Florence's Attic

Purchases

I love shopping...

I have bought a little bit of fabric over the last month.  The first was a metre of this pears fabric from a new shop in Brighton called Michelle le Maitre which has opened near the top of Church Street (next to the wedding dress shop if you are local).  It is full of absolute treasure for someone who loves fabric.  All the fabrics we have to buy in from places such as Reprodepot are there, along with some of the Japanese linens found on a lot of US craft blogs and some British screen printed fabrics.  It is not cheap, the fabric I bought was £12.50 a metre, the linens are about £15 a metre and the gorgeous modernist style British screen-prints are about £40 for a piece, but when there is such a selection just a short bus ride away, how can I complain?  The owner is lovely, and great to have a chat with about the fabrics.  Unfortunately I don't think the shop is big enough for courses, but it is lovely.  I bought this pears fabric I had seen and admired on blogs.  I got the brown colourway to make some cushions, but may now use it for a dress for Bizzie (more on that below...)  The shop doesn't have a website, which is a real shame, but if you are in Brighton it is worth walking up the hill from the museum for a nose. 

You feel like you are buying something really special as you get your fabric in a rope handled bag...

and here is me apples and pears fabric

Another excuse I have for buying fabric is that I really want to try out some dress making now I have my new machine.  The only draw back is I have a history of dress making disasters.  I did a specialist art foundation course at London College of Fashion a "ahem" few years ago.  For those of you who haven't gone through the British education system if you want to do an art or design based degree you have to complete a one year full time art and design foundation course.  They do them all over the country, but this course in London is special as you don't do other disciplines such as fine art and sculpture, but focus on fashion.  The four areas of specialism were fashion illustration, fashion manufacturing, textiles and theatre design.  I always wanted to be a fashion designer, so was pleased to get on this course and commuted from home every day, however I soon realised my drawing abilities weren't as good as others in fashion illustration, and I did not really want to do theatre design.  I loved the textiles, and wanted to be good at the fashion manufacturing so worked more on those.  Well, it was a disaster.  We had access to all the industrial machines and I seemed to get all my garments eaten up in the over-locker.  It got to the stage where I expected all my samples to have a V cut out of it somewhere near the seam where the over-locker blade had chewed it up.  Anyway, the textiles won and that leads on to another story...
My second go at dressmaking was a summer school a few years ago.  My husband had just been made redundant so I had childcare sorted, and got the course at a reduced rate (every cloud has a silver lining...).  I spent 3 days making a skirt that didn't fit me properly, and frankly just looked awful, before moving on to making a patchwork bag out of this book by Jane Cumberbatch, and that then led me onto the path of patchwork...
So, third time lucky.  Bizzie chose this fabric, which is just £2.49 a metre cotton in case I mess it up, and the pattern was 99p off ebay.  It is from 1970, and funnily enough has been stamped with the address from a shop in Seaford which is just along the coast from Brighton so hopefully it is meant to be.  I bought the pattern in age 4, so it gives me a good 18 months to actually make it.  I feel a bit worried about the zip, but hopefully it may be the start of my dressmaking career!

and finally some more fabric.  The retro piece was just 20p from my quilt group, and these 2 fat quarters I got from the quilt shop last time I was there

I also got this seventies print.  The photo doesn't show it off that well, the lime green and brown really do work and it was a bargain 20p as well!  I only go along to my quilt group to listen to the speakers, but it is rather old fashioned.  I think the ladies who sold me these fabric couldn't believe someone would want them!  To give you an idea of how old fashioned it is there is no reference to email at all, and I was delighted to get a typed letter, complete with pen underlined title.  How many years is it since you recieved a typed letter?

Happy Tuesday x

May days

Oops, sorry about the break - as usual lots going on here...

Brighton Festival happens every May and it means there is lots to do.  We took part in the children's parade which officially opens the festival.  Mister J and I had a great time and stayed out in town after just the two of us which was a treat.  The theme this year was board games, and when we met his friends and their mums on the train into town we looked like a hen night gone wrong in our outfits!  Fortunately everywhere you looked in town people were dressed up.  We have done some open houses already, and plan to do a few more next weekend.  We went to two on the estates on the outskirts of town.  I always like to support these ones as it is far easier to open your house up in a trendy area such as Hanover and Fiveways, than out in Bevendean and Moulescoomb.  Some of the work we have seen is amazing.  Friends who aren't from Brighton often find the idea of open houses a bit strange, but if they do them near you then try them out.  Yes, I do have a nose at the houses and gardens, but who wouldn't - it is part of the fun!  It also supports artists and craftspeople as they get to sell their work direct.  Personally, I don't think I could open my house.  It is far too messy, and the children would probably get a bit bored by the afternoon on the first day!  Then of course there is the 32kg greyhound which likes to say hello to people whole heartedly...

We had rather a hicup at the beginning of the week as Bizzie broke her arm.  We didn't see her do it, just a couple of bumps on the stairs and a wail, but she was fine after - we even had dinner.  Even though she was still playing happily we felt there was something not right and kept getting her to catch things and squeeze things which was ok, but later on when she put weight on it she winced so that was it, straight up to a and e.  The two of us spent a lovely night up there (rounded off by a very lonely walk back to a dark multi-story car park which we paid for the privilege of using - the nhs eh).  Even at the hospital she was happy.  The assessment nurse gave her some Calpol, but she was actually just crying as she wanted chocolate from the machine.  After waiting for over 2 hours, I think everyone was getting fed up of her whining, so I found a doctor and asked if she could have chocolate.  She was eating this snack using her broken arm when the nurse came to say it was broken!  So she is so well (apart from a lovely cast all the way up her arm) and has refused all medicine, but we aren't .  She has no fear, and whilst some things have been addressed such as not having bunk beds, other things I can't control so I have now turned into one of those mothers who follow their children everywhere around the playground!  It has amazed me how she is not bothered by it.  The same stairs she did it on were the ones which I fell down when I was pregnant with her and ended up having the bones in my leg pinned and plated, so I am worried things come in threes.  I may get visitors to sign a disclaimer about using our steep Victorian stairs!

My round robin quilt has gone, and is hopefully there by now.  Here is a photo - not the best one I could have taken, but I was in a rush to get it posted out.  I trimmed the size down, but the white spotty fabric and I kept having rows about laying flat!  The checkerboard border, and the plain green one where put on at the exact size, so with an iron it behaved!  I was really happy with the block I received.  Sometimes, it is a question of what to leave out, than what to put in, and I felt the strippy second border gave me the chance to do something busy.  The green fabric it has been edged with is one of my hand dyes and fitted in perfectly with the green strip round the first block.  The backing I sent is a fine dark blue check.  I was rather shocked to open my sewing box and see the label peering back at me, so that will be on its way tomorrow!  It could have been worse and I could have forgotten to put the block or backing in I suppose.  I have heard there will be a bit of a delay getting my last round, but it is not a bad thing with how busy I have been. 

 

here it is originally

I have also been sewing some samples for college - anyone for a bit of folded patchwork?

and made my very first quilted postcard.  I actually started this a couple of months ago, but a couple of factors led me to actually get it finished.  The first is that it is from a photo of the landscape near my brothers house and his birthday is coming up and I wanted to give it to him.  The second is that I was inspired to make it from the book Landscape in Contemporary Quilts by Ineke Berlyn and I went to a talk she did last week.  It was really interesting as she discussed her inspiration, and explained the design and craft process she goes through to make her quilts.  It is the first talk I have been to where a quilter has pulled out a tray and demonstrated how they dye fabric.  It was interesting as the two techniques I have used is the plastic bags, soda, salt and dye method, and the sodaing fabric and then painting on it method.  What she does is (I think I remember) is soda's the fabric, and then puts it in a plastic bag with a small amount of water and the dye.  It seems quite a clean method and i will definitely look this up and give it a try.  When I got in I couldn't wait to pull the postcard out and finish it.  I loved making it, and whilst not happy with the composition can't wait to make more of these.  I always thought it was a mystery, but all you do is lay out the fabric and quilt it, then bondaweb it to pelmet vilene, cut it down to postcard size if it isn't already and satin stitch round it.  Of course, if you are reading this you probably already know this as i think I am the last quilty person I know who has made one of these!  Voila, here it is.  Again, not the best of photos, but it had to be sent out...

 

Happy Sunday