Fil en fete

The June/July knitting retreat coincided with Fil en Fete in St Jean d'Angely. This fabulous exhibition is held here every two years and showcases a stunning mix of patchwork, quilting, boutis, lacemaking, tapestry weaving and embroidery. The exhibits are in 8 different venues around the town and include a selection of stalls selling materials and finished products.

This amazing fan is made from recycled denim

silks for sale

I couldn't resist this dahlia outside one of the halls

a lace necklace nearly completed

and the grey one on the model at the top is now mine!

Culli's largest yarn bowl to date, we decided it was too lovely to cut a hole for the yarn

And this beautiful quilt is my favourite - made for me by my friend Sue and would definitely have been worthy of a space in the exhibition

Knitting and crochet workshop in France with tutor Carol Meldrum - File en fete

We had four residential guests for Carol's workshop at La Verderie, Jan, Wendy, Sonia and Cath and day girls Gill, Natasha and Lorraine. We started the first day with a morning workshop to find out what everyone wanted to do. For the main project Carol brought along a calico bag for everyone to embellish in their chosen design. In the afternoon we went to St Jean d'Angely for the Fil en Fete exhibition. This amazing exhibition was spread around the town in 9 different venues with displays of old and contemporary patchwork quilts, textile art, beautiful vintage Chinese costumes and a whole building of stalls selling fabric, yarn, needlepoint, X stitch and much more - a great afternoon with masses of inspiration in a riot of colour and texture. Check out these websites to see more of the artists' work SegoLaine Schweitzer, Cosabeth Parriaud, France Brechignac

After a coffee in the square and a demo of Sonia's new i-cord machine we went back home exhausted but brimming with ideas.