Textile Arts and Quilt Fair 2023 Edition : Pour l’Amour du Fil

Countdown -10 days to the opening day of the quilt and textile arts fair “Pour l’Amour du Fil” in Nantes!  The craft fair takes place from Wednesday 19th through Saturday April 22nd at the exhibition hall de la Beaujoire. If you’ve never visited this textile arts fair, here’s another good reason to do so this year: we’ll be among the vendors! 

“Pour l’Amour du Fil” truly is an exceptional textile arts fair, with new jewels and discoveries every year.  It stands apart not only for the artwork on display, but also for the guest artists/artisans as well as the classes offered. 

At the time of publication, there are still places available in embroidery workshops, “slow stitching,” appliqué, sashiko, textile painting, kantha, crochet, wool, and knitting classes.  So, don’t hesitate to sign up for one of the classes; they are lots of fun! I took three workshops last year, and I loved them all!  For additional information about my past experiences visiting the fair, you can read this blog article from last year.

Visiting and taking a workshop are part of the pleasure of the fair, but so is shopping! To find our vendor booth, you can download this map of this convention hall. Fil Volant’s booth is located in aisle B in front of the entrance, not far from the "Make & Take" area, a space dedicated to learning new techniques!

Some of the products we’ll have with us are: Fat Quarters of all our fabrics in stock, certain fabrics sold by yardage (with a minimum cut of 10 cm x Width of Fabric), patchwork rulers (including some not yet available in the online shop), rotary cutters, Aurifil thread, and some new surprises ordered just for the craft fair! 

Finally, we also have the great pleasure of participating in the give-away organized by the craft fair, so you can try your luck to win one of our two prizes from the treasure trunk! 

Every year, the fair chooses a country/guest of honor, and this year is the Netherlands, which have a rich history of patchwork and textile manufacturing. A well-known fabric connected to this country is what is commonly known as “wax” fabric. 

The entire history of “wax” fabric is out of the scope of this blog article, but if you want to know a little about this fabric which is linked not only to the Netherlands, but also to Indonesia, and to some African countries, you can watch this short video (in French) created by Radio France.  You can also read this article by Deer & Doe sewing patterns, or this one by the Victoria and Albert Museum (both in English).

The history of “wax” fabric is connected to global exploration, expansion, colonialism, post-colonisalism, capitalism, and industrialization, just to name a few themes. Finally, there is also this article (in French) or this very short one in English on merchant women in Africa (“Benz nanas”) which explores the subject in more depth. 

But the Netherlands are not only known for "wax," the country was also involved in the modern art movement "Bauhaus," and this artistic and philosophical movement has left its mark on Dutch textile art. 

The Textielmuseum gives us some basic explanations (in English) and the newspaper L'Écho focuses on women active in the movement in this article (in French).  Or this article (in English) also focuses on women and textiles in the Bauhaus movement and it includes some great photos of their work. In addition (again once!) Radio France helps us discover the world of the Bauhaus through the weaving of Anni Albers in this podcast. 

However, “Pour l’Amour du Fil” isn’t limited to a single country! There are guest artists from all over the world, including Japan, South Korea, the United States, Australia, and various European countries. Our eyes will be able to feast on all the ingenuity and beauty on display! 

In any case, our preparations are moving ahead at full speed, and we hope to see you very soon in Nantes!