Seams French

This saffron window shade is the second version of my Parisian rose window boutis. As in the first wall hanging, this one is also framed with free motion quilting. When I originally designed the pattern, I made two versions of it. One on a white batiste, which became a wall hanging , and the second on this ochre coloured batiste. Using the same technique of reverse applique for finishing, I framed it with a 1/2 inch brown border before being setting into the background. Because this piece will be illuminated from behind, to do it justice I felt it should have another section of boutis, where light from the window could work it's magic. I made a smaller version of the same pattern, using only the center  rosette. This was also framed with the brown border. This done, I felt it needed even more definition so I added another saffron border before placing it into the lighter yellow background fabric which would be finished with machine quilting. With the top compl

Scrap III: Flower Garden Having taken Scrap II, "Winging It" , as far as I could with that particular set of scraps, it was time to decide on the next stash buster quilt. Knowing that I would have very limited time for actual sewing throughout the spring and summer, I looked for something quick and easy to stitch together. Although technically Flower Garden is in the category of " unfinished project " as opposed to being from the official scrap stash,  it still helps achieve my goal of stash reduction. Flower Garden: A sampling of the 4 patch blocks, roughly laid out and set on point. Back in the winter of 2005, as we were already preparing for our move to France, I decided to participate in one last class with my small quilting group. The pattern for this quilt top is a simple 4 patch block separated by sashing and set on point. At the time, the 35 - 40 calicoes and small floral prints that I chose for this quilt were all cut into 4" squares. Ther

"The Embroidery of Boutis" is a direct translation of the term, "la Broderie de Boutis". As a quilter, I have thought more in quilt related terms when it comes to boutis, however, as it's name suggests, the French consider boutis more in terms of embroidery. So how very appropriate that a group of embroiderers would be interested in learning more about this French technique. For about the last 6 months, my attention has been focused on writing a basic instruction manual for boutis and creating kits for a few of my designs.  After I had finished my first cicada needlebook , I wrote some basic instructions for it and asked my friend Karen, (averyclaire.org) , to "test drive" the pattern and instructions. Karen and I had met on-line a number of years prior to this through our mutual interest in boutis. Not only has she done a beautiful job in recreating the pattern herself, her feedback on the instructions has been extremely helpful for the rewrite and