WINTER BLUES

The first week of February is a hard time of year.  Athough we've been slipping imperceptibly towards spring for sometime now, it hardly feels like it.  The winds are cruel, the days dark and short, and the earth sodden.  But on a rare bright day, it pays to take note of the striking shapes that bare branches cast against the sky, and the beauty of frosted landscapes:

I've been looking at fabrics that evoke the stark beauty of winter in a bid to banish these seasonal blues:

 Boeme's painterly Betula Northern Light is a impressionistic panel of wintery birch trees.

This is a Flockhart print called Winter Flower in blue, evoking that harbinger of spring - the crocus.

 Here's another revival by Flockhart of the work of mid-century textile designer, Eileen Guthrie, called Zig Zag - in grey.

  Lindsay Alker uses lino-blocks to create her designs which are then silk-screened onto heavy linen. This one is called Great Battle Wood in light grey.

 Scandi textile designers generally work hard to banish the winter blues by using huge amounts of bright colour and summery subjects, but Marimekko's Lumimarya is a clean intepretation of nature in winter and is one of my favourite Marimekko prints.

This is another Marimekko print, called Heina, with monochrome bundles of grasses, printed on fine linen. 

Mark Alexander's ethereal printed linen, called Bonsai Moonshine, from the Artisan Prints collection is so subtle and beautiful.  

I feel better already!

HOMEWARD BOUND

After every holiday there is a come down, its true..but I'm over it, I assure you! And with the new month, the new term, the new season, lets here it for HOME! And thank my lucky stars that home is London - city of infinite variety and untold distractions. In celebration of that diversity and contemplation of home, I'm bringing you some swatches of uniquely London fabrics:

Timorous Beasties' LONDON TOILE in emerald, complete with a homeless person, bin men and winos...

A lot less irreverent is this LONDON TOILE in sienna by Boeme.

Linwood's LONDON SKYLINE turns architecture both old and new into a surprisingly soothing pattern.

St Jude's KENSAL RISING is London only in name - those chimneys, railway signals and telephone wires are hardly unique to London, but where else is Kensal Rise?