My Quilt History- Part 9- The Tour De France Quilt
In Europe it's glorious Summer time while the Tour de France is being held. Here in Australia watching The Tour means cold winter nights, sometimes with a little bit of cognac to warm the cockles. And a perfect excuse for a warm snuggly quilt!
I started collecting themed fabrics and when I came across the blue and white bicycle prints I thought it would be fun to somehow incorporate French flags of bicycle fabric.
I used a waterproof pen and copied the bicycles onto red fabric. It's not perfect but it looks fine if you don't look closely.
The quilt has all the features of The Tour. I put the four different coloured jerseys in the corners, with a background of water because hydration is a huge part of riding at that level, I figured it could also be interpreted as sweat, but that doesn't sound as glamorous, For those of you that don't know, the jerseys are worn by that the leaders of different catergories. Yellow is the Tour Leader, White - Best Young Person, Green - Best Sprinter, and my favourite is the Polka Dot jersey for the best climber.
I had to put some cows in because the race takes us through scenic countryside sometimes dotted with cows. A rider once said that cyclists are reincarnated as cows so they can peacefully watch the race go by.
Here's the Polka Dot Jersey with some mountains. For me the mountain stages are the most exciting because it's where the real contenders come out to play. It's amazing watching these guys accelerating up hills that I wouldn't even push a bike up.
To represent the south of France I used seafood fabric and any quilt with a french theme has to have some nice wine and champagne.
I chanced upon 5 yards of Heather Ross's Munki Munki bicycle fabric at a wonderful bargain price. It's extra soft and cosy. The French stripey binding works well but then I'm a sucker for stripes.
Well... you see, I sort of ran out of time and The Tour was starting and hand quilting does take such a long time.. so I just put the binding on... and continued hand quilting afterwards.. I did stitch in the ditch all the squares so that has kept it stabilised...
Also...
I haven't quite finished the quilting because 2009 Tour finished and I put it away thinking I'll continue during the 2010 Tour.
But... We've been such busy bees that we're not watching it this year, Just keeping up with highlights via the web.
I do have it out and draped over the bottom of our bed but the rest of the quilting may have to wait till next year.
Vive Le Tour!!!
5 Comments
Clever. Love the bikes and the striped binding is the perfect ending.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed, I wouldn't know where to start to make a them quilt like that. Sad times for Cadel Evans.
ReplyDeleteThat quilt is beautiful (though, I have to admit, I take zero interest in the Tour de France, probably because I live so close to it)!!
ReplyDeleteLove all the fabric details (particularly the cows!), it's so nice when a quilt can tell a story.
I can't believe you're hand quilting the whole thing... I will really have to give hand quilting a try some day, I so love the look of it, but the fact that it takes forever just puts me off a bit... :)
Well done GBF! Is he in training for the Tour and I hope he gets the train home.
ReplyDeleteAnd this one is just as impressive! While you were snuggled under your quilt in 2010 I was at one stage in Reims. My husband and I are keen cyclists and hope to catch a stage again this year when we are in Montpelier! This quilt is fabulous....one for the quilt show?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for leaving me a comment. Your kind words encourage me to keep sharing my work and stories.