HAPPY VALENTINE!

I've scoured the world (wide web) for some loud and proud and - yes - throbbing heart print fabrics in honour of the impending day of Saint Valentine.  No sacharine sweet St Valentine's here - just large-scale and super colourful love-liness.  Enjoy!

Corita Rose is a textile company based in Dorset, making wonderful, exuberant printed fabrics.  This one is called Amor Yellow, printed on linen with devotional hearts interspersed with blue birds.

This is another Corita Rose fabric, called Medieval Hearts in red, printed on cotton velvet.

South African studio printers, Designkist specialise in digital prints with an African flavour - this one is called Shweshwe Hearts - 'shweshwe' refers to the indigo printed fabrics of traditional South African dress.

I cannot resist this pretty print from Fancy Moon called Corazones Primavera by California-based designers de Leon Group - with lots of little Mexican devotional hearts dancing across the fabric.

Another large scale design of  embroidered hearts in zingy colours on white cotton called (understandably) Sweet Heart by Harlequin.  These folksy embroidered hearts are nearly 20 cm across with rich textured stitching that reminds me of eastern European embroideries.

Umbrella Prints are based in Australia and call this Grand Hearts in Smokey Black, printed on an organic hemp and cotton basecloth.  On a grand scale, these hearts intersect to form a curvy and bold honeycomb pattern.  Here's another shot to give you a better idea:

May your Valentine's Day be filled with love as strong, vibrant and passionate as all these fabrics. 

RAGE RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT!

With apologies to the genius that was Dylan Thomas, I'm not about to discuss poetry or death...but only the depressing annual ritual we call 'Putting the clocks back'.  Daylight Savings Time was first introduced nearly 100 years ago, during the 1st World War in an effort to improve the war effort and save resources.  Nowadays campaigners are using the same arguments to suggest that we would be better off extending DST, or British Summer Time, throughout the year - withstanding darker winter mornings in favour of longer afternoons.  I have to say that idea definitely gets my vote - I find the drawing in of winter nights at and before teatime, intensely dreary and depressing, whereas dark mornings are easier to bear - after all, things will only get lighter as the morning progresses, won't they?

So as the dimming of the day began soon after 5 pm yesterday, and my spirits sank, I tried to distract myself by looking for sunnier textiles.

Here's what I found:

 Corita Rose's magnificent yellow Flame print on silver silk satin - to brighten any day!

 Schumacher's bold but delicate Sundial in Chartreuse, printed on cotton and linen

 Thibaut's jolly upholstery woven called Soleil in their Resort collection is a kind of updated monochrome take on an ethnic theme

 Donghia's large scale Suzani is a woven interpretation of the embroidered tribal fabrics of Central Asia where sun motifs are widely used.

here is another printed take on the suzani tradition, this time by Sanderson's, called Kayseri.

Putting these fabrics together has definitely put me in a sunnier disposition - I hope they do the same for you!  And if you share my dread of darkening evenings, throw some weight behind the 10:10 Lighter Later campaign

SAVE OUR BEES!

This morning demonstrators dressed in yellow and black plan to converge on Downing Street to buzz members of the Cabinet to uphold an EU ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides across the green fields of England. These pesticides are widely held to be behind the terrifying drop in bee populations around the world, giving rise to serious concerns about the sustainability of modern farming methods and ultimately our own food security. I had already planned a look at bees as a motif on textiles and today seems, in support of this urgent cause, a good day to post my findings.

It was Napoleon who, in the days before widespread literacy, knew the power of a symbol - a pictorial representation of an idea - when he saw one. In 1804, having decided to crown himself Emperor, he was looking around for suitable emblems with which to adorn his trappings of power. He chose the bee, symbol of immortality and resurrection, and adorned his red velvet coronation robes with gold embroidered bees. Josephine also had gold bees embroidered down the length of her white satin gown and even on the toes of her coronation slippers. The bee was incorporated into Napoleon's coat of arms and was lavishly used to decorate his palaces: on carpets, wall-hangings and upholstery.

The bee is still used today as a very traditional damask upholstery fabric, usually woven into silk surrounded by another empire symbol, the laurel wreath, like this example from Lee Jofa:

Chelsea Textiles have included a sweet embroidered bee in their small sprigs embroidered linens:

And here is a highly graphic and enlarged version from Timorous Beasties:

Peony & Sage have used the bee motif on several of their printed linens: firstly lined up in the traditional repeat, then slightly skewed and finally scattered randomly:

Barneby Gates have placed their Honey Bees appropriately in a geometric honeycomb:

And finally, Corita Rose have used bees on a vibrant printed velvet that bears little relation to the precise placement of its napoleonic predecessor:

So lets ban neonicotinoids today - LONG LIVE THE BEE!