Bouquets from Baltimore for the Material Girls from Winnipeg

Linda, Laura, Cindy,Cherie and Caroline (missing from photo). In 1997 these 6 women (myself included), met at a local quilt shop in Winnipeg.
We connected and bonded around our love of needle and thread.
We became friends over "Samplers", "Piecemakers", "Little Brown Birds", "Baltimore Bouquets", etc..
We are the "Material Girls" from Winnipeg.

Working on this quilt, I was always reminded of the warmth and friendship of these women and how much I miss them.

To friends to inspire.

To friends who encourage.

To friends who share hugs liberally.

Thanks guys! This quilt's for you.

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Boutis: Traditional French Needlework

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The door of her cage has been opened. She is free to fly off and find her destiny. After many months of hand stitching and then many more months of cording, my little "colibri" is ready to set off on her own. As this was my first attempt at designing so large a boutis piece, it was a learning curve. All of the tight swirls, curls and circles are a great deal more difficult and time consuming to cord then are the longer more gentle channels. Maintaining an even tension is absolutely necessary throughout the process, so patience comes in very handy when doing the cording. The process of stitching and cording a work of boutis subjects the fabric to a lot of handling and manipulation that can distort the design. For this reason, once all of the stitching and cording is complete, the boutis must be washed, blocked and squared. The first step of washing is to remove all traces of the marking pencil as well as any soil that may have collected over the many months of working w...

Seams French

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