I do remember that at the start of my mammoth NY posts, I said I wasn't going to give you a blow by blow account of it all. I guess I was mistaken. Oops.
I do promise to get back to craft posts again soon , and to those of you that have pointed it out, I hear you on the lack of Bella pictures, definitely more of those to come soon.
I was going to go ahead and share my green fabrics today, but I you know what they say, variety is the spice of life, so I thought we'd go with some new books instead.
This first one did the blog rounds a while ago, but I'm going to show it to you any way. Mainly because it's worth looking at, but also because until I saw it for myself I just didn't realise how lovely a book it is.
When I read the reviews of it online I didn't realise how thick the book was and I had just assumed that it was a little flimsy, the way the Japanese craft books are. But no, this is at least an inch and a half thick! It's a big, heavy book (yes, I did carry it in my carry on bag, they don't weigh those you know!) and whilst it may not offer too much of a challenge to the experienced sewer, it is still well worth looking at for the photography alone.
I haven't had a chance to read it properly or to check out how comprehensive the patterns are, but it's made me smile at every page turned.
I bought a load of tea towel linen, whilst I was away, with the intentions of designing something very similar to this. But with a combination of embroidery and print. An idea that was further inspired by a couple of amazing tea towels that I picked up at Anthropology.
As I said, I haven't looked at it properly yet, so I'm not sure just how useful a book it is, but frankly, who cares when it's just so damned pretty.
You can get it here.
The next book is going to make you swoon. It made me swoon and I may have even let out a little yelp when I saw it. Fortunately no one else was standing close by, so as long as it was only a little yelp, I don't think anyone noticed.
It's a book of fabric prints. Just fabric prints. From 1946-1959. Just pictures of printed fabric.
It's a relatively small book, about A5, but it's got 200 pages of fabric prints!
Just a quick aside to explain my sudden apparent obsession with the physical size of books. When I got to the bookshop in New York and saw just how substantial some books were, and how much that surprised me, I realised that it does make a difference to how impressed I am with a book. For example, this book, See and Sew, has also been reviewed on many blogs and although I always thought it looked nice, I assumed that it was a small, lightweight book like the My First Sewing Books that I had as a child, so I've resisted all temptation. Until I saw the actual book last week and discovered that not only is it a large A4 book but it's also spiral bound and nice and thick. But whilst I was sensible ( I was, I tell you!) and didn't buy it in NY, I have actually ordered it since getting back.
So you see, from now on I'm going to include a description of the actual size of the book where possible. Just in case I'm not the only strange person out there that is affected by such things.
Back to those fabric prints then.
There was definitely a yelp involved when I saw this page.
Did you notice that I said there were 200 pages of fabric prints? How very kind of them!
ISBN4-579-209397
Available here.
Another one that put a little extra spring in my step on those NY streets, was this fantastic book.
It's all about Scandinavian textile design.
It includes many traditional and moderns textiles, with bags, cushions and even a smock pattern.
I've photographed mainly the traditional stuff, but there's amazing new stuff too.
It's a small book, but it's packed with perfect, perfect awe inspiring designs. And I highly recommend it.
It's here .
There are some more Japanese books to share with you, but I couldn't wait any longer to show you these!
Oh and why wait when we don't have to, lets just finish with a quick pic of the very Princess Bella.
