Quilting in Paris, and elsewhere

No, no, I am not referring to myself! I am still hopeless at manual things and to be perfectly honest, as I am hopeless, they tend to get on my nerves. BUT I am quite able to enjoy and admire the work of talented people.
One of my good friends, Fazou, is a wizard at lots of things –cooking, knitting, embroidery… you name it, she can do it– belongs to a quilting association and hree times a year, I attend her quilting meetings and take photographs. I really enjoy seeing all those wonderful hands at work.
Now last week was somewhat special as Paris Patch, Fazou’s quilting association held a public exhibition at Mairie du VIème, right across the street from Eglise Saint-Sulpice.
I took quite a few photos there, chose some with Fazou and did this slideshow. The music is Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition by Brigitte Ungerer.

Now, when I uploaded my photos on flickr, one of my flickr friends,
Nonie Vogue, who is a quilter herself, liked it and we exchanged several mails. Nonie Vogue, a Canadian 84-year-old artist, photographer and quilter, among other things that I don’t know about her said

A couple of years ago, I joined the quilt Guild in Langley, after seeing one of their shows…. but I was disappointed to see that 99% of the quilting was done by machine! … not by hand as I am accustomed to doing.
Right now I am working on a Double Irish Chain scrap quilt… all sewn together by hand. My sewing machine is sitting in my clothes cupboard… it is a portable, but I can’t lift it… and there really is no room to set it up on my dinette table… so I am doing it the way my Mom (and my Grandmother) did… all by hand.
My Grandma was a tailoress. (Not sure if there is such a word, but you will know what I mean).

Rose of Sharon Quilt by Nonie Vogue

Here’s a link to the photos Nonie Vogue took of her quilts.
On my French blog, I mentioned that a couple of my favourite quilts at the Paris exhibition were made by Georgette Meyer, a ninety-two year old quilter, who moved from painting to quilting and Nonie commented:

I went into an art material store a couple of years ago, where both my husband and I had dealt for years. John, the owner, asked if I saw the woman that had just left the store. When I said “yes”, he said:
“She’s in her eighties and still painting!” I said “John, how old do you think I am?” I was 82 at the time! I guess people think that when you get past 70 you are supposed to sit in a rocking chair and watch TV! Well, I have the new fangled TV, hanging on my wall… large size…. and I turn it on maybe two or three times a week for some news, and usually turn it off again after about half an hour!

This is so true! People always expect elders to sit back and do nothing.
And when we are active, people will tell us that we are not old, that we are different! But we aren’t! People are just afraid of growing old themselves, so they are in denial.
I so wish Nonie Vogue and Georgette Meyer could meet!