Day out

Yesterday I was up bright and early as I was going on a very long-awaited day out. I went on a coach, kindly organised by Ruth, with lots of my quilting friends and naturally I took my camera with me to record the event. This is the only photo I took.

Any ideas where I went?

It was to the quilt exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London, where their excellent collection of antique quilts was displayed, for the first time ever. The exhibition was excellent, but of course, no photography was allowed. So this photo is when Pauline and I sat in the V&A courtyard cafe, having a cup of tea, and watching the children cooling down in the water. If you want to see some images of the quilts, you'll have to look on the V&A site where the photos will in any case be better than mine!

I did manage to buy a little fabric, as the V&A have commissioned some reproduction fabrics from Liberty and they were hard to resist.

These two were from a British coverlet dated 1797,

and these from the 1820s. (The blue one is a typical seaweed design of the period.) Now, what to make?

Reproduction fabric

Just been up to Edinburgh for four days to see a few shows at the Fringe. Had a great time. Saw 'The One-Man Star Wars Trilogy', 'Dickens Unplugged' (the biggest Dickens tribute band in Santa Fe apparently), DS's production of 'The Witches', some stand-up, some serious stuff, folk music, belly dancing and a lot of bars! Some of the pubs stay open until 4 am, although we didn't manage to stay up till then.
DH drove up, which gave me some time to have a good look at my new book, 'America's Printed Fabrics' by Barbara Brackman. I'm very interested in quilt history, and rather miffed that there are loads of book about American quilt history and fabrics, but very little about British. Barbara gives a good history of the development of processes, patterns and colours, and encourages you to look for similar designs and colours in modern fabrics, to make quilts with an antique feel.
Edinburgh boasts an amazing vintage clothing shop called Armstrongs, which is a must-visit for anyone who loves fabric. While I was there, I saw this gorgeous 70s shirt, which looked very 1880s to me, so I bought it for £5.

The assistant kindly warned me that they didn't do refunds, so would I like to try it on, but I said it was fine, I just wanted to cut it up into little pieces and sew it back together again.

Once home, it went into the washer, and I cut it up into pieces. If you like using worn fabric, it's best to cut it into usable pieces first, as if you put it into your stash as it is, the chances are that it will never get used, because it's too much trouble, and will always be passed over in favour of a flat piece of fabric. I reckon that there is the equivalence of a good three quarters of yard of usable fabric in a shirt, which makes £5 a very good price.

Here is the fabric lying on two books with photos of 1880s shirting fabrics. On the right is Barbara Brackman and on the left is 'Dating Fabrics 1800-1960' by Eileen Tristain.

The motifs on my fabric are a bit more spaced out, but very suitable for use in a reproduction quilt, I think. Watch this space for how I use it.