Courtepointe Québec

Over the weekend, there was a show called the Courtepointe Québec. It's a quilt show and not exactly something I'm interested it, but Patricia asked me to help man the booth for her boutique L'Atelier de Pénélope. I was there Saturday and Sunday, so no progress was made on my bigger projects. I did bring my Sashiko piece with me and I would work on that between customers (more on that later).

The show had many quilts on display and there were many awards given out. I recognized some designs and even fabric from Instagramers that I follow. For example the quilt below, it was very popular last year.

There were also a few pieces that just attracted me because of texture, colors and shapes.

I loved the fabric in this piece. The shop, Meerkat Shweshwe, that sells the fabric had a booth at the show.

This piece is really beautiful, it's done using free-motion quilting and Trapunto, which is Italian for "to quilt". Here's a video showing the technique. It looks very time consuming and the quilt is huge.

This piece had cross stitch on it.

Here's another piece stitched using Meerkat Shweshwe fabric. The quilter who made this had already made one before, so this is her second.

This was impressive, getting the gradation right.

Lovely Geisha.


Even prettier peacock.

Here are my favorite quilts from the show.

The quilter who made this hand dyed all her fabrics to get the colors just right. She even hand embroidered the details. I can't remember but she might have also hand quilted it. It's an amazing piece and reminds me of a fairy garden.

And look! There are little fairies.


... flowers and tiny insects.

The last two quilts were done by the same person. They reminded me of Martina Weber's (Chatelaine) mandala designs, bling and all.

The quilter used Swarovski crystals and beads.

Not as much bling went into this one but the amount of detail in it is amazing. There is even what looks like lacework. Wish I knew how she did that.

I did make some purchases while there, who wouldn't be tempted by all the beautiful fabrics on hand. But I was very good and only bought a few fat quarters. These are all from Meerkat Shweshwe and the fabrics come from South Africa. I loved their indigo fabrics, especially the Japanese inspired ones with the geometric patterns. I had a really hard time picking out of them though, so I decided on these floral and mandala styles. The long panel on the right is actually meant to be used to make a Makoti skirt, traditionally worn by newly married Xhosa women and married Sotho women. I bought these for beading and it will be a nice challenge to see what I can do with them.

I always make a list of things I need from L'Atelier de Pénélope. I wanted to get Tulip needles, as the boutique is now stocking a range of them. I got a pack of chenille and milliners as we as long beading needles. I really wanted the short beading needles but these will do until I can get the short ones. The ribbon is for my slate frames. I need to remove Japanese Landscape from it so I can start prepping for my seminar class. It starts mid July so I need to hop to it.

While I was helping with the shop on the first day, I finished my Sashiko panel (last seen here). The piece needs to be ironed and washed so I'll share pictures of it soon. In the meantime, I needed something else to work on for the next day and so picked another piece. This one has a bit more details than the last one and I will most likely add colors other than just the white. I already picked out the first color, pink for the cherry blossoms in the design.

This show kicked off the travelling season for the boutique. I will also be helping out at the Twist Fiber Festival in August and the CGNA Needle Arts Fair in September. Drop me a comment if you will be there so I can look out for you :)