These are from the “American” Exhibition.
There are more of the “24″ Expo which I’ll post over the coming days. Some fantastic scrap quilts and houses too. The appliqué on some of them is just ………………………………….
because I haven’t really done anything, except some hand quilting on Ab Fab.
Tonya has shown on her blog some photos of a brilliant building somewhere in Paris so I thought I would change the subject today and show you some photos I’ve taken over the past year or so.
This photo was taken about this time last year. It’s a squashed Citroen 2CV on the front of the old chateau at Nontron, which is one of the principle knife making areas in France. The trademark of the knife factory is this arch.
One of my all time favourite buildings is a privately owned chateau not far from us in a tiny village called St Pardoux de Mareuil. The chateau is at the end of what we call the secret walk, hidden away from the tourists, with peacocks strutting their stuff around the gardens, peace and quiet and not a person in sight!
Hard to believe this was taken this summer. Sitting outside a cafe/bar/resto in Thiviers on a gorgeous sunny day, I couldn’t resist the yellow parasols with the granite brick.
And back to quilting/sewing.
I’m trying out various different sized needles on Ab Fab. This quilt is beginning to turn into a teach myself hand quilting lesson.
The needle on the right is a hand quilting needle size 10. The middle needle is the one I use when I’m quilting with embroidery floss strands. 3 strand or 6 – it doesn’t matter as it threads through the eye and doesn’t knot as I pull it through as the needle is the same size as the floss! The needle on the left is embroidery size 10 which I am using on Tamzin”s quilt. This needle is dangerous! It slipped into the batting and I couldn’t find it. I turn the quilt over then folded it and ouch! Huge ghash on the inside of my thumb.
And last, but least, my quilting threads stored in a tin that used to contain prunes.
We have taken a few days out to entertain DS-D and her partner.
Sunday last we picked them up at Angouleme station so decided to have a walk about before they arrived.
Did you know that this very pretty city is the centre of the bande dessinée (cartoons to you). There are cartoon related murals on the walls of some of the buildings, like these
And round a corner we found this! Didn’t take much notice of it at first and it was Alex who pointed it out.
Angouleme is twinned with Bury in the UK. This was a present from Bury and British Telecom to Angouleme. It’s sufficiently graffitti’ized for it to look just as much at home here as it would in Bury!
Jane Anne has been talking about French shopping and chickens. Geese and turkeys being sold in French markets “intact”. This photo is typical of large markets at the moment – an enormous marquee full of trestle tables with beautiful white table cloths and piles of duck carcasses, magrets, duck and goose fat et fois gras, naturally!
Just to make your stomachs turn even more before you tuck into your Thanksgiving Turkeys (have a great time all), we are in the middle of the Foire au Gras season when the supermarkets and markets are stocked to capacity with duck, goose and pork.
Magrets (duck breast) are my all time favourite – huge slabs of meat and when the flat is melted down and they are flash fried, they are gorgeous! Then there are the carcasses which still have meat on them, can be boiled down for stock and cost about 2 Euros. Then there is the duck itself. Sold with its head still on (and sometimes the feet are still attached). Cut the head off, and boil the neck up for stock with the bones.
And then there are the aigulettes (don’t ask), the geziers (warm Perigordian Salade with geziers, foie gras, chopped walnuts and lettuce – yum!), the hearts, etc, etc. As for the fois gras – need I say more. Duck fat? Brilliant for roasting potatoes in with garlic and rosemary, although don’t use too much as the potatoes will go soggy.
However, when it comes to the pork that’s when I draw the line! I will not buy a whole piglet (for some reason these are popular at Christmas time) and nor will I buy “la tete”. However I do fill the freezer up with chops, loin of pork, potrine of pork and pork for cooking on the rotisserie. At roughly 4 Euros a kilo it is a bargain.
The French “recycle” as much of the animal/duck as they can. Pates, rillettes (gorgeous), confit (mouth watering), boudin noir (black pudding) the list is endless.
Sorry I can’t add any more photos, but I will try to take some at Brantome market on Friday if we go down (and if it is sunny).
To get back to the normal topic, I finished Family Quilt last night. I am just about to bind it.
Went to fabric shop this morning and got batting and backing for the Leukaemia quilt so must stop chatting to you and get some sewing done.
