make in the class.

And the last one.... Di in her 'room' and behind her Ann's Legacy, Another of my favorite!

Finally spring arrived here in France! This is one of the apple trees in full bloom.

Au revoir Nantes 3

Some more quilts to admire!!
This the Kaffe Fassett room, so colorful!

The Boro exposition:

Some Petra Prins quilts.

And now my favorite quilts, those from Di Ford. Some of you asked why i do not want to make a Dear Jane quilt. But I am really not inspired by all those different blocks. But the composition, the fabric use, the beautiful colors in the Di Ford quilts are for me .

And of course I bought her new book with all the patterns. For me the Phebe and Ann's legacy quilt are my favorites.

She signed it here....

Two pictures from the book.

More Di Ford in my next post.....

Au revoir Nantes 2

I already told you about the 150 anniversary of the Dear Jane quilt. If  you want to know more about the quilt  you could go to THE Dear Jane website here.
It was a great pity that the original Dear Jane was not there. Brenda Papadakis  should bring the quilt with here, she became ill and could not come so there were 113 copies .....
I already showed you Marian's quilt, there were about 10 Dutch copies.

Here is another Dutch one, a very small one. It was made bij Els Feteris (Bobbin).

Enjoy all the Dear Janes......

The three pictures above are made by Helen.

This last picture was made by Sue, I met her in Di Fords class, here is her blog.

If you want to see more Dear Jane's take a look here!!!! 

I was really impressed by all these beautiful Dear Jane quilts, but i also know, having seen them hanging in Nantes that I am not going to make one.

Au revoir Nantes....

Those 4 days in Nantes were fabulous!  When I cam home I was totally DONE.
I walked a lot, talked a lot, met a lot of people from all over the world, sat on terraces drinking white wine and of course ... I bought a lot.
I met Helen (from Helen's blog) and her friend in Di Fords workshop,  I had lunch with Will (from not so zen quilts in Paris)  together with Vera and Marlies from Holland. I talked to Linda Collins (Quilts in the Barn) and to a lot of other woman!!

Every morning when I walked from my hotel to the Salon, I visited the famous Garden in Nantes (Jardin des Plantes). And every morning I saw this.....

After about twenty minutes I arrived at the Salon and there was this....  (and a lot more, like birds hanging in trees , flowers between the bushes...), made by the knitters from Nantes.

The first thing you saw when entering the salon was  a Dear Jane and a patched cake for the 150 anniversary of Dear Jane. 

And isn't he cute? 

I suppose you want to see pictures of quilts , for today I only show you one of the Dutch Dear Janes who was hanging there between the other 110 ones.

This is Marian's quilt made with the original fabric. 

More pictures to come, I promise!

I am off to Nantes

Tomorrow morning I take the train to Nantes, to visit the craft fair :
Pour L'amour du Fil ( for the love of the thread).  There will be an exhibition of 100 Dear Jane quilts from all over the world and the original antique Dear Jane also will be there!!!

I hope to meet there a lot of other bloggers, from Holland, France and the United States.

I made myself a new purse , again with vintage kimono fabrics in the front panel.

And here is my finished shawl...

Do you see in the right corner the amelanchier in full bloom? I have about 15 of them, they are so beautiful. All the fruit trees are also in full bloom. 

Finally spring has arrived and everything is growing so quickly now, also the grass and the herbs!!! 

On the terrace are my pelargonium cuttings and the pumpkin plants. 

When I am back from Nantes there is still a lot of work in the garden....

The antique quilts I saw in Paris

No words only pictures....

Fan quilt,  beginning of the 20th century,

221 x 191, Hawaï

Baltimore Album quilt, 1847, 

314 x 314 cm

Redwork quilt, Pennsylvania 1881,

236 x 236 cm

Amish Bars quilt, Lancaster County, 1880

201 x 178 cm

Log Cabin quilt in light and dark variations, Illinois, 1875-1900

165 x 133cm

Log cabin quilt, pineapple variation, Michigan, 1870

127 x 76 cm

Cherry tree quilt, Oregon, 1925-1930

206 x 200 cm

The pictures are from the catalogue, it was strictly forbidden to take photo's!

You could visit the exposition till 19 may 20013 in the Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris.