LAST DYB BLOCK FINISHED.....
Here you see a picture of the DYB block I just finished for Susie in England. The colors on the picture don't show very well. It has a nice shiny yellow/gold look. I first added the French lace,
this one I bought last week at the dollshouse fair. Then I outlined the flower with a buttonholestitch and made the swirl around the angel. Then I added the golden beads to give it the look Susie asked for. Susie have fun stitching all your blocks together!
This week was very busy with work and househunting, I think we finally found a new home, we are thinking about doing a bid on the one we have seen yesterday........ It was the home of an elderly couple that moved to an appartment. Everything is in the style and colors of around 1970, so a lot of work to do. New kitchen, new bathroom, all the painting has to be done...so we have to do a lot of searching on the internet today for prizes etc.!
MORE DYB BLOCKS.....
The 5th block is embellished by Nina from Norway. She also found the theme very difficult and looked through several Internet sites to get knowledge about Jeanne d'Arc. She learned that Jeanne knew how to stitch, but did not know how to read....!
She stitched the date of Jeanne's Memorial Day. She also used beautiful soft tones for the embellishments and button trail.
The 6th block is done by Susie from England and she used wonderful soft pastel colors.
She added the word "La Pucelle" (The Maid) and Joan of Arc's dates of birth and death and surrounded them with ribbon flowers and embroidery. Also she added a duster of buttons with dangling bead chains with little hearts on the end (the name for my CQ wil be "Joan of Arc had a heart", do you know the song??).
Once again ladies, thanks for all your beautiful work. Today I went to the market in my lunchbreak and bought 2 pieces of fabric, one ivory and the other one gold colored, will see if I can use one of them for the borders. Now I first have to finish the 3th block, will keep you updated of my progress.
MY DYB BLOCKS ARE HOME AGAIN!
I am really happy now that my DYB blocks are home again. The ladies that worked on them did a marvellous job! Thank you so much Susie, Cobi, Ati, Nina and Helina.
Block 1 is embellished by Cobi from the Netherlands. She found the Joan of Arc theme very difficult. After a lot of thinking she made a cross from lace with gold beads because Joan was so religious. The dove in the upper left corner is symbol for the Holy Ghost. Also Cobi embroidered the initial J. Between the silk roses she made leaves from woven picots, just beautiful!
The second block is embellished by Ati from Norway, she read a lot about Joan on the Internet and decided to add a "Fleur de Lis" and the word Liberté (Freedom). She also made a swirl with silk flowers in beautiful soft tones. I really love the combination of colors that gives such a soft look to this block!
The third block I have to embellish myself, I hope to get started with that soon.
The fourth block was embellished by Helina from Finland. She shares my admiration for Joan, she has visited the church of Rouen near the place where Jeanne d'Arc died, haven't seen that yet, this place is still on my wishlist. On my travels through France I have visited a lot of places that have a connection with Joan. I have been in the house in Domremy where Joan was born, in the basilic that was build to honour her that has the most beautiful wallpaintings of her life, in Chinon where she met King Charles VII, I could go on and on...I could show you so much pictures and tell you so much about her life but think I will be very boring doing that, since this blog is mostly about Crazy Quilting! Back to Helina's block:
She made the name "Jehanne" in Joan's handwriting and the crown of her banner in beautiful yellowish and brown handdyed silk threads. Also she tatted the lace in the right corner herself (which I could learn that!)and made a lovely buttontrail. Once again another beautiful block, it is a pity that the pictures don't do them justice!
With my fascination for Joan I think you all can imagine that this CQ will become a heirloom to me! Within the next days I will show you the other blocks.
Broches....
Here a picture I promised you of the broches of Joan of Arc I found in France. I am looking forward to see if they fit the last DYB block I have to embellish, I hope to get the blocks back soon!
Susan, I am collecting not only statues, but also plates, old postcards, books etc. of Joan of Arc. The castle in Commesquiers was first build in the 11th Century and destroid
in the 17th Century, can you imagine that this castle is a ruine like this already for hundreds of years! I also like to walk around and have a look inside these castles and imagine how people lived there so long ago!
Gerry, I also like the combination of the red,black and creme but think I would have never picked them by myself!
"AUSTRIAN" CRAZY QUILT
In april I showed you a picture of the wonderful fabrics I got from my birthday buddy Helen from Austria (see message 23-4).
During my vacation in France I have started sewing 6" crazy blocks from these fabrics and have made 9 until now. I have added some more fabrics in the same colors to get more variation. I even found in my cupboard a bag with pieces of Austrian fabric and trims that I bought during the Quiltexpo in Innsbruck, Austria in 1998, can you imagine that?
I don't especialy like the first block on the first row, so I think I will make a new one for that.
At one of the brocante markets I visited I found a lovely mother of pearl broche that looks great on this quilt, here you can see a close up from the block in the 3th row on the right, it is not finished yet, still have to make some little holes in the broche to sew it to the background.
BACK AGAIN.........
from a nice vacation in France, although the weather wasn't as good as always, only 6 days of sun out of 17!! We have been driving around a lot and visited several castles, nice little towns and of course antique/brocante markets. We arrived home on wednesday and went back to France on Saturday for the biggest antiquemarket from Europe in Lille last Saturday, where I found 2 statues from Joan of Arc
for my collection, I am especially happy with this one!
The first Sunday of our vacation we went to the Marché aux Puces in St. Christophe-du-Ligneron, this market is twice a year in July and August, we try every year to go to one of them. You can read more on: www.lespuces85.com
Here I found some turquoise depression glass (1920-1930) and some lace and glass buttons and fabric, which I can use in my "Austrian" Crazy Quilt. Oh, I forgot to tell,
I also found 2 Joan of Arc broches, which I can pin to my DYB Crazy Quiltblocks!
Will show you a picture of them later this week.
This week we also visited 2 castles, the ruïnes of an 11th Century castle in Commesquiers and the castle and parc de la Guignardière at Avrillé, you can read more
of this castle on: www.guignardiere.com, it has a lovely parc also where we walked around about an hour.
We also visited l'Île de Noirmoutier, this island is famous for it's high bridge and for the natural salt you can buy here. It also has a nice embroideryshop, where I found 2 books with alphabeths to embroider. Also on the island is l'Île aux papillons, here you can walk between beautiful tropical plants and butterflies, here you see some pictures we made, to be continued.......
