Tag: french map quilts

Rivers and Cities

Dear Liza,

I was feeling pretty good about the shape of my highlands, mountains and shorelines on my French map quilt. Auntie Bridgett admired the lay out, then asked, “Are you going to put anything else on it? Like cities?”

Oh. Yeah. Knowing that most cities in Europe are on rivers, I decided to put in the rivers first.

So, using Googlemaps and blue yarn, I began to lay out my rivers. I’m only putting in the main rivers for now, so you can see (from upper right, going clockwise) the Meuse, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Garonne, the Dordogne, the Charante, the Loire, and the Seine.

Once the rivers were laid down, I felt more confident about the placement of the cities. Paris, Vernon, Rouen and Honfleur along the Seine,


Orléans, Tours, Angers and Nantes along the Loire,

and Lyon, Avignon, Aix and Marseilles along the Rhône.

So now, everything is laid down. But NOTHING is attached yet. If I lift the green hexagon, it all falls off. That’s the next step, and it may take a few days. Be patient with me.

Love,

Grandma Judy

L’Escargot

Dear Liza,

Yes, I have made progress! Once I got the shorelines figured out, everything starting making sense.

I kept looking at my patterns for the Grand Massif, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, and they were just …. Clunky. They made the whole eastern side of the country look like a mountain range, which just isn’t the case.

As you can see….

So I pulled up different topographical maps of France to see how I might make them better. Certainly more accurate, and maybe just a little prettier.

My process isn’t artistic, or even scientific. I glue sheets of scrap paper together and start cutting, staring and trimming until I get a shape I like.

This took a good part of the morning, because there is a lot of cutting, placing, staring, and walking away for a while. During the walking away parts I vacuumed, went shopping, and watched the Olympic Triathlon on YouTube.

And when I got a pattern that was closer to the shape of the Massif, I laughed out loud. Un Escargot!!! That is, a snail.

I like that a lot. Escargot are one of the classic French dishes. Snails are also raised all over France for it, and it is one of Auntie Bridgett’s indulgences when we visit there.


So I chuckled and pinned the patterns down, carefully trimming the lumpy shapes out of the purple fabric. The highest peaks of the Pyrenees and the Alps will be shown in red.

Et voilà! The big shapes are taken care of.

But there is one more detail hanging over my head.

I have this half yard of black fabric that I haven’t used yet.
It is part of the color palette, and I think it will give the map some depth and drama. I intended it to be mountains, but it looked like a big black hole. I think it would be better as a detail, a curve or a line rather than a blob.

So now I get to stare at this for a while, and figure out what comes next.

Ain’t art fun?

Love,

Grandma Judy