Tree Fall

Curtain Call

As soon as I started writing my last post I realised that I wanted to blog about my vintage curtain collection. Of course the realisation was followed almost immediately by the question 'why?' And I have to admit that I don't really have an answer for that, except to say that if anyone else out there has a curtain collection I'd love to see it. And I know of at least one other blogger who is interested. And I'm pretty easily encouraged - one 'Come on show me yours' is enough for me! So apologies to anyone that popped over here thinking that they might actually get to see some crafting!

When I first saw this pair I almost kept on walking because they were absolutely filthy. And I mean filthy. I'm reasonably sure that Jim thought I had finally crossed the line when I pulled them out of my bag. And the man I bought them from quite obviously thought he'd pulled a fast one when I actually payed him money (50p!) for them. The print is called 'Davenport', but the selvidge doesn't say who the designer is.

I spotted this pair being used to wrap furniture at a car boot sale. It was just as the car boot sale was ending and this old guy was packing his van full of dodgy old furniture and was using these curtains to protect the furniture. I can't tell you how strange the look he gave me was when I asked him if he'd sell them to me!

I love the texture of barkcloth so much. It lends itself to floral prints so perfectly. And after years of use it becomes so soft and just begs to be fondled. 
I was lucky enough to find two full length pairs of these curtains stuffed into a bin bag at a car boot sale. They were slightly more expensive than the others (£5 for two pair - so perhaps expensive isn't the right word to use!), but are in perfect condition and just beautiful and soft. The print is 'Bowden' for Bevis Fabrics.

These are the curtains that I've just hung in my front room and write about in my last post. Love them.

I was really in two minds about this pair when I first saw them. Although they actually aren't as drab as they appear in these photo's they are still fairly dull and I wasn't sure whether to buy them. But they were very cheap (50p) and I think they're growing on me. (I've also photographed them sideways!! Blah)

This is a Francis Price screen print called 'Paphos'. They are 1960's and the first pair of barkcloth curtain that I bought. Aren't they wild?

I was lucky enough to find these a couple of weeks ago! Aren't they just wonderful? Unfortunately there isn't a selvidge on the curtains so I don't have any info on them, but I'm assuming 1950's. They are in perfect condition and beautiful!

And last but oh so certainly not least, just look at these!

Unfortunately there was only one curtain when I found this. And no selvidge, so again no info, but oh my god how I love it!

I have a few more pairs of curtains but these are my favourites. I bought them all very cheaply and have found that most people simply don't see any value in barkcloth. Because it's quite a heavy cotton it doesn't lend itself to much other than upholstery - although I think that you could make some wonderful skirts out of some of the lighter curtains - and people just see it as old fashioned and useless. So if you look carefully for it you can really pick up a bargain.
A lot of modern designers are influenced by the original 50's and 60's prints and of course you have people like Cath Kidston using it alot in her designs, so it's definately gaining in popularity again. But I just love it because the texture gives it a real depth and movement. It isn't a flat fabric and it begs to be touched.
My biggest problem is whether to actually cut it up and use it or to keep the curtains whole and preserve them.

I have had horrible, horrible food poisoning this week and I have to admit that sitting at the laptop is making me feel pretty sick again , so I'm off back to my bed now, but tomorrow I have a whole day of crafting so I intend to do another photo journal of my day, similar to last week.  Only this time I'm hoping to actually post each photo as soon as I take it.  The only problem is, because of the time difference most of you will only be around to read it much later, so you won't even know it was posted in stages, but I like the idea of making a post every hour, so if you are around, keep an eye out for it. (possibly setting myself up for failure here, but hey ho!).

Sorry to any Blogliners out there - I had to edit this post because I missed out a photo, misspelt a name and generally buggered it all up!

Rose Tinted Curtains

For a while now I've been collecting vintage barkcloth curtains*, and last weekend I found a pair of 1950's floral curtains at a carboot sale that caused me to nonchalantly ask,  how much - whilst inside my heart was beating just a little too fast. I know you know what I'm talking about!
They are the perfect colour and texture and in wonderful condition. They are also the first pair that I've actually had the courage to cut up and use.
My front room has been slowly changing over the last 7 months and is now a rather eclectic mix of vintage and modern, combining florals and patterns and patchwork. I don't know if it works for anyone else, but I'm really happy with it.

These curtains make me think of summertime with lemonade and cucumber sandwiches. They make me think of Enid Blyton and Mudeford (one of the places I lived as a child), of sunshine and sand and of a childhood that didn't exist in the main for me, but that I would love to create for Bella. The type of childhood described in 'Apples For Jam'.

Since becoming a mother I've had such a strong desire to 'return' to the good 'ole days. You know, the one's that only exist in our imagination. I want to bake cakes and sew dresses for Bella. I want to spend days lying in tall grass, eating picnics and sketching. I want to birdwatch and press flowers, stay up late to stargaze and paddle in the sea.

And as strange as it seems, when I look at these curtains blowing in the breeze, they make me feel that all of that may yet be possible.

And even more so, when I look at this tiny perfect chair next to Bella's books, under the curtains.
Is it silly to wish for the halcyon days? Maybe, but who cares. I've got the curtains and that's a start!

I haven't been able to do very much crafting this week and as a result I have a 'To Do' list as long as my arm. This is particularly annoying as Bella was at her childminders an extra day and Jim was off work Monday and Tuesday. But the week started badly with me coming down with some kind of bug and by midweek we'd had a small fire when the electric kettel exploded! Which really gave me a fright as Bella and I were alone in the house - fortunately Bella didn't know why we were suddenly standing in the garden instead of making me a cup of coffee to go with our midmorning snack.
That same day Bella fell down our garden steps and landed on chin and then she fell off my bed and caught her eye on my bedside table!
So as you can see, it's a good job that I at least have the curtains!

I did get this Princess and the Pea set finished though - along with another 3 sets (so if you're patiently waiting for your order, then a big, big thank you and they are now on their way).


And I've got some new Princess's on the cutting table, with new dresses and bags.

I did also manage to start the button brooches that I hinted at last week. More to come about those though - they're not quite finished.

*As soon as I wrote that I had my curtain collection I realised that I want to blog about that, but it's too dark to take photo's now - so I shall try and remember to do it another day.

Corners of My Home

Bella's room is at the back of the house and gets the sun in the morning. Over winter we haven't really spent very much time in there, but now that the sun is beginning to make an appearance Bella and I have started playing in there a bit more.

It's pretty much always a mess unfortunately. Bella arriving prematurely meant that we never caught up with all the jobs that we intended to do. So it's still not really finished And of course every time I start to tidy the room now, Bella decides to 'help' me! I still love it though. It's full of books and toys and art and love.
Before we turned it into a nursery it was our guest/junk room and I was never happy with how it looked. So when I sit in there now I'm often amazed at how in such a short time this has become the brightest, most loved corner of the house.

This is above Bella's cot.  The picture of the rocking horse is a cross stitch that my mother's friend did when Bella was born. It's absolutely gorgeous. And of course, the picture of the elephant is a much treasured present from the wonderful Kristina . She's still got a few of her pictures up for sale in her shop and I can't stress enough how lovely they are!
The shelf holds a few pieces from my childhood. The bowl on the far left is from when I was a baby, as is the set on the right. The teddy's are Steiffs that were given to us when she was born and when she turned one. And you can't see properly but the little shoes are knitted in the shape of piggies!
I've said it before, but I just love the fact that Bella is surrounded by pieces that are handmade. There's so much originality and love in the art that hangs on her walls and the creatures that line her shelves. What a lucky girl she is.

Because the sun is brightest in her room I was taking the opportunity yesterday morning to photograph some fabric that I've just bought. And Bella decided that it would be best if she styled the shoot!

And then she discovered where I've been storing all her unused coathangers ( I over estimated slightly when buying coat hangers!)

Don't they look great scattered all around her?  She had so much fun.

Corners of My Home

A while back I posted about finally sorting out my studio. But it just never got finished and infact it ended up worse than it's ever been.  But I finally, finally finished it over the weekend and have just been waiting for a bright enough day to photograph it. And as luck would have it, today, a thursday, was bright enough. So I  can combine it with my Corners entry.

As you walk in the room this bookcase is on the left. It holds all of my craft and most of my interior books as well as most of my notebooks and photo albums. And my collection of Living Etc.

I'm incredibly nosy and love to see what's on people's bookcases so I'm going to show a close up of the shelf that holds most of my craft books - because I assume (hope!) I'm not the only nosy person out there.

I use the three baskets on the top shelf to store my vintage patterns, stationary and thrift find oddments.

Next to the bookcase is this table. I know I've used it before  for Corners, but it's tidy now!

The sewing box was a fantastic car boot  find. I would have been happy to buy it just for how useful it is, but when I opened it, it had most of this in it!

The basket on the window sill was given to me by my mother so that I could recover it for her. So far it's been sitting there for a year.

Next to the cabinet is our guest bed - we bought this bed for when Bella is older. Which I think was just an excuse for us to buy a bed that we really liked!

The quilt was one of the first quilts I ever made. I didn't realise at the time that you need to prewash fabric, so I didn't bother and when I washed it for the first time the colour ran very badly and I've  never been able to remove the stains.

Above the bed are our bookshelves. We've spent a small fortune over the years on bookshelves. We have them in every single room of the house. These books are the ones that we don't read very often but don't want to part with.

The cabinet next to the bed was the first piece of furniture I ever stripped. It took me forever, particularly because of the beading, but I loved the whole process and it led to me studying furniture making and restoration. I now use it to store the sticker and badge makers as well as the folders that hold my templates etc.

In the centre of the room is our old dining table.  I would love to have this back in our kitchen, but the configuration of the kitchen as it stands right now just doesn't allow for it. We have a useful but dull round Ikea table at the moment.

Close up of the basket on the table. I made the needle book about a year ago and it's absolutely the most useful thing I've ever made.

And here's the fun stuff.

I use this cupboard to store my solids. Most of it is old sheeting. A friend of my mothers works in a charity shop and saves fabric that she thinks I may want. A lot of it isn't very good quality but I can. not. get. rid .of. fabric.

I built these cupboards originally to store my video and dvd collection plus my old vinyl albums. But the videos (which never get watched anymore) have been moved in to the attic and it's slowly being taken over by my fabric and notions. Duh!

On the front of the cupboards hangs my 'design board'. It's just a polar fleece blanket that cost £2 from Ikea. I know all about making a real design board, but I needed something that was temporary and a simple fleece blanket works perfectly. Fabric sticks to it as well as a proper board.

Seriously, if you haven't got the space for a real design board, just tack up a fleece blanket.
It makes such a massive difference when planing a quilt or cushion or whatever to be able to stand back and look at it. I know that Hillary has said the same thing.

And to finish off (if anyone's managed to get this far, thank you!) this is a bucket of wool! When I was pregnant I asked my mom to teach me to knit so that I could make a blanket for Bella. This is the blanket so far.  Impressive, no?

Behind a curtain on the right of the bookcase is my pc and scanner etc.

And very finally here's my bucket of paper. Of course.

Corners of My Home

I love this corner so much at the moment. I guess it's a continuation of last weeks accidental corner theme, as most of the things seen here should be somewhere else. But I just can't bare to find proper homes for all my lovely loot. I've always loved to pile new treasures together. When I was a child I would carefully lay every birthday or christmas present out on my bedroom floor so that I could admire all of it, leaving it there for as long as possible.  And I must confess (and this is embarassing) that I still haven't put my stocking fillers away from this christmas - they're in  pile by the side of my bed. I hate to put them away and have them disappear into the normal detritus of every day life. I do exactly the same with new fabric. At the moment I have the little pile of fabrics that Keri sent me (still tied in it's ribbon) and the bundle that Toni sent me and my latest order from Fabric.com all piled in a corner of my studio. It's shiny and new and I don't want to put it away.
Infact there is an absolute theme here - all over my house are little collections of newness. On my mantle I have my Magic Blue Tree quilt by Keri , Mr Owl by Toni, Bella's elephant picture by Kristina , Hannah's  card and a postcard from Kristina. All on display where I can see them and love them and feel the caring that went into them. And the photo above is a corner  in my studio,  where I admire and love my fantastic Collage by Lisa , my beautiful, beautiful Patchwork Set postcards by Hillary , a card from Keri  and my wonderful pile of postcards from the swop (which I must photograph properly). Everything needs to be hung up or filed away, but once that happens, once they're where they should be, they aren't new anymore, they're a part of every day life. And until then, until I succumb to my other need for order and tidiness, I just love to look at all the collections around my home.

Corners of My Home

I've said before that I've struggled finding corners of my home that I would like to share and today was no exception. Until I read Amanda's post.  It's nothing new for Amanda's posts to affect me, but todays affect was still a surprise. How can someone that I've never met, who's never been to my home and knows nothing about me, make me look at my own home with new, much more appreciative eyes? After weeks of really struggling to find anything that I like all of a sudden I was running around taking photo's left, right and center!
Accidental corners! What a fantastic idea. I had been looking at it all wrong. I kept thinking that I couldn't take a photo of  'this corner' or 'that corner' because there were piles of stuff everywhere. But now I can see that the piles are the corner. They may be accidental, but they are still there, with lives and stories of their own. And probably more interesting stories than the planned corners, the arranged moments.
Yay for accidental corners!

This is behind the door of my studio. The baskets and buckets are used to display my work at shows and the fabric covers my tables. I use pretty much all cream in my craft shows. I like the way it looks and it never dates. I'm very aware that colours like brown and teal are very 'in' now, but next season it will be something else and I can't afford to buy all new display items every season. It also means that the display doesn't clash with my work. I use the purple shopping trolley to drag my goods around outlets when I have meetings. It's pretty cool looking and has wheels so it's easy to manouvere. I bought it in Habitat (the trendier version of Ikea) and it has proven to be so, so useful. And the wallpapers are samples that I got when I was paper hunting for the front room. I think we might use the red floral paper in our bedroom.

Corners of My Home

This is the enormous clock on my kitchen chimney breast. We love clocks around here (and yet I haven't worn a watch for 2 years), and this one was a total bargain from Marks and Spencers. We're going to be wallpapering this bit of wall soon - the kitchen is very bare at the moment, as this picture shows and I want to really cosy it up. Picture a graphic print in Olive and purple by Orla Kiely! Can't wait.

Something's Gotta Give!

I have two quilts that I want to make - one for Bella's first birthday (2 weeks today!) and one for Bella's friends first birthday (2 weeks ago!!). I also  need to work on some little drawstring bags that I've started, a couple of cushions, some mini quilts, a pair of curtains, patchwork slip covers, some key rings, a doll for Bella and some more bedding for Bella.

But, my studio looks like this...

and this...

and this..

and this...

and as if all that wasn't bad enough this is the inside of my fabric cupboard!

And until all of this is sorted and put away there will be no more crafting - because there is NO. MORE. ROOM.
Not only that, but I need to see what I have because I keep ordering more and more fabric and it has to stop! My work will not be better if I just have that one new fabric! And I probably already own something similar to it anyway!
So, that's what I'm doing today. And probably tomorrow!

Corners of My Home

This is one corner of my workroom. It's such a mess at the moment that I can hardly work in it.  Look, this is the other corner!!

It's crazy messy but it's going to take a whole day to tidy and I have so little time to myself that I have to spend what little I do have on actually crafting. Of course I'd be able to use my time more effectively if I had a tidy room!

Corners of My Home

When Amanda came up with this great idea I got very excited. I love my home and was more than happy to write about my favourite bits. At least that's what I thought until it actually came to taking the photos. I was shocked to find that there aren't really any corners of my home that I love or want to show off.
We've been in this house for 2 years and have never really gotten around to making it our own. It's the first place that I've owned that didn't need immediate and drastic renovation and I guess that led to laziness.
It's a nice house and I would never be ashamed to show people around - but it's not 'me'. Everywhere is neutral and most things match. It has no personality.
We had already decided to redecorate the living room once Christmas was over, but seeing everyone elses pictures and realizing how I feel has really spurred us on to start making this a real home.

However this is one corner that I do love.  It's in Bella's room, which is the one room that we've taken time over decorating (although not as much as I would have liked as she was born prematurely and needed it much sooner than we planned!).
The chair is from my childhood. It is fairly ugly and very battered, but I like it. I made the quilt when I first found out we were going to have a girl - and shocked myself by loving working with pink (after declaring to everyone that my baby was not going to have all things pink just because she was a girl!). I made the cushion to match.  The hearts wall hanging was made when I first found out I was pregnant but didn't know if it was a boy or girl. I made the cat a while ago and Bella claimed it as her own and sucks on one ear, yuck!
I love this corner so much because it's where I  have the sweetest memories of Bella as a tiny baby.
This is where we sat together and cuddled in the dark when she was still having 4am feeds.  And I knew at the time that it was going to be such a fleeting moment in our lives, and to savour every second of it. And I did.

(I've just read Amanda's post and she says it so much better than I have!)