Vintage Florals

I love a good bit of vintage floral fabric and I found a fair bit at the Textile Society Fair in March. 

I got some fabulous pristine unused bark cloth,

some bark cloth curtains - now up in my studio,

more pristine bark cloth in a deep red

and some pristine linen.  

I will confess I've already cut in to the green for a holiday tote that served us well, 

it can be spotted in the previous post on a train trip to Prato.

What I've been desperate to do is get some more of it made up though.

I've just listed this on Etsy.

Vintage Sanderson linen.

Handmade, every raw edge bound, corners mitred.

Florence

We took to the Tuscan Hills for Easter,

we've not been before but will be going back soon.

We took a train to Prato to the Museo del Tessuto, what a treat.

This place was recommended by our guide and I don't think we would have been aware of it without her advice.  Beautiful costume and magnificent machinery for anyone remotely interested in textiles, I learned a lot.

The best gelato in town was on the other side of this bridge, 

needless to say we crossed it every day we were in town.

The Museo di Palazzo Davanzati was another recommendation we would have missed 

and it was one of our favourite places in Florence.

The interior decoration was exquisite.

Lucca by Jared Flood is almost done,  the border is taking as long as the main part of the shawl.

The Trouble With Goats and Sheep was an excellent accompaniment to the many charts, beautifully written by Joanna Canon and superbly read by Paula Wilcox.

The Uffizi was a big let down due to a couple of extremely large Japanese tour groups, I can't imagine they'll ever look at those millions of photos again and they just dominated the more popular exhibits.  If you are looking for some good art in Florence there are better places to find it.

I seemed to only be interested in the paintings with interesting textiles.  Madonna and Child with five angels, 'Madonna of the Magnificat', Botticelli circa 1483.  Leonardo da Vinci under direction of Andrea di Cione detto, The Baptism of Christ, 1470 - 1475.  

We always like to wander the backstreets, you never know what treasures you will discover.