My sweet friend Jean went to the south of France in June and brought back these wonderful fabrics. She sent them to me to make a ‘Country French’ quilt for her wall.
The fabrics are beautiful and I couldn’t wait to get started. As I studied them and planned how they would go together, I decided that they needed a little more yellow.
I casually started looking for Charles Demery fabrics to order online and was surprised to hit brick walls every where I looked. I tried everything I could think of, eBay, etsy, little stores that sell French products. I wrote several emails and made phone calls. A few places sold Charles Demery fabrics but not the color or pattern I needed.
In my effort to find the fabrics I ended up doing a lot of reading and now I feel like a Charles Demery expert. He was a French fabric designer in 1916. As of the mid 1970’s Demery’s company was run by his nephew. His nephew oversaw the switch from hand printed fabrics to machine printed fabrics. His patterns are copied reproduced occasionally by present-day designers. Click here to read more.
When Jean sent the fabrics, I knew they were special because they were purchased at a market in France. It didn’t take long for me to learn that working with these fabrics was a rare treat.
In the end I wasn’t going to get any more of this fabric unless I went to France myself. I ended up going to a local quilt store where I bought the fabric below. It works well with the other fabrics and add that yellow I wanted.
Here the squares as I was just beginning to arrange them.
And here it is all done!
I put a sleeve in the back so Jean can hang it. Designers print their names and pattern line on the selvage edge of their fabrics; I incorporated the selvage edge into the sleeve so Jean would have it as a record.
As part of her payment she is letting my keep the rest of the fabric! What do you think I should I make?
