From a dull and rainy Paris

The Vidinic family wishes you a very merry Christmas and a happy start of 2014, a good health and peace on your mind.

Make beautiful quilts  and gather with friends , come and see us, quilters from Europe.

Tomorrow we reach the little ones in Normandy where we will be all together as Stojanka arrived from London one hour ago.

A storm may join us tomorrow, as a deep depression will come over Scotland to the Atlantic coast.

We'll wait and see, some piecing is prepared in the suitcase.

With the help from my quiltingbuddies i made 16 blocks and sixteen half blocks, in order to make a square quilt.

The original plan was to surround the lone stars with chrome yellows, but it ended up with dark browns and a zest of madders.

Ilike it that way but no decision made about sashings , or maybe just joining the blocks.

Just to show you the sashings for NI, i grabbed some blocks and layed them out and i like this too, very much.

I've never considered beige as an option.

 

Take care, more news next year.

Ok, you're more than bored

with my shiny Featherweight and you want to see new things, exiting new quilts and blocks and stuff, i've got it all fellow quilters...

Take a look at this quillow, made by my friends A R, and believe it or not, it's 100 % cashmere, so warm and smooth..

She made it for her grandson and i hope he will cherish her gift.

I went to see my girls at their seaside and went out for a walk on a pale morning, the color of the sea was sort of greenish and i followed the horses for a while.

I had the beach all for myself and enjoy these moments as much as under the summersun.

I had promised to show you the progress on NI, Well here they are and only 5 more square blocks to make plus the triangles plus the 4 corners.

But now i have the following problem:

the Nearly Insane book does NOT mention the sizes for the sashings, or the red squares.

I now hope that one of my readers made that quilt too and can help me.

We had a Christmas party 2 days ago - sort of - and gathered people from the neighbourhood, how good to meet them in a friendly atmosphere and have a good drink and some food.

Yesterday Randy from California came to see me and brought these awesome gifts.

Randy, they are all so inspiring : I already have found an inspiring doll quilt in THE BLUE AND THE GREY, The brown strip from the scrapbag is so nice , and all the little pieces so inspiring...

Among the goodies you see the oiler burette from DRITZ: truly a wonderful thing and you can attend the hidden corners of your sewing machine with the help of the telescoping spout.

A great help for oiling my Elna grasshopper.

I leave you now at least for the weekend with a pic From C D's tree of life .

Drumroll please because she's doing a wonderful labor of love...

I feel a lot better after posting the latest news, warm greetings from Paris, a blue sky after 5 days of exessive air pollution.

222 singer featherweight and a gansey

You didn't expect me to pop in so soon  didn't you?

DH went out for a walk and get some newspapers and croissants and called a few minutes later : if i knew a vide-grenier was going on on the boulevard  a few steps away from home.

No, i ignored, went out myself and met some friends  at the Abbesses, and then decided to take a look.

I soon saw this little gem and bought it: i have some 201es, but never found a 222, or for an astronomic price, and this one is close to mint condition friends , and look at the spare parts, the funny black rubber mat, apparently made for a featherweight, the usual spare parts and the embroidery hoop, for FW too and in the original box.

The owner took very good care of it all and the box is like new too.

When i made it run, it purred like a newborn baby cat.

I'm over the moon, as you can imagine.....

Not even a transformer needed, 220 volts on the machine....

This is out of topic, but there are certainly some knitters among my readers. This is a gansey from the channel islands from twined wool, a fisherman's pullover so to say.

There is much interest among Dutch knitters about this kind of pullovers and very recently a bookcame out about these items.

It's a small one and fits a boy of 4-5 years.

 

I paid 110 euros for the FW and 2 for the pullover, both are very good deals i admit.

 

Last but not least, thank you for the lovely comments on the SMM postings , on the blog of facebook, i value your answers very much.

From a sunny Paris, Will V, a happy quilter.

 

 

 

Another weekend at the heavenly hide away in Normandy

The serial quilter knitter embroiderer is currently working on a winter quilt for her sister , so lovely with the appliquéd and embroidered snowflakes...

Take a closer look at the outer border, the elegance of the greyish fabric with the birds looks as if it was made for this quilt 

Here strats Dominique's very private domain and the stairs bring you to her atelier filled with tiny treasures from a bygone aera.

Sylvie brought some quiltwork with her.

Cooking is a big deal when we meet, vive la France LOL

We had most of the meals in the garden  and did some shopping in the neighbourhood.

If you pass by Beuvron an Auge, don't miss the chocolaterie BRADFER, he makes the chocolates himself and opens on friday, saturday and sunday.

Seafood is a tradition now, we went to Trouville for langoustines, shrimps and more.

We love to drink a Tariquet, a white wine, perhaps a little too sweet for seafood, but much appreciated by the ladies.

Enjoy your weekend, i will show you soon some recent works,

Will V In Paris