Show and tell

Had a great couple of hours at the car boot yesterday morning once again finding several little bits but also a couple of significant finds. Aren't these little glasses sweet? I love the way the sun shines through them casting a rosy glow beneath them. At £1 the set I couldn't leave them!



A little needle case held together with an elastic band containing an abundance of crochet hooks - great for me as I have recently started crocheting.



A fabric bolt with this lovely Sanderson fabric (Little Chelsea)- there was only a couple of metres but as it normally retails as £39.50 per metre I felt I'd done really well. I bought several embroidered tablecloths and cushion covers - I'm rather enjoying bringing the old cushion covers back to life with a bit of TLC.



I seem to have started picking up old floral prints and have several now. This is by Vernon Ward well known for his floral pictures and his "migrating birds* series and considered to be kitsch by many. I also managed to pick up a couple of the migrating birds for pennies. You can just see under the picture some duck egg blue fabric which is a pair of curtains I bought just because I liked the fabric - they are a thick heavy cotton hand printed by Fothergay and it wasn't until I got them home that I realised I have just the spot for them. Unfortunately I shall have to change the heading tape as the threads have long disappeared!

So, home happy with the booting bug satiated for another week and off to the allotment for a few hours. It was great to pick a dozen sticks of rhubarb, over wintered leeks, a couple of lettuces and the first radishes of the season - they were only as big as marbles but that little bit of harvesting provided just the right boost to keep plugging away at all the digging, sowing, trimming, raking and hoeing...

Love Wend

Suffolk Puff Love - or make do and mend?

What a glorious May day! I love Spring and May in particular. My favourite month with its promises of long days, balmy evenings and natural beauty all around...

Anyway, changing the subject completely, I'm hoping that someone will see this and help me out here. I purchased this beauty last year not really knowing what it was but just loving the fact that it was made from little Suffolk puffs. I found it in an Antiques Centre in Horncastle just thrown across a chair and fell in love with the colours. I've photographed it on a white duvet cover here so that you get the full effect but don't have it on the bed normally as it is too fragile.



It was one of those things that I just had to have and I bought it there and then. I didn't even open it out to check the condition as I had thought to cut up little sections to use to decorate some cushions. (I certainly won't be cutting up now - I love it!).



I fell in love with the colours - it had an overall denim-y blue feel to it but with small splashes of deep red. When I got it home I laid it out on the floor and was amazed at the beauty of this "patchwork." Although there were almost 2000 patches (yes I counted!) in it there was actually a geometric pattern amongst all the myriad blue fabrics. There are also some plain cream pieces and a few black and russet pieces. You can probably see the pattern best in the first picture.



The next picture shows part of the reverse where you can see the actual patterns of some of the fabrics.What I'm hoping is that one of you expert textile ladies can advise me as to exactly what I bought - or at least from what period. I know its a single bed cover as it covers a single perfectly with the corners rounded as it fall to the floor.



The fabrics look to me like the sort of dress fabrics my mother may have worn in the 40s and 50s but it seems older to me. There are also lots of what would appear to be shirt fabrics in it. It must have taken ages to assemble all that fabric never mind make all the puffs! I would love somebody to hazard a guess as to its age as I havent seen anything quite like it before. I wondered whether it fell into the war time "make do and mend" timeframe?

Any ideas gratefully received!

Love Wend
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