Thanks, Patsie, for your recommendation about mohair. Do you know anything about the wearability of alpaca wool, as we have a place fairly near which has alpacas and does sell wool for knitting (and I haven't been there yet).
Thanks Maria, I’d be very grateful. We are over an hour west from Pau, about half way from there to Bayonne.
Knitting and sewing is our thing but we are prepared to try all sorts of crafting.
I am a spinner and weaver living in the Morbihan in Brittany. Now with regard to socks I would seriously advise using mohair for these as they just do not wear out and can be worn for some considerable time for hill walking without washing. They do wash very well indeed so if you can source some mohair I would advocate using the same. As for winter woollies I would say that the cost of using handspun could be prohibitive - however why not look on Ravelry as they have the most wonderful sellers of all types of wool.
Re the spinners and weavers - I'd love to get my hands on some nice wool - that is, 100% wool of any kind really - keen on making some socks for hubby that don't disintegrate after a few wears and also would like to get back into making winter woollies :)
Are there any other branches in other parts of SW France?
We are far too far away…further south and west in Pyrenees Atlantiques.
Hmmm that sounds good, I'll pop into the Mairie and see what there is here........ Thanks!
I dont know if this is a bit off beam but I'll ask anyway!
Are there any groups around Bergerac that get together to do these things??? I would love to make a dedicated time in the week for sewing and have a natter at the same time! I'm near Montpon.
LOL I did warn you! I have to give myself a time deadline otherwise the hours just fly by. Hope you've found some nice things.
This tutoriel for hexies is better. I never stitch through the template so that I can reuse them.
http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.fr/2010/04/hexie-paper-piecing-tutorial.html
Thank you Karen and Patricia!
The hexie quilt is really very simple. I use precut paper templates that you can find in almost any quilting store.
Here's a tutorial on English paper piecing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gePOfMiIxQ .
What lovely quilts! They must have taken ages, I think my favourite is the bobbin quilt.
I still haven’t finished quilting this bobbin quilt because of it’s large size.
A sampler quilt. The colors are not quite right in the photo.
This is a small log cabin quilt that I made a couple of years ago.
I'm another keen Pinterest user, and I agree with Karen Parr that it is very easy to spend(waste?) hours on there. I have several boards on there that may be of interest to members of this group, including sewing/embroidery, crafts in general, polymer clay, knitting and a huge collection of crochet links. I've 'followed' both Karen and Alison, and should anyone be interested in taking a look at my boards, you can find me under Jean Colbear or 'Beadyjean'.
Thanks Karen I would be interested in the link for making a dog bed please.
Don't blame me when you've spend half the day looking at Pinterest and nothing's got done! :)