Ruin in Baselland, Switzerland

I love old sheds, ruins, etc. and this is the real photo:

And here is what I made of it. I used some acrylic paint for the old stones, various layers of silk and chiffon, machine stiching as well as hand stiching.

The making of......

During the pandemic and the resulting lockdown, we were not able to spend time in our home in France as the borders were closed. We therefore had to spend our time in Switzerland in a newly acquired house.

For us it was like a holiday - we did not have to do anything! The weekly shop was done for us and we just had to pick it up. We were lucky that in Switzerland it was not forbidden to go for longer walks, like in France, Spain and the UK, so we spend our time exploring the country side and were exited about this part of Baselland. Most of the time we met very few people and stayed at home at the weekends.

If my husband had suggested 3 months ago to go for a 10 km hike, I would have asked him if he had lost his mind. Now, nearly three months into the lockdown, 10 km is a short walk and I enjoy it. I have also not felt so fit for a long time.

During our walks, I take lots of photographs and have come to love the many old sheds and cottages we encounter. I try to depict these in textile. I do not copy the original picture completely. I like to embellish on it. 

On weekends and rainy days, when we cannot go for a walk, I cut fabrics, sit behind my sewing machine, handstich and use beads and acrylic paint wherever I think it is needed to make these pictures. 

Original photograph.

Final picture

Draft

Detail

Detail

Final picture

Fabric market - Stoffmarkt Holland

Today we went to Weil am Rhein, a small market town just across the border from Basel, Switzerland in Germany. I had never heard of this market, until my friend Undine, who lives in Germany gave me this tip. I looked up their website and was pleased to see that there was one taking place near us.

This is their website, in case anyone is interested: Stoffmarkt Holland.

The market would be open from 10 AM until 4 PM. I picked up my friend Jenny at 9.30 AM with the aim to be at the market more or less when it opens.

When we were about 5 minutes away from the market, we got stuck in a queue. We noticed that there were a lot of Swiss cars with number plates from all over Switzerland and I jokingly said to Jenny that they must all be going to this fabric market. After standing for about 30 minutes we convinced ourselves that some other fair must be taking place in Basel and people were just looking for parking places, or, that the low € price must have brought all Swiss out to go shopping in Germany! In the end, a stretch that should not have taken us more than 30 minutes, turned out to be more than 2 hours!

When we were getting nearer to where the market was taking place, just across the Swiss/German border, we noticed that cars were parked all over on the side of the road so we feared that it might be extremely difficult to find a parking space and I could already see us, after spending so much time in a queue, to drive straight back home again! (The queue was caused by people wanting to go to this market.) However, there was a large parking place, very well organised by marshals and enough spaces still available.

The market was packed full with women! I never realised how many people sew and how far they are prepared to drive to buy their fabrics! Okay, I have also found that in the Basel area there are not many fabric shops and of course the ones that are there charge Swiss prices!

After shopping for just over one hour we had enough and drove back. At that time there was still a queue from the Basel side, well into Basel. There was no longer a queue from the German side.

We talked to a local woman who gave us the tip that next time, leave the car in Basel, take the train from the Badische Bahnhof and the first stop is Weil am Rhein. And even better, the station is just next to where the market takes place. She also told us to take a shopping trolley on wheels with us and true enough, we saw quite a lot of women with small suitcases on wheels!

Here some pictures of the fabrics I bought. I set myself a limit of not more than € 200 and I did stay below this and I have some lovely fabrics!

A day out in the country

We had a brilliant day yesterday. After 2 days of rain it was great to see the sun again even if that meant some ground frost in the morning. But who is complaining? It’s the end of October and up to now the weather has been great – very mild and the last two days of rain were an exception rather that the rule this year for our yearly visit to Scotland.

A friend had given me the address of a mill fabric shop just outside Carlisle (http://www.steadmcalpin.co.uk/news/1/16/Welcome-to-our-new-website.html) and we had decided a few days previous to go and have a look. Okay, it was a 1.5 hour drive one way but we decided to make a day outing of it and Sheila offered to make some mayonnaise egg rolls for lunch and we took coffee and tea with us (and there was much more than just mayonnaise egg rolls).

The shop was fantastic – I felt I was in heaven. I did not know where to start – so many beautiful different fabrics! Normally I try to get remnants. In the first place that way I do not have to decide how much I want of a particular fabric and secondly, I do not want meters of the same fabric because I do not want to make a production line of my bags – I want one offs!

We spent quite some time at the shop and I found some fantastic fabrics – some remnants and one of the roll.

The only negative point about the shop was the staff. I did not find them particularly friendly or helpful! As I am always looking for scraps of fabrics, I found some and took the bits I was interested in to the counter and put them with the other fabrics I had chosen already.  One of the sales staff came around, looked at the bits of fabric and when I explained where I had found them and wanted to know the price, she looked at me down her nose and told me they were not for sale – they do not sell less than 50 cm pieces, these were used as samples and if I wanted some of those particular fabrics I could buy them from the roll! Which really put me off because there was no sign that these bits were not for sale! The same thing happened with the cushions Sheila was interested in. They had horses printed on them and assuming that they were made of fabric sold in the shop I told her that I could make those if she bought the fabric. Not being able to find the fabric she decided to ask one of the sales staff where she could find it, only to be told that ‘we do not sell that’. It was not the point that they did not sell the fabric but the way it was said!

Despite all that I was very pleased with the fabrics I bought and will certainly go there again.

On the way back home we visited a hardware store in Longtown, which Sheila knew from way back and was very enthused about, having told us that you can buy all sorts of things there that the Do it Yourself shops do no longer sell. She had some problems opening the door and somebody shouted from inside ‘it’s open’. After pushing a bit harder we managed to get in, to be greeted by a young man sitting in front of a gas fire. The shop was a mess! Stuff all over the place, including the floor! Alan bought a plunger, which we desperately needed and after having a quick look around, trying to avoid stepping on things, left the shop very quickly again.

We stopped at a parking place to have our lunch and Tuppy, dressed as Santa Baby, was very interested in what was all in the lunch basket:

This time of the year the hills in the Scottish borders are particularly beautiful. Having lived in Switzerland of my life, where the hills are all forested, I had to get used to ‘naked’ hills when I first got to know County Kerry in Ireland. In the meantime I am used to it but yesterday was the first time when I saw the real beauty of them. In the brilliant sunshine the hills looked like they were clad in gold, copper and brass, made by dead bracken and grasses, and occasional splashes of green, dotted with the black and white spots of black cattle and white sheep. It was absolutely beautiful and I could hardly get enough of it! So much so, that I even forgot to take pictures.

New fabrics and bags

We have been back in Scotland now for just over two weeks. On one of the stopovers to Scotland, in Zwolle, I bought a whole stack of new cotton and linen fabrics for the bags I want to sew while in Ireland this winter and in Hawick I bought twenty pieces of curtain fabrics in the most beautiful colours. Even if we have gale force winds this winter, I will not be bored! As long as I have my fabrics and my sewing machine, I will be totally happy and content.

And here are the latest two bags for Presents Galore. They are made of a very soft green faux suede and woollen tweed in greens and browns. I had hoped to make a series of four again but I don't think that I have sufficient green faux suede left. I may have to use another colour of faux suede for the round bag I intended to make. It will be either brown fleather of yellow faux suede and I hope to finish these two before October 6th.

Back in the Alsace and sorting out fabrics

We came back to the Alsace on Monday afternoon. The weather was brilliant and still is so I have been able to do all my washing and everything is dry again. Yesterday we had to pick up my car so today I could stock up again on fresh food and everything else we needed.

I have also started sorting out all the fabrics I brought back from Scotland and obviously I also bought some more when we were in Holland:

I have to buy two more boxes but I have sorted all the fabrics now. This way they are much easier to find.

Tuppy is sitting in the sunshine and is getting used to this place now. Poor little thing. Within four weeks she was taken from her familiar house, had to get used to our place in Scotland, had to stay 15 hours in the car on the ferry, then had to get used to my sister's house and another dog, had to stay a night in a hotel and now has to get used to our house here. But she is learning quickly.

I nearly finished the commission bag in Scotland. The only thing I have to change are the tabs on the zipper ends because the way I have them now I cannot attach the popper snaps. After that it will be finished and I can start at the next project.

And have a look at this picture that Undine took of the bag I made: