Carole Johnston: fabric

Showing posts with label fabric. Show all posts

two in one day

Last year I was fortunate to "meet" Gudrun, who has a lovely blog, and we have been keeping in touch.

In a picture in one of her recent blog post I saw a fabric I liked very much. I need to make some new cushions for our sofas and I though this fabric would do very well.

Gudrun was very kind and emailed me a close up of the border with the name of the design, "Jolie Jardin."

I could not find it on any of the UK sites, eventually I tracked it down on ebay, from Sew-Creative-Fabric, for a very reasonable price. My fabric parcel arrived today. I like it as much as I did when I saw it in Gudrun's picture.

But that wasn't the only parcel I received today.

The second parcel came from Sweden, a surprise from Gudrun! A beautiful, beautiful present, using the same fabric.

THANK YOU, GUDRUN!

I LOVE IT!

week's update

Not much stitching done this week, besides the 38 blocks for my Scandinavian Christmas quilt border and they are ready to be joint together.
An autumn project with our granddaughter, she made an Autumn book from pressed leaves and flowers.

Vintage Fair on Saturday, another busy venue.

I came home with a pretty piece of cotton fabric, which will go beautifully with some gold coloured silk, a remnant I found in a furnishing shop some time ago.

You can see a lot more pictures from the vintage fair here.

A parcel arrived from Tiggy Rawling's "Indigo Shop", a lovely selection of hand dyed and block printed fabrics, also threads, shisha mirrors, buttons and shell sequins.

Lots of projects and lots of ideas, all I need now is lots of time!

I leave you with some pictures I took last week at the back of our house.

red quilt finished

At the previous T for T last May I bought very cheaply this red vintage fabric, which had some marks and damage. When I saw it I knew that it would make a good start for quilt.

I managed to salvage enough fabric.

Although strictly speaking it is red and blue, I call this quilt "red" for short.

I matched some fabrics from my stash and bought some new, to compliment the red.

I kept the design of the quilt simple as not to detract from the beauty of the old fabric.

This is the result:

The main fabric is unusual shade of red, difficult to match with quilting thread, so I decided to use a pretty shade of pink for hand quilting, which I think worked very well.

Fabric: vintage, from stash and new

Hand quilting thread: Aurifil 28, shade 2440

another T for T

It is the first of September today and summer has arrived! At least, that is how it feels today, with temperatures over 20C, without the cold north wind.
An invitation arrived a while ago for the next T for T (Talent for Textiles) fair, the 60th, held in the grounds of Claverton Manor in Bath, home of the American Museum. You have been here with me before. The museum houses the largest collection of Americana outside the USA.
I haven't come here today just for the T & T, but on the day like today this is a wonderful day out, strolling through the museum grounds and having a lunch on the terrace, overlooking the valley below.

The textile fair was being held at the newly restored Coach House and Stables, with a large selection of stall holders, many of them regulars at every TT fair,

and well known, like Fine Cell Work, who work with prisoners and teach them embroidery and patchwork & quilting (majority of the prisoners are men). Please visit their site to read more.

The sign next to their stall says:

"Only those who stitch know what goes on between the soul and the hand that stitches."

Also Jen Jones from Lampeter was here, with a selection of Welsh quilts,

and many more.

Every year the Museum stages a special exhibition.

This year the exhibition is "Marilyn - Hollywood Icon". It is a story of Merilyn's short life, with 20 of her dresses on show, personal items, photographs and posters. I must admit that without Marilyn in them, the dresses don't seem as glamorous as I expected, which just proves that it is the woman in it that makes the dress! No cameras allowed here, so I can't share it with you.

Some more pictures from the Museum grounds.

I was very controlled with my spending today, simply enjoying this beautiful day.

I came across this beautiful French soap ( my weakness),

a piece of fabric with some damage on it. Remembering how well I used a similar purchase from the last T&T, I did not hesitate,

some small pieces of fabric, which I am sure I will find a use for,

and a small purchase in the Museum shop, for my stash.

start of red quilt

So you would not think I have completely forgotten what this blog is about, I can at least show you the start of my new quilt, I am calling it the "red quilt", because the idea for it came from the piece of a red vintage fabric I bough at TT fair in May.

Considering that it was damaged and stained in quite a few places, I managed to cut a few good squares.

I have finished the centre of the quilt and now I have to think about the border. Although I had a rough idea how I would like the quilt to look, it has been a case of making it up as I go along, seeing how the fabrics work together.

I can't wait to get to the to the quilting part, as my plan is to hand quilt it, while enjoying being in our garden, now the summer has arrived. Of course, that it is presuming the weather will last!

T for T

"T for T" stands for "Talent for Textiles" fair, held several times a year at various venues, organised by Elizabeth Baer. It is a sale of antique and vintage textiles, buttons and various haberdashery, bags, various decorative objects and so much more. Many of the items on sale come from markets in France, including some beautiful old linen. You can pick up some lovely fabrics here, but of course, like anywhere else, you could spend a lot of money on very little, say the least.
My favourite venue is the American Museum in Bath, where the fair will be held in September.

This week the fair ( the 57th) was taking place in the grounds of Glastonbury Rural Life Museum, in their recently restored 14th century Tithe Barn, with the dramatic backdrop of the legendary Glastonbury Tor.

It turned out to be a chilly day and the wind was blowing through the barn. I felt sorry for some of the stallholders near the doors.

After parking DH in the tea room ( believe me, he wasn't on his own there), I went to explore the wares.

I found some small pieces of lace on Niki's stall.

But the find of the day for me was this inexpensive piece of cotton fabric, nearly 1m sq. Although it has some small damage, there is enough fabric here to do something with.