KID'S FABRICS THAT ADULTS WILL LOVE!

I have never been a fan of gender-specific, cutsey kiddie's fabric - just as I've never believed in baby-talk.  The best advice I was ever given in the early years of child-rearing, was 'kid's just want to grow up - so let them do as much as they can themselves, as soon as they can'.

Doesn't mean I don't believe in fun, though.  Kid's just want to have fun - as well as grow up.  With that in mind I've been looking recently for some 'grown-up' kid's fabric.  Stuff you - and the kids - wouldn't mind hanging on to long after they've outgrown the tutu's and playmobil.

 Nursery Yellow is a beautifully distressed print from Flockhart, a fabric company that has revived the 1930's designs of the owner's grandmother, Eileen Guthrie.  Timeless!

 Sanderson's St Ives print is a naive, and yet realistic impression of a huddle of Cornish cottages in the town it is named after.

Lotta Jansdotta is a New York based designer who draws on scandi roots to produce clean and bright prints such as this Moira Aqua in her Signature collection for Ashley Wilde.

 Sarah Waterhouse is based in Sheffield and creats sustainable, eco-friendly prints (with Soil Association approved dyes) that are joyful and colourful.  This one,unsurprisingly, is called Waves. 

Apart from having a great name, Skinny Laminx is notable for being the outlet for South African based designer Heather Moore's exuberant prints.  Love this one called Herds, based on rock art from caves in the Western Cape.   

St Jude's produce wonderful fabrics from the work of artist's they admire, including this one called Curiosity Shop by Emily Sutton.

Trust Ikea to take fun - and DIY - to the nth degree! This fabric is called Tidny and is designed to be coloured in with permanent fabric markers.

NEUTRAL NATURALS

Here's a shot of a recently completed job where we re-vamped some plain twill curtains with a deep embroidered border of Romo's Black Edition Safi Natural, which beautifully reflected the client's eclectic mix of pattern and texture.

This sparked me off gathering some other swatches of fabrics together, all neutral naturals with lashings of wonderful texture. Some embroidered, some woven, some appliqued - all gorgeous!

From top left, Ian Mankin's Kintyre check and Fulham linen, Zoffany's Banyan Coconut, Sanderson's Savary Linen, Romo's Ennis Steeple Grey and Austin charcoal, Gina Take a Bow's Pixel Rose Natural. 

 Middle from left: Harlequin's Caprice Chalk/Linen, Clarke & Clarke's Maroc Natural and Raja Natural, Harlequin's Cheree Slate/Chalk.  

Bottom from left: Romo's Chaumont Pewter, Clarke & Clarke's Anita Natural, Romo's Xilia Feather Grey, Ian Sanderson's Macita Husk.

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

DECOREX EDIT

I went along with the crowd to Syon Park in west London the other day to whizz around the exhibits at London's largest interiors trade show: Decorex 2014. Housed in the most enormous tent, thinly disguised on the outside with wraparound landscape, once you were inside, you totally forgot the transient nature of the building amongst the lavish extravagance of the 300-odd stands. This years theme was based on Hogarth's Rake's Progress - and I can tell you I felt a little rakey myself after a few caffeine-free hours as the show's catering concerns seemed to be buckling under opening day strain and the cafe queues were too long to contemplate. Having said that, the show seemed bigger, brighter and better than previous years, and I was soon enthralled by the wonderful fabrics on display.

Here is my initial edit:

FOLKLORIC:

Created on a handloom in Guatamala, this traditional weaving technique is given a contemporary twist by London interiors brand, A RUM FELLOW.

JULIA BRENDEL creates wonderfully rich silks and linens with woven designs based on her own eastern european heritage

EMBROIDERY

Albizia & Bee is an exquisite hand embroidered linen by BAKER & GRAY

Two wonderful embroidered fabrics from SANDERSONS Fabienne range based on 18th and 19th century documents in their archive.

This is a ZOFFANY embroidered linen called Jayshree that is almost an exact replica of a Kashmiri paisley document.

Soak up the luxe for now and I'll post some more Decorex fabrics in the next few days.

A TRAVELLERS PALM

I am on holiday. I have come home to Singapore, the island where I grew up. Though changed almost beyond recognition in the intervening years, there is at least one constant: the famous Raffles Hotel. The stuff of legend and literary reknown, I remember it well from my childhood, gently mouldering in the tropical heat but still retaining a faded grandeur and elegance amid the ringing clink of ice cold Singapore Slings.

The hotel has undergone massive restoration and expansion since then, but the Travellers palms are still standing to attention outside, their leaves always fanned from east to west (hence the name - a kind of arboreal compass for lost and lonely travellers) and an abiding icon of the hotel.

No time to waste, I'm going in for a gin. But in the meantime I leave you with an array of some beautiful tropical palm prints I have gathered together in hot anticipation of this visit:


Christopher Farr Cloth's Palma in grass on white linen and in green on outdoor acrylic.


The 2 smaller samples are Christopher Farr Cloth's Brisa in hot pink and lemon



The large piece here is Bird In The Hand's Palm in chartreuse...



...and the smaller cuttings are Bird in the Hand's Palm 2 in chartreuse and Olive


Sanderson's Manila in green and blue


Sanderson's Rainforest in yellow/black, indigo and emerald

WE'RE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY

....and right now, with the sun beating on London pavements, the line from the song conjures the joys of the English seaside - seagulls, fishing boats, pebbles and sea-pinks. Here are 7 of my favourite fabrics that will bring that all back home once the holidays are over:

Whitby in washed denim on oatmeal 100% linen by Minimoderns

Peony and Sage's Seagulls in storm blue

Another Minimoderns print called Dungeness in emerald, inspired by the wild Kent coast.

Sanderson's print of the huddled cottages of St Ives in Cornwall

St Jude's Deep Sea print in Storm blue

More seagulls, this time from Scion, called simply Flight

And finally, fishing boats from Harlequin, called Sailaway.

THIS WEEK'S THEME: FLORALS

It can't have escaped anyone's notice that we are having a beautiful spring - not so much on the sunshine front, I'll grant you. But that mild and wet winter has really paid off with lush greenery and lavish blossom rampaging through this city. Recent dog walks have become an excuse for some up-close flower photography. And that got me thinking, as so many things do, about fabric...so using some recent flowery photos from my patch, I've been trawling fabric libraries for some textile equivalents - with some surprising results:


Harlequin Juniper Blossom


Sandersons Early Tulips


Sandersons Camellia Blossom


Sandersons Horse Chestnut


Colefax & Fowler Alderney


Morris & Co Jasmine


Vanessa Arbuthnott Cowparsley

I could go on and on.....but lets assume that I'll return to this floral subject again as the seasons progress.