- Many people believe that the South of France offers the best and most complete Roman ruins in the world.

Now, I don't know if the ancient Romans quilted, but I know that the modern French do.

On our show today, we will see French quilts, old and new, and get to meet the quilters themselves.

[soft guitar music] - [Announcer] Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel is made possible in part by grants from: Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products; by VIP fabrics, a division of Cranston Print Works Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.

- Welcome to our show, Viva La France, Part Two.

We have really gone on the road this time to bring you quilts from afar, all the way to Leon, France.

Now, there were teachers from all over the world at this convention sponsored by the American International Quilt Association.

They were teaching and displaying their work, and we have it all.

Just where do we start?

With the founder of this mega affair, Karey Bresenhan.

[crowd chattering] Karey, I think you've done it again.

It's just amazing to see not only the colorful quilts, but to see the excitement of the people coming into Quilt Expo Five.

- Well, Georgia, there's absolutely no question they are excited.

They literally broke the door down the first day.

[Karey laughing] - I Know they did.

Well, what a risk this has been from the very beginning.

What, what prompted you to do this and, and tell us about the entire events as it's gone over the years.

- I'm a risk taker.

I believe that it's boring if you just do the same thing all the time.

And I, I believe that it'll always work.

I'm always convinced it will work.

And so when we first decided to come to Europe and run the first shows, it was an enormous risk.

And now of course, we are many times larger than we were in 1988 when we first came.

And we expect to have probably 12 to 15,000 people before Sunday, before it closes on Sunday.

- [Georgia] It's wonderful.

And the fact that it combines so many elements of quilting, the teaching, the lecturing, the vendors and then-- - [Karey] And then we have the museum exhibits.

- Oh, that's right.

- That's very exciting.

'Cause that's always a big part of what we do.

There's the classes, the lectures, the special quilt exhibits that are gorgeous.

The museum exhibits, the stands, the special events, the special dinners, the fashion shows.

There are many different, exactly, elements.

- What about the food?

- And the food.

- And the food.

- In France.

- I know.

We start tour of France with Suzanne Lambert.

Gul Laporte will do translating for us.

Suzanne is editor of the French Guild Newsletter Magazine.

Well, let's talk quilts.

We're standing in front of the country quilt.

A little bit about that, and then maybe another typical French quilt relating to food.

- [Gul] This patchwork amongst all the ones in this exhibition, it's quite interesting, because it shows all the places in France, all the regions where you've got wines.

- [Georgia] And then the kitchens, that tell me about those cats in the kitchen.

[speaking in foreign language] - This is completely different.

It has a nice humor in this group.

This is a typical one also because you have first of all the soup, then the main course, then the dessert, and in the back you have the little boy who is serving the drinks.

And the cats, it's probably not so normal to have so many cats in the kitchen.

[women laughing] - Okay.

- She doesn't think so.

- I am very impressed with the individual character and the originality of each of these quilts.

Can you lend any thoughts to that, Suzanne?

[speaking in foreign language] - [Gul] We have been for a long time, and still now, some people are still in influenced by the American quilting, but some other artists want to go beyond that and use their own creativity and develop their sense of new patchwork and quilting.

- Well, this particular quilt has a lot of character to it, and you had to really explain it further to me.

[speaking in foreign language] - [Gul] This is a very simple patchwork, but represents a family history.

And it's like a family album, in fact.

[speaking in foreign language] - [Gul] You have three different symbols in this quilt.

You have the napkin rings, you have the tea towels, that represent the kitchen and everyday life.

Then you have the sheet borders, and some with initials because you, you born, and you die in a bed.

This whole exhibition is meant to show different stages of the French life, everyday life.

- And then the red and white one.

I know that both of you appreciate that quilt.

That has a lot of, almost a sampler of French happenings.

- [Gul] This indeed represents everyday life, and from different provinces in France and it's in, in red and white, which are sparkling and nice shiny colors.

And it's really very different from the other quilts.

[speaking in foreign language] - Each one stands out and we, we certainly appreciate having the opportunity to talk with both of you.

The joy of quilt making has certainly been brought forward today, and the crowds and all the excitement.

And I know you're proud to be a part of it.

And we thank you for having the opportunity to come and visit you.

[speaking in foreign language] Merci.

- Thank you very much.

- [Georgia] The hustle and bustle of the show was in full gear as crowds of people flocked to the quilts.

With this as a background, now meet Swazi Glabbins.

For you personally, do you think of yourself as making a certain kind of quilt?

- Well, I think I, well I start with a traditional like everybody, but very quickly I become tired to copy, so I try to find something else and went to the states in 1977.

- [Georgia] Now the connection part of quilt making, is that done by hand?

And what is your favorite needle, that sort of thing?

- [Swazi] Well, I start by hand like everybody, I had to learn the techniques to be, as long as, as I was a teacher, I had to do the thing and to teach the thing properly.

And now I am doing everything by machine.

- [Georgia] Ah.

- [Swazi] The quilting and of course the piecing.

- [Georgia] Do you have a favorite machine?

What is your?

- I have a wonderful Bernina, the 1513, and I am using all the metallic threads, the rayon thread, the Felty or Madeira and all those beautiful threads.

- Tell us about your quilt.

- Well, it's just, it's a log cabin, but with big square, because the design is very beautiful, the design of the [speaks in foreign language].

So I wanted to enhance that silk by quilting with metallic and silk thread.

- [Georgia] Swazi had two other quilts in the exhibit.

One, in the other contest where you used only French domestic fabrics, like towels or fabrics from the past.

And a second quilt that was inspired by one of her favorite artists, Matisse.

After living in Paris for some time, Swazi moved near the ocean, which gave her inspiration for a quilt entitled "Jewels of the Sea".

- Because you, you see the mother of the pearls button and all the wonderful things which are supposed to be in the sea.

So it's a poetic view of the quilt, of the sea - It's so nice to see how you have interpreted the log cabin in so many concepts.

- Well, I used about 56 different hand dyed fabrics to give the impression of, of the water.

- The undulating sea.

- Yes, and the quilting tries to show, the movement of the, of the ocean.

- [Georgia] Casabeth Pariad, who lives in Paris, actually learned her quilting many years ago from an American in California in exchange for French lessons.

I asked Casabeth, what is your quilt approach?

- I'm more interested into contemporary quilting because it's more personal.

I mean, at least as, as far as I'm concerned about that, and I also like traditional quilts, and sometime I'd still do them when like a French magazine would ask me to do Amish type of quilts or something for the readers to make, you know, a craft article.

And I can be very touched by traditional quilts as well.

But, when it comes to express myself, I find it more interesting in contemporary and work with color.

- [Georgia] Let's talk technique for a few minutes.

Are you a hand piecer, machine piecer, what, how do you, how do you make your quilts?

- I mostly make them by machine.

I used to work with a very old machine and now I have a more sophisticated machine.

And it's not only because you do it faster with the sewing machine, it also, because sometimes it look, can look very nice with embroidery and different type of thread.

- [Georgia] I am very much in love with your wine bottle quilt down in the French exhibit.

I just like the, the character of that and the fact that it reminds me of crazy patch.

But then there is that wine bottle right in the middle.

Is there a story that goes with that quilt?

- I use the [speaks in foreign language] fabric, the one you use in the kitchen?

You know, very ordinary fabric and some other fabric I had collected for many time, and I wanted to do a still life type of something with wine because one of my cousin is make making wine in Beaujolais area.

Like... - [Georgia] More personal?

- More personal I guess.

- Yes, yes.

And then the, the white one with the Mondrian type influence.

That's, was that a recent work?

- [Casabeth] No, this is about eight years ago I made that quilt.

At that time I used mostly solid fabric.

For a long time I've, I haven't used prints because solid reflected more like a painter for me, like a color, prints would add too much to my vision of quilts.

- [Georgia] Quilts, quilts everywhere!

On the stairs, around corners, every possible wall space, especially all white ones, they really drew everyone's attention.

The Boutis quilt is a favorite in France.

Bridget Fergenton from Leon teaches in a local quilt shop and invited us into her home.

With her is Rosalyn Montague, who will instruct us on the Boutis technique.

But first Bridget tells us about her book.

- This is a book I wrote when I was living in the state.

I was there for five years and, after I discovered quilting, I wanted to, to combine the quilting technique with a French theme.

I think living abroad is nice, but sometimes you get homesick.

And so we decided to create the [speaks in foreign language] the clay dolls you can find in south of France, and to turn them in applique pattern.

So this is a book we did and it's called Patchwork in Provence.

And so we selected nine Santo and we turned them in applique pattern.

- [Georgia] Well, tell us about the project in front of you, I see some pins and needles there.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - [Georgia] And all quilters relate to half finished objects.

So tell us about this.

- Yes, I started this special project for a Weavers Guild.

They are about one hour from here, they are in a little town called Charlieu, and this is the name on the banner here.

And so every year they have a celebration, it's a silk celebration.

And so they wanted me to do the new banner.

So they gave me all the silk I had to use.

Their color is is a blue, but I told them that it maybe won't be not bright enough to use only the blue.

So I decided to mix the blue, to go to the beige and then to go again to, to another color.

And I decided to work with some orange color.

It's all silk made.

Even this tiny bias press bar you are looking at here.

And for, just to give you an example, this week, one morning it took me about two hours just to apply them.

They were only baste, everything just to apply them.

It's nice to do even if sometime it's a nightmare, but it's nice to do.

- Well hold it up for us.

- Yes.

- It's very attractive.

- Yeah, and there is two sides on this banner.

So this is one.

And on the other one I am working here on Mary and Jesus.

And I'm going to do a border with some Baltimore flowers.

It's all silk too.

And here I will write with the rushing technique as I used on the other side.

And I will write Weavers Guild, of course in French it's longer than that.

So it will take about that space here.

- And this will be carried down the street for this event?

- Yes, it will go to the church first in the morning at eight o'clock, and then we will follow this banner, around the street, and then for the whole year it will stay at the Silk Museum in Charlieu.

And the last banner, for example, they used it for 60 years.

[laughing] - So you're making an heirloom for certain.

- Yes.

[laughs] So it will go through the next century.

- [Georgia] And now meet Rosalyn who is very active in the French Guild, which by the way has over 14,000 members.

She is so busy, but her relaxing time is spent doing the Boutis.

- So this is what she's doing right now.

She's working on the Boutis and Boutis is a very typical provincial technique.

And so the way it's done is, you draw a design on one piece of fabric, and this is a special fabric too.

And after your design is drawn, you lay these two pieces of fabrics together, and then you are doing a small running stitch on all the drawing you did before.

And then between this running stitch, you thread a needle with a special thread, a cotton thread, and then you go through the layers of fabric and between the running stitch.

So we can show you how she does it.

And now look with the needle here, she is taking the the end of the thread inside the fabric.

- [Georgia] Yes.

And every time you go in a different direction, you almost create a, a nap or it's very interesting how the lines go one way and then by turning you get different shadows, don't you?

- Yes, exactly.

Yeah.

[speaking in foreign language] - [Georgia] The same on the back as it is on the front.

- Yes, yes.

And this is what we call a real Boutis.

- [Georgia] I see.

- The back and the front look the same.

And I think some, there is some patterns too.

[speaking in foreign language] This is an old pattern because you don't create design for Boutis.

You follow old pattern to say it's a real Boutis.

- [Georgia] You mean I couldn't machine stitch those channels?

[screaming and laughing] - Never, never, never, never.

- Never never.

I know you were inspired by all those quilt makers.

Now last week we were in Souleiado, down in Tarascon.

I couldn't leave that company without some yard goods.

And I did the paisley, and ended up in a skirt where I quilted this with metallic thread.

And you're probably thinking I have a Boutis petticoat underneath.

Well, that would be a lifetime project.

Instead I've chosen to do just a shawl collar with a pocket at the end, and like to review a little bit, the technique.

And of course I was so instructed by going into that classroom and getting to see over 20 French ladies learn the Boutis method.

They are truly carrying on that tradition.

On the wall they had all the small designs mounted.

And I feel encouraged because most people do the small designs even though we saw larger ones at the exhibit.

But once I started making my design, I had the help of a book that was given to me by Madame Gatia down in Aix-en-Provence.

And that was the good news.

The bad news is it's all in French, but the pictures are very good and the designs are beautiful.

I happened to choose the cover design to put on the back of my shawl collar.

And I have the wonderful French fabric, just the two layers that are put together, no batting in between.

And then with a very fine white cotton thread and my needle, I am simply doing a running stitch around the design that I have marked with a very fine line pen.

Now I have one heart done, and I'm gonna turn it over.

So I think you can get a chance to see how I've just done the running stitch.

Well at one point you get so anxious to see what happens.

I did pull the thread through just one little line and that's kind of a, incentive to keep going.

I'd like to point out that when you use that blunt needle, and I'm just using the Orlon yarn, at some point, especially in a heart, you can't go all the way around.

So I'll pull my double thread through and then finding where I've come to that point, I'll put that blunt needle in again.

And then with my needle floating in between we'll come out, knowing that I will then pull that again.

And once that's been pulled, and you have to hold it very tight, and that will close up.

You see how that closes up?

It leaves a, a nice opening to get in, but then it will close up again and then I'll insert my needle again to continue.

Now the pockets at the end, I have to give Rosalyn a little apology, because I was so tempted to try it on the sewing machine that I did do the pockets on the machine.

And it's just a matter of doing those straight lines about a quarter inch apart.

And then I simply pulled that yarn in and it is a wonderful tufted feeling that you get.

You watched Bridget's ruching and I thought that was very clever of her to use the ruching for the letters in her banner.

That is very easily done today, especially the Baltimore Album people are using this a lot and Anita Shackelford has come up with two little guides, a one inch and a half inch guide, which make it very nice.

The one inch, if you're using material, say that matches your quilt, you would cut it on the bias, three times the width.

So this is cut an inch and a half, and then fold it over.

You would proceed, and then with just a strong quilting thread, by hand, you would run your lines diagonally with the marks that have been indicated on the ruler.

And then you'll notice when you pull it, it just gathers up.

Now when you're using satin ribbon, because it's the one layer, you can go to the quilt, to the machine and use your quilting thread.

And that works very nicely.

Once it's marked with your half inch guide, then you simply take, you need to find your bobbin thread, give that a nice pull, and all of a sudden it will gather up.

And I think that works very nicely for coming round for flowers or for letters.

More international quilt makers now.

Yes Quilt Expo spanned the world, vendors from all over Europe.

Things to buy and inspiration galore.

Switzerland was represented by Trix Epel and Ursula Kern.

Ursula was one of the many teachers.

- I'm teaching a class in design, three dimensional illusion.

And I proceed with classical designs like hexagons and squares, and they can easily be transformed into three dimensional perspective illusions.

- Trix, tell us about your involvement with quilting and maybe an overview of what's happening in Switzerland.

- I, when I, I used to live in San Diego and when I moved back from San Diego, I thought it was very important to have a guild.

So I started the Bernese Quilters Guild and we had 200 members.

And afterwards I thought it would be very good to have a national guild.

So Ursula and I got together with other women and we founded the Swiss Patch Quilt Guild.

So we there have about 2000, 2,200 people now.

- [Georgia] Do you, Ursula, have a favorite step in quilt making, whether it's the design or the selection of fabric or?

- Oh, it's all the three, the design is very interesting because I have some ideas in my head that turning them around some, sometimes I feel like, like pregnant with the ideas, and then I try to, to find a form to express it.

And then when I'm tired or I don't know exactly how it goes, I like to step into my banana boxes.

I have about a hundred banana boxes filled with fabric scraps and then I play around with the fabrics and then when I can sew, I can make a recreation.

So I like them all, the three.

- [Georgia] From a Swiss teacher to a German teacher.

Meet Dorte Bach, who got her original quilt knowledge in Canada.

I asked her, what is your quilt focus?

- I think first, yes, first these are the colors, the blue and greens, I love these worried colors.

And then the kind of quilts I do, they are not very decorative.

They are more with squares, rectangles, triangles.

- [Georgia] I see silks, Is that something you like?

- Yes, I love the shimmer.

Is it the right word?

The shimmer of the silk.

And I prefer for my quilts hanging on the wall, the silk.

But when I do quilts for the beds, I do them in cotton.

- [Georgia] What, what part of the process appeals to you the most?

Is there, is it making the initial decision, or the fabric, or the, maybe the finishing?

- No, not the finishing.

I think having the idea and then looking for the fabric and then starting to cut.

This is very exciting.

- [Georgia] A major exhibit was sponsored by Quilters Newsletter.

Karen O'Dowd is the international editor.

Thank you so much for putting on this wonderful exhibit.

Tell us a little bit about it, Karen, and how it evolved.

- The exhibit, Quilts Artistic Expressions, is an international competition, and it's the fifth time that we have had a competition that debuted at Expo in Europe.

We always choose a different theme for the competition.

And this time it was how old masters could inspire you, Monet and Van Gogh and Degas.

And look what we got from that wonderful theme.

- [Georgia] And how fortunate we are to have the prize winning quilter with us, for the best of show quilt, Lura Schwarz Smith from California.

- [Lura] The name of my quilt is, "Seems a Lot like Degas," and I'm very honored and happy to be the the winner at this show, and the way I made it was basically I Xeroxed my own drawings directly onto fabric, sending the fabric through a black and white Xerox machine.

And then after, I hand painted it with Versatex fabric paint.

- [Georgia] We close our Viva La France show with a galaxy of quilts, many with ribbons, all meant to inspire and motivate you to make a quilt.

We thank all of the people that spent time with us.

Quilting today is worldwide.

Yes, we are everywhere.

♪ And design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind [gentle guitar music] - [Announcer] Lap quilting with Georgia Bonesteel is made possible in part by grants from: Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products; by VIP Fabrics, a division of Cranston Print Works Company, America's oldest textile printer.

Additional funding by Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler, and by Bernina, delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.