April (2), Nantes, France

My second blogpost about April, a busy quilt-month, this time about the quilt show in Nantes, Pour l’amour du Fil.

It was my second visit to this show, a show different from all others because of the way it is set up. Part of the exhibitions coincide with the publication of a Quiltmania book by a designer so a dedicated room (salon) is set up, decorated with furniture and props totally in line with the type and color of the quilts. Very special.

I can spend lots of words on this show, how beautiful, how inspirational, such lovely people etc. etc. but most of all I will let the pictures to the ‘talking’….

I was so lucky to have such sweet, fun and talented travel compagnons, Judy (click), Margaret (click) and Emma (click) , thanks for a lovely and fun few days girls, it was a special time!

The town of Nantes is delightful, the first afternoon was spent on a nice walk exploring the town.

I noticed a strange thing though….. the name of this cafe:

….and this on the wall of the restaurant where we had dinner one night:

It must be a local joke of some kind, because what I did notice was that lots of people have dogs, fun looking dogs, lots of them off the leash also in the center of town, but listening very well to their masters, apparently they love their dogs in Nantes. For me as a dog lover I thought that was great (we take our doggy everywhere).

Back to what we came here for, quilts!

With a few days at the show I had plenty of time to visit the salons, let me take you on  ‘little’ tour of my favorites:-

Reiko Kato, detailed and cute as ever, her Quiltmania book, In Love with Mother's Dreams:

Racheldaisy, an explosion of colors and textures, no wonder her new Quiltmania book is called Whizz Bang!

Susan Smith, sweet as ever, her new Quiltmania book: Quilts, Somewhat in the Middle

Vicky Hodge, two-sided quilts in her new Quiltmania book: Button Box Quilts

Charles-Edouard de Broin, his antique collection in the new Quiltmania book: Bliss of a Quilt Digger

And of course, the Secret Sewing Sisters, their Quiltmania book Labors of Love.
One of the times I came to their exhibition things were a bit quiet and some of the Sisters were doing what they do so well… sewing!
So Meghan was kind enough to give the Aha (or, since we were in France, the Ooh-la-la) tour….. she showed me the backings of their quilts and there were some surprises there!

Cécile Franconie, bohemia is the word that comes to mind, her Quiltmania book: Quilted and Embroidered Floralies.
That chaise-longue….. fully embroidered….

These is so much more to show you from this show, I will do so in a next blog post.

Hope you enjoyed these pictures of some of my favorite exhibitions at this year’s Pour l’Amour du Fil.

Phyllis

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