French Treasure (And a Little Bit of Swiss)

France is quite close to where I (Kara) live, and I've shared over the last two years various glimpses of the Alsace region of France. When I first arrived, I was able to go the European Patchwork Festival in Sainte Marie Aux Mines, and this past spring, I took a fun trip to Strasbourg, France. (You can read about both places here and here). This visit to France took us to the Burgundy region of France on our way down to Lyon, for the Women's World Cup soccer final. 

Castle Chillon

I thought it would be fun to take a few days to get to Lyon, so we planned a some stops along the way. The first stop was Castle Chillon in Veytaux, Switzerland, located on the shores of Lake Geneva. It is by far the best castle we have visited! There was so much to see inside—and a little inspiration as well.

One of the many beautiful works of art on the walls

The castle also had quite a collection of carved trunks from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries—beautiful old school luggage! The carvings were amazing!

This was the inside lid of one of the trunks.

I can see an appliqué pattern here.

After the castle, we were off to the French side of Lake Geneva where we spent a lovely night in a converted, old barn with views like this:

Our next stop was Beaune, France, for a little sightseeing and wine tasting. As we were strolling through the streets of Beaune, who should I meet but a friend from the Academy of Appliqué! It really is a small world. My husband and I enjoyed visiting some of the local antique shops and discovered this beautiful wool appliqué tapestry from the Ottoman empire, or so we were told.

I just love the colors and the shading!
I wish I could have brought this home.

Onwards we traveled towards Lyon via Mâcon, France, where I had discovered a flea/antique market that would be held that day. To our surprise it was not just antiques that we found, but a gathering with homemade French food and wine! The booth owners were so gracious and plied us with delicious goodies and glasses of the local vintage as we perused their wares. I was pretty excited to find some lovely vintage ribbons, lace, an old postcard, and a bobbin lace pillow.

Not yet sure how these will be used

Sweet little trims!

A nice addition to my collection

It's hard to believe this is still in such wonderful shape!

I will have to do some translation, but it does say "Happy New Year" on the tiny card.

And my favorite find—an antique bobbin lace pillow!

The bobbins are quite tangled, but it is a treasure nonetheless. 

Hopefully, you have enjoyed seeing some of the beauty of France (and Switzerland) from our road trip through this region. We met some lovely people, ate a lot of good food, and certainly drank some excellent French wine—and even scored some vintage treasures!

Oh and by the way...congratulations to the U.S. women's soccer team on their win!!

Making Little Red Crazy

Little Red Riding Hood is one of our favorite fairy tales so when I (Kara) saw this vintage postcard cloth reproduction on Ebay, I knew that it would be a perfect centerpiece for our next crazy quilting class.

Our first class went through the basics of embroidering seam stitches and motifs. After the class was finished, we began to get requests for a class that would teach some more advanced embellishment using ribbon, beads, and trims.

This Victorian Little Red Riding Hood
became the centerpiece of a very simple block

I wanted to keep the block simple so that the project would not be overwhelming but would have enough space to fit all the different techniques we wanted to teach. This particular colorway has to be one of my favorites, so picking fabrics for it was easy.

The first step was highlighting different elements of the postcard with a bit of silk ribbon and wool thread. I just did a few gathered silk roses where there were roses on the print and added some chain, stem, and straight stitches on the birdcage and basket.

After the postcard elements were done, I began to plan the seam stitches for the piece. Those needed to be done next since the embellishments would overlap them a bit.  

Chain stitches and lazy daisies

After the seam stitches were finished, I started on the different embellishment techniques we wanted to teach. The butterfly was created from a piece of scavenged lace and was attached with a crested chain stitch done close together with a Valdani #8 pearl cotton. The little wood beads used for the butterfly's body were the perfect color.

A lacy butterfly

The blue silk ombré ribbon that frames the corners was gathered first and then attached with glass beads.

The next place to be embellished was the lower right corner where I did some more gathered roses, as well as two spiderweb roses. The center flower is made up of silk ribbon using the ribbon stitch, some straight stitches, and more glass beads for the center.

Last but not least were a couple of motifs to balance things out and pull from the imagery in the center. The flowers from the picture were re-created with french knots and silk ribbon. The basket was made with the same wool used on the postcard, but I added a tiny piece of linen for the cover.

None of the techniques used in this block were difficult, but when used in conjunction with the charming vintage postcard, they created a lovely sample for our class.

The Little Red Riding Hood postcard has so many options for embellishment and so do the postcards pictured below. I can see a wreath of French knots surrounding the hands and maybe some ribbon roses for the one on the right.

Crazy quilting lends itself to all tastes, and there are no rules as to what can be used for embellishment. Hopefully you have enjoyed looking at our crazy Little Red and have been able to get some ideas for your crazy quilt blocks. Happy Stitching!