Jeux d'aiguilles, Geneve, Switzerland

So, I google Quilt Shops in Geneve, Switzerland, before I left my hotel room this morning and what did you think I found? A directory of patchwork shops in Switzerland.... ok, ok, I know that is what google is for. Well, I found one entry for Geneve, so I looked it up on the city map and what do you know... it is less than a 10 minute walk from my hotel.... Oh, no... it is only open to 1pm on Saturdays... better hustle.... yes I slept in this morning :0).

So off I went to Jeux d'aiguilles. Nice looking front window...
So I go inside.... thru the window, I can see a group of women sitting at a table in the back. Did I catch a class in session? Wouldn't that be a treat! Alas, no. Instead it was a cross stitch group, sitting around working on projects. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, but wouldn't let me take a picture. So I grabbed a close-up of the window on my way out, so you can see the type of work they do. As you can see, there is both cross-stitch and quilting projects in the window. Hey there is always, more than one way to skin a cat :-). (No animals affected.)


The shop had more cross stitch than quilting supplies, in fact, it only had one little display of Mettler thread and about (3) floor to ceiling shelves of fabric. Everything else was cross stitch. But of course, I found something to bring home from Geneve. Don't know why... these (2) 1-meter peices cost me $54!!!! and one was a Moda Marble. Guess I will ask about prices next time, I don't see them marked on the bolt! But, I think they will go nice as pillow covers for Raven's sofa. The pillows that came with her sofa really are not her style.

Of course, there is a quilt show starting 3 days after I head home... of well can't have everything. I did ask the owner if there were other patchwork shops in the area and she said no. So I asked where the local quilters get their fabric from... hey, this is home to Bernina. Guess what her answer was.... the internet!@!@! Even with the shipping charges, fabric is cheaper in the US, than in Switzerland, because it is almost all imported. Of well, quess we really do have it better in the good 'ole USA.

Off to Yvoire, France for the day tomorrow, since everything other than restaurants are closed on Sunday in Geneve... not even one museum is open. Hmm... wonder what I can find on google for Yvoire? I know I have found an interesting shop in Zurich.. just don't know if I will have any time. Hey, I am there for work :-)

Where in the world is Renee??

Hello, I know it has been awhile, but I am on the road again. Paris and London last week and I arrived in Geneva last night. In Geneva thru Tuesday, then on to Zurich. Home on Thursday. No quilting expeditions in Paris or London, I was too busy. But hopefully as I wander the streets of Geneva this weekend, I will find a shop or two.

Keep up the quilting end for me, I will have lots of posts to catch up on when I get home. That is, after retreat, because the Country Quilters Fall Retreat is next weekend... WOOHOOO!!

See you again in blogland after the 5th!

Quilting in Geneva, Switzerland and current project

OK, so I am heading to Switzerland in a week and of course there must be plenty of quilt stops that I HAVE to try to fit in. I am hoping somebody can recommend a nice shop or two I can visit. If you are reading my blog, you probably know that I am not a traditional quilter. I love brights and batiks and do a lot of art quilting. I will be in the downtown business section of Geneva. Of course if there is a shop open on Sunday, then that would be great. Otherwise, ones open after 5pm work best...

I will also be heading back to London, in the Paddington area, so shops there are also welcome.

Other than that, I have just designed a wall hanging for my daughters living room in Miami. What colors she has chosen! I had to go to Home Depot to get paint chips for the colors she wants to use. How about these names: Honeydew, Mexican Chili, Botanical Tint and Mint Majestry... they sound and look yummy.

Gotta go match fabric to paint chip... hope my stash is up to the task :-)

A Quickie...

My niece started her freshman year at Morgan State 2 weeks ago. She asked me to make her something for her room before she went away, but she never told me what colors. Lucky for me, my sister showed me a picture of her room all set up after dropping her off. At least now I knew what color and style. But I figured I had until Thanksgiving before I had to have something done.

Wrong! She showed up at home for the long weekend. So good ole auntie, got busy at her machine yesterday and pulled something together :-). I had an idea simmering for the last two weeks anyway. Hey, I had a new quilting motif I wanted to give a try.... Curly-que flowers. So here was my chance.The piece is 28" x 28" and should hang nicely on any wall in her dorm room. Her comforter is black with bright dots dancing across it. So the circles are a way to represent the dots, but instead I turned them into lolly pop flowers (her last name is Flowers).

I did a lot of quilting in the background. In fact I tried 3 different threads before deciding on this one ---- a Superior bright and two different YLI bright variegates. I ended up with a YLI pastel variegate. I hope it didn't take over, but my niece seems to love the pieces I do that are full of color and heavily quilted.

Notice, I also couched a fuzzy turquoise yarn as an inner boarder edge and instead of a binding. I didn't have the time for a conventional boarder and I thought this would look funky enough for a young college freshman.


I liked the effect of the yarn and she loved it. She said it was her favorite part. Although, this picture is pretty fuzzy, I really like my new motif. The curley-que flower. I will definite use it again.


My sister told me when she dropped her off at the bus-stop to head back to Maryland, that my niece told her, that now her half of the room would look better than her roommates. Glad I could be of assistance :-) !

98% Done....

Well, it is quilted, blocked (no more wonkiness :-)) and bound! My experiment has just three more steps: some crystals in the star centers, a label and maybe some crystals outlinging the center star (which is barely visible in the photos). Unfortunately, I really didn't want this piece to be a square. I thought Octagon or Hexagon... but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't to so without cutting off a ribbon and I wasn't about to do that. So here it is....


The ribbon effect moving around the top was fun to do. I learned not to use tear away stabilizer in these as it is now a permanent part of the quilt. Good thing it is Ricky Tims stabilizer, as it is soft and scrunchy.. you don't feel it inside of the quilt. Next time I will use a hoop and not worry about a stabilizer. I do like the highlighting done on the edge. The pink segment has two shades of pink. The green segments are highlighted in white as I couldn't get a light enough green to show enough of a difference.


I like the purple waves in the center square. I used the width of my open toe embroidery foot to help keep an even distance, but I learned that when free motion quilting on the 830, speed control is key! It was very easy to control the movement at the right speed, since you had plenty of room for the quilt and didn't have to stop and re-adjust constantly. Gotta love that large quilting area :-).


The swirly-ques were easy as I do these all the time, but you will notice I added starburst inside the stars since the last post. When the top was all quilted, I decided they 1) really needed something and 2) they were a little puffy, so they needed something to hold them down.


I liked the fact that I changed the quilting motif with every round of the square in a square. These loops are soo easy to do and provide a great motif for when you need to quilt around other design elements. I used a mix of Madiera, Isacord and Superior threads on this piece. All worked equally well, although I definitely needed to lower the tension setting on the 830.

Now... feathers... sorry the photos aren't very clear....


And here are my freeform feathers. Yes! I think I am finally starting to get in the groove with these. Although they are pretty basic, I was able to turn and twist them to fill in the space as needed. I really felt good making these.


I do think I will practice other type of feathers, but for now am ok with my progress. Oh another thing... if I made this a hexagon or an octagon I would have lost all of these... hmmpphhh... maybe there was a reason why those shapes didn't work.

So now, to add some pizzazz in those stars. Oh, by the way... I have named my experiment. Celestial Enlightenment. This practice piece taught me alot. As I said in an earlier post, funny how when you let yourself just go, what you can come up with :-).