Pour l'Amour du Fil 2026

When we arrived at the exhibition centre, there was a long queue. I was shocked as the French don't queue and I thought Thursday would be quiet. However, the red dress project which greeted you at the entrance to the hall, was only there for two days which may have changed the pattern for booking tickets.

This was Lizzie's first time at this show which is very different from, and much smaller than the Festival of Quilts. We started by looking at the rooms of quilts which were predominantly vintage, Japanese or traditional, which is not our aesthetic. This dress made out of tea bags caught my eye as an elderly friend keeps tea bags for recycling into bags in India.

We went up and down the rows of stands methodically but managed to lose each other in about ten minutes!! My obsession with strawberries continues and we also bought some Fimo buttons, but I think they've gone back to the UK with Lizzie. 

Au Fil d'Emma has the largest stand of modern fabric and I bought these two patterns along with some useful Fat Quarters and a blue FQ bundle for Lizzie for her birthday. I am joining a new quilt bee and I'm thinking of requesting stars in yellow, orange and red so a couple of these will come in useful.

I bought this vibrant pink fabric to make a gilet or similar. I thought had the same vibe as the Liberty Adidas shoes Lizzie bought me for Christmas. At our stop at Ecolaine in Rennes I also picked up this Liberty bias binding to cover the edges. If I have enough, I will also bind the few seams for a neater finish.

We had a lovely but short trip. Two 6am starts on Friday and Saturday, threw me a curve ball but I had a good night's sleep on Saturday night which makes all the difference. 

Getting ready for retreat

 

Having returned from France very early Friday morning, my suitcase was already out so I have started packing for the next Modern Quit Club retreat on 1 May. Less than two weeks to go now! I bought some lovely zippers from Ecolaine in Rennes, so decided to make a twice as nice pouch by Aneela Hoey for the pouch swap. These zippers were unusual as they look like ametal zipper with the end stop but aren't made of metal.

The pouch didn't take long to make but I made the same mistake as every other version I've made, I only cut two strips of the long striped piece but needed three. The pouch is now wrapped and ready for retreat. I need to decide what projects to pack for retreat next, which will entail doing some tidying to find a Ruby Star Society panel for a group challenge. I know I have one full panel and a half panel, but who know where.

Plans for this week

Our daughter, Lizzie arrived back home yesterday evening and we have two plans for the week:

Stitch up the Frida shirt; and

Spend a few days in France including a day at Pour L'Amour du Fil in Nantes.

I am going to use this light cotton from Seasalt with a fish motif. I feel that fish was the motif in fabrics and homeware for 2025. I have had this fabric for some years, but it is now prewashed and ready to make into a shirt. I plan to make the long-sleeved version so long as I have sufficient fabric. I will need to be careful where the circle motifs are positioned on the front of the shirt!

Paris je t’aime 5

I made good progress on section 6 of Verushka Zarate's pattern. There are only a few flowers to applique in this section so I will leave them until section 5 is complete. I have even completed one part of section 5 already. Do I keep going or wait until after our trip to Nantes to continue?

Be careful what you wish for!

 

For our group UFO challenge in March, I had completed Autumn by Barbara Ana. Lizzie is visiting in April and we are going to Pour l'Amour du Fil in Nantes together, so I was hoping for an easier UFO than in March. Unfortunately, number 4 was picked which was Winter by Barbara Ana and I had not put one stitch in this piece.

I have surprised myself this week and made good progress on the piece. I have finished the face and started working on the crown. My next aim is to stitch to the extremities of the piece on the left, right and top. I would estimate that I have completed about 50% of the stitching but my progress has been a bit scatter gun.

Lizzie arrives on Sunday afternoon, so more good progress is needed this week. Our joint project whilst she's home is a Tilly and the Buttons shirt and Lizzie has two quilts to put on the long arm. A little ambitious, I think, as we are away for three days which leaves only two days to sew.

Preparing your quilt for quilting

The maker of this quilt was very specific in her requests which I appreciate:

* Pantograph is Sally by the seashore

* Green thread

* Deadline

The backing fabric (a Tilda fabric) was 4" bigger than the quilt top as was the wadding. I recommend the Robert Kaufman app for calculating the size of backing that you need to purchase as well as how much fabric you need for the binding. It's always a good idea to prepare the binding before the quilt is ready to be bound, so that you don't have to think once the quilt is trimmed. I have 20.5" square quilt ruler that I often lend to customers to help with the trimming process.

I recommend that you pay particular attention to pressing your quilt ready for quilting whether by you or your longarmer. Another good practice is stitching around the whole of the quilt 1/8" from the edge so that seams don't come undone and it stabilises the quit.

Paris Je t'aime 4

Having finished my March UFO challenge, I decided to work on section 3 (my fourth section) of Paris Je t'aime by Verushka Karate. It is a small section so perfect for me whilst still nursing a cold. I also added in a few blocks for section 6 so as to make more progress. The top half of the quilt is now finished and looking great.

I usually store my scraps folded into the main piece of fabric, but I am now keeping the scraps separately so it's easier to see them and use them up.