THE BLOG IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH COMMENTS! SOMETIMES THEY DON’T GET PUBLISHED, AND WHEN THEY ARE I AM UNABLE TO REPLY TO THEM. IF THAT HAPPENS, JUST EMAIL ME AT stitchlore@gmail.com.

Looking for something specific? Check out the Topic Index, or the Search bar, just below, on the left.



Sorry about this problem!

SO.........WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON TODAY??

Friday, May 7, 2010

Fab Fabric Friday- prints this time!




Who does not love a beautiful print?  Here are three prints in the shop right now.

The top fabric is "Maia" by Arthur Sanderson & Sons.  Besides being exquisitely beautiful, this fabric is in other ways nearly perfect.  It is woven and printed so evenly that when cut the pattern drifted by only 1/4" over 3 repeats.  It's a half-drop match which is always a scary challenge to cut!  For this and any other linens or linen/cottons or.... well, actually, for almost any fabric..... we cut by pulling a thread to keep the grain even.  This adds a couple of minutes to the cutting process but makes all the difference in the world in how the product hangs.
This print is turning into interlined drapery panels, hand-sewn, of course!

The bottom two are William Morris & Co fabrics:  "Mary Isobel" on a superb linen, being made into interlined flat Roman shades, and "Honeysuckles" printed on fine cotton, featured on two little London shades.  Need I say "hand-sewn, of course!"
 
I first knew of William Morris as an author, and only later did I learn of what I thought of as his "other" career as an artist and his role in the decorative arts.  At an impressionable age I gobbled up "Well at the World's End" and saw the influence Morris had on two of my beloved 20th century writers,  J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
I spent a long time pretty sure I'd eventually run into Ralph of Upmeads and a horse named Silverfax on one of my hikes in the woods.  Never did.

I've been immersed in 19th century English fiction lately- at the moment I'm 3/4 of the way through Dickens's "Little Dorrit"- so working with these classic English prints is a wonderful coincidental extension of my literary life.

No comments:

Post a Comment