Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork

Carrefour European du Patchwork
European Patchwork Expo
Sainte-Marie aux Mines, France
September 15-16

Four small valley towns in Alsace were the site of the European Patchwork Expo in 2005. With 10,000 attendees, all these towns saw more people in those 4 days than they had tourists all the rest of the year. With 18 buildings set aside for displays, classes, competitions, and speeches, a system of shuttle busses added to the magnificent mayhem. Each venue featured a different subject or artist. An official program had the maps and a brief paragraph on each site. A majority of the quilts on display were by European artists and are contemporary.

Terry spent 2 very full days wandering the exhibits with the camera and here's the results.

Hilkka Luosa quilts are characterized by strong colors and delicate motifs, tone on tone and embellishments. The first 2 quilts are hers as is the last one.

Linda Bar-On is inspired by both textiles and archaeological artifacts. Her quilt collection features mythological figures and folk heroines from different cultures in the Middle East. These quilts are also embellished, embroidered, painted, and quilted by hand.

Ashtoreth-the queen of heaven.

Venue 2 was at a textile museum. It contained a quilt display of Nadine Richard's quilts. There wasn't time to also explore the museum. Sorry.. So little time, so many quilts.

Nadine's quilts evolve towards transparency. They filter light that reveal shapes and stimulate imagination.

Nadine's quilts were not created with cottons. They are delicate, see through, and made of lace, ribbons, braid, chiffon, and other delicate fabrics. Pretty though. Very hard to photograph.

There were 4 textile art groups that had their quilts on display here. The groups were from the south of England, France, Scandinavia, and South Africa. Many of the quilts were results of challenges among the members. These groups aim is to support and stimulate the textile arts. There are both amateurs and professionals involved. I found these quite interesting. Hope you do too.

Texture as well as color seems to play an important role in many of these quilts.

I noticed a lot of the quilts displayed at this expo use many embellishments and other fabrics besides cottons.

My program labeled this exhibit Labors of Love. I expected more of a display of quilts here. What I found was antique quilts and blocks for sale. I did enjoy looking but it was hard to take pictures and harder still not to buy.

The guest of honor here was an Norwegian association, Norsk Quilteforbund. Founded in 1988 it now has 3000 members. One of their popular activities is to create more than 1,000 quilts for children in hospitals.

Their display included a wide variety of traditional and contemporary quilts of all sizes created by both amateur and professional group members.

The European Artists here were Linda and Laura Kemshall who are mother and daughter. They work together in the field of textile arts as teachers and quiltmakers. Drawing and painting is the basis of many of their quilts. Their exhibition was called "Two sides to every story" seeking to demonstrate the differences and similarities in their work. Not sure I understood the exhibition name but I enjoyed the quilts.

The European guest country here was the Cook Islands. Tivaivai means quilt. Members of the London Missionary Society introduced to the Cook Islands the tradition of making these ceremonial coverlets. The majority of these are all handmade. Some are made individually. Some in sewing bees. Quilts are made in other Pacific Islands but the embroidered, appliqued is a technique that was developed in the Cook Islands only and is therefore unique.

The quilt on the right is an example of Tivaivai manu.
A solid color fabric is folded and cut into an intricate floral pattern then
appliqued onto a background of contrasting color.

This is an example of tivaivai tataura.
A solid colored background is appliqued with mostly flowers and leaves
of various colors which have been richly embroidered.

One of the Cook Island quilters.

One of the Cook Island women hand piecing a Tivaivai taorei.

An example of a Tivaivai Taorei.
This quilt is composed of thousands of one inch squares of
solid fabrics arranged and sewn together in a mosaic pattern.

There were 3 different exhibitions at this venue. First was the association France Point de Croix. They are amateur textile artists. They displayed both recent and antique quilts as well as traditional and contemporary embroideries. Second was Yvette Campos of France. She is a textile artist using color, form and textures such as weaving, tapestry, and cutwork. Thirdly a large number of European textile artists were invited to compete and present their work in a 20x20 cm format on the theme of "The spirit of our times in Europe - a textile interpretation".

The exhibition here was called Amish and American Quilts - The appearance and the Reality. It was set up to compare quilts coming from American society and the Amish society. It was a very interesting exhibit. They claim that techniques, fabrics, and designs are each different. American society quilters "let their imagination run free and place more emphasis on the appearance". Amish quilters "use an infinite variety of three simple geometric shapes (square, triangle, and diamond only). They place more emphasis on reality to the detriment of the appearance". The Amish quilts came from Pennsylvania and Indiana.

This is a Mennonite quilt dated 1875.

This was a wall hanging that was for sale. They had a booth selling "Amish quilted" things at this venue.

This venue was a surprise. The association that puts on the European Patchwork Meeting "organizes live workshops to make you discover new techniques, new assembling....."

Gerard Brand is a mosaic artist in the contemporary fine arts field. He has defined a new approach he calls "the alternative mosaic art". He creates ornamental apertures in each piece and lets the light go through his work. Not my cup of tea but thought you'd like to see for yourselves.

This venue had 2 exhibitions. The first were Bosnia Quilts. The second was "From Tartan to Cachemire" wool quilts.

"Once upon a time there was a war (Bosnia 1992-1995) Once upon a time there was Lucia Feinig Glesinger, an Austrian painter. Once upon a time there were barracks converted into refugee camps. Once upon a time there was abandoned chalk, squared paper, viscose and silk, flannelette, lots of pins and spools of thread, often red. Once upon a time there were 12 families, often with no income, who lived in Gorazde, a town in ruins. Once upon a time there were 12 women and their families who returned home (in 1998). There were men and women who needed abstract textile art for their beds and walls, their churches and town halls. Since 1993 'Bosnia Quilts' has been presenting the results of their work with these women for whom struggle is synonymous with survival."

Quilters from Berlin once decided to take up the challenge to assemble various samples of different collections of woolen designs using traditional patchwork. These are the results. Beautiful.

"This was an exhibition of Myriam Tripet's art quilts. Through her work she makes the viewer discover the fibre, where material and color mix with a gentle impertinence."

Here was an exhibition of Welsh Quilts collected by Jen Jones of Great Britain. "Welsh quilts are everyday pieces, mostly in wool, whose designs are simple. The quilting confirms the origin of these stunning pieces."

The minute central pieces increase in size as they work their way
towards the border creating a kaleidoscope effect.

The picture on the right shows a quilted underskirt designed for warmth not for show worn by the Welsh women.

Unusual combination of flannel, wool, and furnishing fabrics backed with a paisley shawl 1925.

This venue held the Designers corner. I took time to attend the fashion show with clothing by Stephane Thomas of France, Francoise Hoffmann of France, and Agostina Dalla Mora Zwilling of Italy. These weren't so much quilted clothing as high fashion with the emphasis on textiles and embellishment. I really enjoyed it. There was also clothing by these designers for sale here and also jewelry. There were booths by other fashion and craft designers too. Most didn't allow pictures. Sorry.

This venue was in the small town of Liepvre France. The Liepvre patchwork group with some 30 children and 20 adult members showed their work here.

3 European textile and quilt artists displayed their work here. Jutta Briehn of Germany, Mirjam Pet-Jacobs of the Netherlands, and Greti Raffeiner of Austria.

This was held in large heated marquee (tent). There were 116 vendors there - reportedly the largest selection in Europe. It could have been the vendor area at any large quilt show anywhere. Very crowded too. Lots of fabric, patterns, pattern kits, embellishments, embroidery items, threads, notions, sewing machines, and long arm quilting machines were available. I was surprised at how many of the quilt books for sale were in English (the same ones we are all familiar with). No I didn't buy anything. Things are more expensive in Europe than at home. It was great fun looking though.

2 European artists from Switzerland displayed their works at this venue. They were Verena Matter and Pia-Maria Inderbitzin. "Pia-Maria loves textiles and loves working with hand-dyed fabrics and materials that are foreign to quilting. Verena loves to work with photography and makes traditional photographic quilts along with hand or computer-assisted embroidery which enriches her work."

International Competition of Patchwork on the theme "Rhythm'n Blues, a musical saga".

The committee selected about 30 works that answered that theme.

This quilt is made entirely with fake furs. Its called R & B.

This was a prize winning quilt entitled D'un monde a l'autre. Award by Husqvarna Viking.

Spent 2 days having a great time although it was a lot of walking. I did notice very few people were wearing quilted apparel, unlike quilt shows in the US. I did see a few quilted tote bags, a few quilted purses, and a few quilted jackets (although they weren't patchwork, just quilted fabric). Interesting. This quilt show was well worth the time to attend. I sure am glad I went.