Wednesday 7 January 2009

Fabrics old and new ;-)

I have always loved fabric.

From the day that I learnt to sew on my Grandma's old Singer Sewing Machine, through to my 'Needlework' classes at Newton Abbot Grammar School, I loved to find gorgeous fabrics, with which to work and create.

Yesterday, I was thinking back to the 1970s when I had my first little house, with very little to put in it!

But I had a sewing machine, so there really was no stopping me.. and there were some excellent shops in Camberley,where I lived, which supplied some beautiful fabrics..(no Cath in those days!)..so I bought this for the bedroom..a gorgeous Liberty print called, 'Cottage Garden'.

I bought this next one in Tyrrell and Green in Southampton (Now John Lewis)

This was sold under the Jonelle label and was called 'Daisy'....I made curtains for two large lounge windows with this print...

And in my kitchen ...I had a William Morris 'Chrysanthemum' print..it was a darker,richer blue than this but the same design..it looked gorgeous against my old, painted, wooden cupboards!

'Salad Days' by Sanderson was another of my purchases...


I may not have had much in those days but I had a house with lovely curtains, made with quality fabric!!
The sad thing is that I didn't keep any of these curtains...but I would love some tiny pieces just for reminiscing purposes!

Of course, nowadays, the choice of fabrics available to us, is huge.

A couple of weeks ago, I started using fabrics for my clipboards..A bit of Amy Butler's Midwest and Modern 2 for this one...



And a bit of Michael Miller, mixed with Kaffe Fassett for the this one..


I'm making one for a grand giveaway soon...so watch this space for a Sal's Snippets Competition;-)

Meanwhile, if you have any fave fabrics from your past...do tell ;-)

13 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to all the snippets!

    Great design never goes out of fashion...that's obvious from your lovely Liberty and Sanderson prints. I hope you manage to track some down
    Deb x

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  2. Well you know you don't have to sell fabric love to me! I have a passion for it. My favourites are Michael Miller, Heather Bailey and Erin McMorris but basically ALL fabric has merit as far as I'm concerned. I think I was born with an extra 'textile gene'!

    x

    PS Love the picture you're using in your header today. I always make my headers out of pictures of fabric.

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  3. Hello....
    Love the william morris fabrics...so classic....

    Like the bags you made...xx

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  4. We have used the Chrysanthemum fabric for stockings in a turquoise and lilac version... just gorgeous. I just wanted to say that the girls really love their clipboards i brought from you.. i shall look out for your giveaway and keep my fingers crossed!
    Have a good day xx

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  5. I love wallpaper just like you love fabric (well, I like fabric, too, of course and I have a piece of the fabric from which my bedroom curtains and the 'skirt' around my kidney-shaped dressing table were made in the 1950s ... I've no idea of the manufacturer, but the material came from Williams & Cox in Torquay, a furnishing and upholstery store). Today I love the wallpapers & fabrics of Colefax & Fowler as they're timeless classics. In our hall we have Saltram Trellis which is now a firm favourite. And when we redecorate our bedroom I'm sort of hankering after another Colefax fabric for the curtains, Bowood (a floral design in green and grey on a cream background.)
    Margaret Powling

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  6. My friend and I, who are both quilters, love looking at material. We both have far more than we need and often buy it just because we love it (Kaffe Fassett stripes are wonderful colours). We have been known to get all our materials out of the cupboard and just sit and look at it all - sometimes we can't bear to cut into it.
    In my first house - fifty years ago - I made curtains out of a David Whitehead fabric in deep blue/green with small rectangles all over it. I can see the material still in my mindd's eye.

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  7. Oh Sal Tyrell and Greens how I miss thee!!
    Thanks for your thoughts on the bird it is a woodcock!
    Like you I have a ton of fabric, I'm not sure I will ever use it all!
    Clare

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  8. Thanks for the advice Sal, I'm taking it all on board! I try not to let her know that I'm worrying, I don't want her to lose confidence or be scared or doing new things.

    I'm not surprised you were scared when your son went travelling! Is he back now? You read all those stories (and not the thousands about all the kids who come back perfectly safe and happy!) and they are just guaranteed to make parents panic.

    Mel xxx

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  9. This is a bit spooky Sal.. I knew Camberely very well in the 60's and 70's.. my mother had her first antique shop there opposite the bus station.
    The fabrics are such a blast from my past.. especially the Daisy Jonelle.. I had this fabric in the orange colour scheme for my bedroom curtains..
    Sweet memories..
    Michelexxx

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  10. I forgot to add...
    I had Mary Quant daisy fabric curtains and matching bedspread at a later date.. and my favourite material was a fine Liberty lawn that my mother made in to a party dress for me.. I thought I was the bees knees.. but it was rather that I had bees knees!

    Michelex

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  11. What lovely pictures. I have always loved the Sanderson and William Morris prints. We were lucky enough some years ago to pick up a beautiful sofa covered in William Morris very cheaply, and I adore it. Sadly it's just beginning to look tatty.
    I inherited my love of fabrics from my mother, who has always had gorgeous curtain fabric.

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  12. Hi Sal

    I bought 2 pairs of Liberty Cottage Garden curtains to sell a few years ago. One pair had 4 widths per curtain and they were almost 9ft long. I was left with a pair of tie backs. If I still have them (may be unearthed in the studio at some stage - at which time I shall think of you) then they are yours.

    I still have the pair of curtains I made for the baby's room just before Hannah was born, a pair I made for the spare bedroom of my first home, and the pair from my bedroom in 1956. I'll endeavour look them out, and post about them.

    Sue x

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  13. Gosh, I remember some of those fabrics - I love the William Morris blue fabric. I remember Mum making curtains for my bedroom in the early 70s - purple and turquoise flowery ones:)

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Thank you for taking the time to comment! ;-)