French Color: Chanvre

Charlotte and Tom

Years ago when JZ, Sofia and I first visited Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in France, we stayed in a 17th century townhouse called Le Sejour.  Tom, the Englishman and owner of Le Sejour, renovated the house from top to bottom leaving all of the charm.  Every year we returned to Tom's place and felt like it was our home away from home.  Then one year, Tom sold the place and moved to the Amazon - he wanted to explore the river and learn about indigenous cultures.  So...we had to find another place to rent, which was about the time we found the chateau where we now take groups of women every summer.  The second summer we rented the chateau, Lizzie, the owner of the chateau, introduced me to the hired chef, Charlotte.  Charlotte, who continues to cook for us every summer at the chateau is a beautiful Englishwoman who studied cooking in Paris, specializing in sauces - yes sauces!  Charlotte told me that on Wednesday her boyfriend would be coming over to do a barbecue and we would all eat outside under the stars.  On Wednesday evening I saw a crazy fast motorcycle pull up the long driveway of the chateau and I thought - must be the boyfriend, here to do the barbecue.  I eventually walked downstairs and in the lobby, to my surprise, was Tom - our old friend who we hadn't heard from or seen in years - we thought he was lost to a tribe never to be seen again!  I was so shocked I said "Tom - what are you doing here?" to which he replied, "I'm here to do the barbecue - I'm Charlotte's boyfriend!" I couldn't believe it - after all these years and we were back together again!  So now, Tom comes to the chateau every summer to help Charlotte, and just to say hello.  Last summer we had the chance to visit their bastide, just outside of St. Antonin, where Charlotte gives French lessons in between cooking for herself, her children and Tom.

And just a little peek at some of the wonderful food Charlotte cooks for us every summer.....

So Many Pretty Dresses!

I loved hearing about everyone's favorite dress memories - I see a whole book with drawings of each and every little dress - anyone out there want to do the sketches?? Thank you so much for digging deep and writing about such beautiful little details!
Our random winners are....
Stephanie - the purple dress
Rebecca - the peach dress with the white polka dots
Yann - the sailor collar dress in red, white and blue
Please send me an e-mail to notions@frenchgeneral.com with your address and we will get a box of Petite Odile fabric out to you - so you can sew up a little dress for someone special (or maybe yourself!) Merci!

Petite Odile Giveaway

Our new line with Moda, Petite Odile, has just arrived! I designed this line with a story in my head...the story of a French girl named Odile who had an armoire full of petite dresses. Each day Odile would choose her favorite dress and then match it up with her little socks, shoes and apron. The visual of an armoire filled with old dresses inspired me to design a handful of sweet little prints that would be perfect for children's clothing, quilts or room decoration.
 About a month ago I received an e-mail from a woman in Paris named Odile. She was over the moon that someone had used her name in a collection - an old French name - that many people had never even heard before.
 Odile wrote: I think I share with you, the love of old children designs. I have at home a very large collection of vintage newspaper , mainly as I am looking for old sewing machines information. And then Odile sent me a flicker link to her favorite children designs that she had scanned from old French newspapers.
To celebrate our new collection, and to inspire you to sew a dress for your favorite little girl,  please leave us a comment about a childhood dress memory and we will send out a box of fabric to a couple of lucky winners.  Bonne Chance!

People I Know Who Woad

Rachel woads

Cheryl woads

Joan woads

Cathy woads

Lisa woads

Sofia woads

Teree woads

Marcia woads

Wendy woads

Kick woads

Monica and Meleen woad

Danielle woads too!

Even Molly woads!

Wanna woad?  We are sold out of our Los Angeles Woad Workshop on Saturday May 5th, but there are two more workshops happening:

Seattle
May 12th and 13th

New York
May 19th

An Afternoon in Summerland

My favorite afternoon is usually an afternoon spent in Summerland, California at my friend Mogull's house. Mogull, as she is affectionally known to all of us, used to visit us at French General back in Hollywood and tell us all about her five kids - and to tell you the truth - I couldn't believe it - five kids! I am one of five and I know how crazy a house it can be with five kids. But somehow she managed to be so cool - which seemed like such an anomaly to me. Then, four years ago, Mogull joined us in France, on our very first Chateau Getaway. I think I must have recognized her ability to harness a group of 20 women very quickly and I remember thinking - she's a keeper! She has returned with us every summer and is usually the first one up, delivering Molly and me coffee in bed - something we desperately need most mornings! Mogull and her great friend Stacy are the women behind Summerland Mercantile - a wonderful workshop, creative garden and atelier just a couple of hours north of Los Angeles - on the outskirts of Santa Barbara. Every year I get to go up for a workshop or two and teach in this outdoor space - it's always a fun afternoon and it's filled with Mogull and Stacey's warm touches. I'm headed up again in a couple of weeks to teach a jewelry workshop - nothing fancy just a bunch of interesting types sitting around and sharing our creativity. If you need a day out or live in the area, sign up for a day to relax and create something beautiful - just in time for Mother's Day! Sign up here!

Lost at Sea

I've been in jury duty for the past two weeks and it is beginning to take its' toll. When I was first selected to sit on a jury panel I was at once shocked and excited. Shocked that I had actually been chosen (I am self-employed!) and excited to see, up-close, how our legal system works. When I heard what the criminal case was, I was sickened, but like the judge said to me, "Sometimes we have to do the hard work." So, I dug in and decided to give it my best shot. Yesterday, we started deliberations on all three counts. Our "team" of twelve agreed on count one and two and now we are stuck - muddled down in semantics and people's own personal emotions. I see no way out and I'm beginning to worry this could take more time than any of us bargained for. I feel a bit lost at sea, and hoping that we are able to wrap this up soon and go back to our regular, old, boring lives. More to come....

Jolee is in the House!

Today we received our line of paper arts from EK Success! When we started this project, over a year ago, I never imagined that we would be able to create a line of vintage inspired papers and embellishments that actually captured the French General look so well. I love the 12x12 papers - they are all prints from our antique collection of fabric - some making repeat performances from our quilting collection with Moda. There is even a pack of adhesive fabric sheets that can be cut and stuck down to projects - just be sure you use paper cutting scissors and cut before you peel! The embellishments have the look and feel of vintage pieces - but yet are very useable for paper and sewing projects. And the labels and tags all feel as if they were dug out of an old warehouse - almost as if they were original bits and pieces! We will carry the line in the shop and on line - but you will also be able to find it at your favorite craft and scrapbook shop and Michaels! Have fun creating and we would love to see photos of any projects you do - please post on our Art of Craft site. Merci!

A Day of Creativity

We've got a full day of creativity planned at French General on Saturday, April 21st from 10-5! Our morning workshop will feature Mavis Leahy, a local Los Angeles fiber artist, who creates mixed media, textile collage and assemblage from vintage materials and found objects. My friend Penny first introduced me to Mavis, by way of her quilted collages. Each of the pieces are layered and seem to tell so many different stories. The above piece, Starcrossed, was the first textile collage I saw - and I fell in love. In our Saturday morning workshop, Mavis will bring her stash of antique fabric and trims and we will be creating a Red on Red Textile Collage, utilizing Victorian sewing techniques to create our own wall hanging.

Saturday afternoon features Denise Hahn, another friend and artist, who will be visiting from Long Beach to teach her Sew Romantic Necklace Lariat Workshop. Denise has attended classes at French General (with her mom!) so it will be a treat to have her come and teach. Denise's art includes altered art, paper crafting, mixed media and jewelry making - but her true love is teaching - sharing what she makes with others. In the Sew Lariat Workshop we will be learning to create a steel hammered linked necklace and then embellish with vintage sewing notions. As always, all materials, supplies and tools are supplied at French General workshops.

Sign up here for one or both workshops - see you in April!

A Quilt and then Another....

I found an old quilt at a flea market a couple of weeks ago. And although I will look at ANY old quilt, I didn't think I needed to add this quilt to my collection. It was hand tied and the fabric looked like early 20th century - small madder prints. The back, on the other hand, was a bit more appealing - it looked like a 19th century French floral linen. So then I asked myself - do I really want to purchase this quilt just for the fabric on the back - was it worth the $85 the vendor wanted? Then, somehow, as I was examining it closer, I noticed the second quilt - the quilt underneath the original quilt. At first I thought I was seeing things - was I really looking at a whole cloth turkey red paisley? I had never seen a quilt with a print anything like this - and it looked like it was on both sides! The vendor started coming in closer - not liking the fact that I was carefully lifting up the corner of the top quilt to see what was underneath. I snapped a quick picture and he was right behind me saying - "Delete that picture". I said "I was just trying to get a better look at what was underneath" - he growled "Buy it or delete it". At that point, I was so excited that I had found two quilts in one that I quickly paid him the money, grabbed the quilt and ran home!

Here's the French floral linen and the indigo border:

And here's the indigo border, the French floral linen, and the turkey red paisley peeking out from underneath:

I spent the whole weekend picking apart this quilt - luckily it was tied and not quilted. Picking away, I found four different cloths attached to this quilt: the top patchwork piece, the blue floral linen, an indigo border and the turkey red paisley. When I finally finished, hours later, I realized that someone had decided to save this beautiful quilt by simply adding another over the top. I imagined this stunning turkey red quilt was used till it was thread-worn, it has small patches of brown calico covering the big tears. Finally, the lady of the house said "Enough! - I'll go to the market and purchase some linen to cover the back side", and when that proved not to support the aging quilt, she, or maybe her daughter (?) pieced together a patchwork top and hand-tied it on. Whether it was done out of necessity or to preserve history - I was now the lucky owner of this cloth and I studied it for days!
The turkey red paisley - found on both sides of the quilt underneath the original quilt:

To the best of my knowledge, this turkey red paisley seems to be French and anything similar I found in my textile books dates from 1810-1820. They also manufactured similar prints in England around 1850 - but the detail on this print, and the dye colors make me think it is French. I am not sure about the patchwork top - it looks American to me and quite a bit later. So did this quilt travel from France to America? Who knows...but I have really enjoyed taking it apart piece by piece and trying to put it all back together again...if only quilts could talk!
Here are the four pieces that came off of the quilt:

Any ideas or comments as to what this quilt might be? I would love more information about these fabrics so I can continue to put this quilted story together!