Rouenneries by French General

I’ve been waiting to see this fabric for MONTHS.  I’ve been stopping by my local quilt shop WEEKLY since the first week in October to ask the same question:  do you have French General’s line in yet?  And they kept telling me to come back next week.

Then, finally, on Halloween, I walked into the shop and saw this:


Oh my!  “Forget Halloween!”  I thought.  Let’s do some sewing!


So beautiful!  I love the reds, the neutrals…


I seriously stood there, just looking at all of it, unable to decide which prints I liked best or which to purchase some of, for at least 20 minutes.  Finally I just got out my camera, because I couldn’t really decide, and I can’t afford all of it (not to mention the fact that my fabric stash is already too large).


The wovens were amazing.  That one above, with the red dots on a neutral, is so classy!
These linens with the birds are also beautiful.


And can I just say that this little dot and stripe pattern near the selvage on each bolt is the cutest thing ever?
What a classy way to introduce yourself to the world of fabric designing!  In case, you’re not familiar with French General, you can visit their website and learn more about Kaari Meng here .  I promise, you’ll love looking at all of the vintage beads, baubles, millinery and so forth that she sells.  Really beautiful.


I’ve never seen a line of quilting fabric before where I actually wanted a piece of every one.  This time, I’d love some of everything, thank you.

The bummer is, though, that none of the quilt shops near me ordered the print that I liked the most (based on pictures).  It’s an oyster stripe with big bold neutral stripes of equal widths.  I had this project all planned out in my head and it was built around that print, but nobody has it!  Thank goodness for the internet, where at length I was able to locate an obscure quilt shop which has some of it.  (What would I do without the internet?  It makes possible so many treasure hunts that could never happen otherwise.)  When it arrives, I’ll get to work on my project.

In the end, I went home with one of these:


A layer cake, which will provide a nice sampling of the beauty.  Something about seeing a stack of fabric bundled up like a fresh pad of paper really gets me.  I’ll sew a simple quilt with it, supplemented by some 1/8 yard pieces of a few wovens which I purchased as well.  With this line, I’m preferring the patterns that let you just look at the fabric, instead of having the prints themselves overwhelmed by the design of the quilt.

There’s also a kit for one of these with my name on it.   So simple, but gorgeous.


And don’t you think that dotted fabric would make a smart looking one of these?

I’m thinking I might need to grab one of those patterns and make one, since my current purse is, literally, threadbare.  You can find it at Fig Tree Quilts .  I love their patterns.  Someday I’m going to make this one .  Every couple of months I get the pattern out of my stack and look at it and sigh.

Seriously, everything I’m seeing lately I’m thinking would look lovely with the Rouenneries line and it appears that I’m not alone.  So wherever you are, Kaari, well done.  I love it.