Monday, October 25, 2010

Yay for Piping!

It's the first day of the autumn school holidays here in south-east France; the kids have ten days off.

I find the first few days of holidays we all rebel against the normal routine before setting back into a sort of quasi-regimented timetable.  This is why I'm blogging in my pyjamas at 1130am. The kids are watching Scooby Doo (in French, it's educational!) in their pyjamas. The baby's even gone back to bed, that bum.

Later we're going to get dressed and collect pine cones for some craft activity that I've not yet thought up. Plenty of time for that.

I forgot to mention that our little petrol station received a batch of fuel that lasted about 20 hours on Thursday. The mister tipped me off after he drove past on the way to work, so we raced down and filled up the tank. The line was only three deep, which surprised me.

Piping1

The next day I went into Eurodif in search of piping. Eurodif is a bit like Target, but smaller, and with a haberdashery section. A small haberdashery section. That doesn't sell white piping. But it did sell thick white bias ribbon by the metre as well as cord, so I bought some of both to make my own.

Piping2

Thankfully my zipper foot was in a good mood and I whipped up some piping and finally sewed the Monaluna cushion together. I'm really glad I waited.

I loved the selvedge pictures on the Circa 50 fabric and wanted to incorporate them into the cushion. I fussy-cut the little houses and sewed them together to make a little panel, which I included on the back.

Piping3

I was supposed to quilt the cushion cover but for some reason forgot to (am I the only person who does dumb things like this all the time?) - I remembered just after sewing on the piping. I wanted to quilt it to strengthen the seams, as cushions take a fair bit of wear and tear around our house.

There was no way I was taking off that piping, so instead I cut to size pieces of heavy iron-on interfacing and ironed them onto the reverse sides of the cushion's front and rear (two for the rear, above and below the zip). This will hopefully reinforce my seams and has the added bonus of stiffening the cushion so it sits very nicely (cushion posture is very important).

When I arrived at Eurodif it was still a half-hour from opening, so I had to spend that time browsing the Aix-en-Provence market. (Yes, life is hard.) There was a fabric merchant selling provençal prints, and I bought myself a metre of this.

Piping4

It's a traditional pattern, but on the subdued taupe I find it looks very modern.

Piping5

I was also upset to find a linen sale underway at Eurodif when I arrived. I bought some stripy and solid pillowcases purely for their material. I have been inspired, yet again, by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts and her stripy "In A Spin" quilt.

Piping7

Pillowcases are a great way to amass a varied stripe collection (especially when the back side has a different stripe, like these two.) I haven't enough yet, so I guess it's more linen sales for me, darn-it.

Piping6

I also picked up an assortment of stripy tea-towels.

Piping8

I'm hoping to use them to dress up a sad, empty wall along our stairway.

Piping9

I'll let you know if it works out!

11 comments:

Pene said...

Gosh that traditional fabric in taupe is lovely and brings back so many memories. Somewhere I have some lavender bags made from that exact pattern (but in red and yellow). I bought them when I spent a month in the south of france on holiday AS A CHILD. I think that's probably about 40yrs ago!! I love the pattern and it looks truely brill in taupe lucky you
Pene x

Sarah - Red Gingham said...

That cushion is so beautiful and who cares about the quilting. And yes I do silly things like that all the time! It's OK.

Anonymous said...

Tres jolie! I found you via Sew Many Ways, and fell in love with the photos, the food, the impressions, the crafting...everything!I went back to the beginning of your blog to catch up. Keep up the good work--it's like living in France vicariously through your blog!
Sorry, I cannot figure out how to access blogger dashboard to edit profile to include my email.
Helen in California

diana said...

Don't you just hate it when this happens? Loving family at home, fabrics on sale...I tottaly feel for you. If you make a(nother) Ikea trip these days it will be even worst. (Did you see the white bedsheets with green dots? I'm pretty sure they'll jump all over you, just like those nasty stripes did) :)))

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Helen - it could just be my directions! Karen has some as well over at Sew Many Ways if you want to give it another try?

Diana - There's no way I'm going back to Ikea until the kids go back to school. I love the sheets there, but nothing is worth that pain!

Sara Louise said...

Congrats on finding some petrol! My fingers are crossed that things get back to normal soon :-)
And thanks for posting about Eurodif, if it's like Target, I'm definitely going to check it out!

Susan said...

My, you have been busy! Clever girl making your own piping! And those cute little houses from the selvedge are great! Enjoy the holidays!

aidan said...

Kirsty,
I've got to find a Eurodif here because the Baby needs a Christmas stocking. Thanks for the tip. You're more talented than I could ever be though...I love, love, love the world map. I'm going to check that out too.
Thanks so much for your kind post on my diesel debacle today.
It's so nice to know we're all in this French thing together.
Best,
Aidan

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

Aiden, they didn't have the Christmas stuff out yet when I visited (which is a miracle, really), but I think they would have them at some stage. They have clothes (baby, kids, men, women), towels and bed sheets, curtains, a small array of homewares (more the glasses and serving plates kind of stuff, no pots, pans, appliances etc). Their haberdashery is not bad, a fair bit of fabric on the bolt but mainly home decorator (ie. heavy) weight.

Do you know Etsy.com? You would no doubt find a fantastic Christmas stocking there if you do a search. It is THE way to buy handmade goods! (And all by mail - no confrontations!)

Lauren said...

Love what you're doing with those stripes. I also am inspired by Rita's work, but don't actually get around to doing anything with my massive stash which keeps on growing. By the way, I can't remember my Google password and haven't been able to reset it. Hence, I can't enable replies. Not very IT savvy.

Wendy said...

I love that cushion! I very nearly bought the same fabrics this morning from Etsy but persuaded myself not too as I'm going to a craft fair on Friday and should save my pennies, now I'm wishing I had!

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