I didn’t get back to you about my weekend of super organisation a while back and my snazzy new label maker.  I had promised to post some photo’s of my fabric shelves and now that I’m getting more confident with Photo Shop it’s all getting a lot easier.

As you know I’m a great fan of the Smithsonian fabrics which RJR released quite a few years ago.  Most of my Smithsonian fabrics I’ve kept from all those years ago and they are still some of my most favourite…I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of them. I keep them separate from my other fabrics, I don’t know why I do…I just do.  Maybe because it makes them easier to be admired and of course they just go so well with each other.

My favourite fabric stack...but if only it were taller (sigh)

However, about a third of my Smithsonian fabrics I bought about 5 years after they were released here in Australia and I found them in New Zealand, just in a small town’s quilt shop.  There were still bolts left and so I was able to pick up a bit of meterage.  And some I bought online just a couple of months ago on reproductionfabrics.com so it pays to keep looking.

The leftovers go in here, along with scraps of vintage pieces.

You also know how crazy I go over 1800s repro fabrics and after several years of studying Quilt History I have a developed a keen eye for the different styles of fabrics and where they fit into the time line of fabric production.  So I stack Turkey Reds, Indigos, Cheddars, Chrome Yellows and Poison Greens separately from Reds, Blues, Orange etc.

Love these Turkey Reds, they were in vogue after 1840.

I don’t use much green in my quilts…just not a fave colour so my regular green stack is hardly worth photographing… but I do have a reasonable stack of  Indigos  and I’m always on the lookout for Prussian Blues, good ones are hard to get.  Dyeing of Prussian Blue dates back to the early 1830s but  was popular in quiltmaking and clothing in the 1840s and 50s.

Love the Prussian Blue on the top, from reproductionfabrics.com

And this last photo shows one of my much loved stacks of French Fabric.  I have two stacks, one  for French fabric I have bought or aquired over the years and the other is this stack…

Fabrics bought from Les Olivades in St. Etienne du Gres, Provence.

Last year I visited Provence and was able to go to Les Olivades wharehouse/shop and showroom in St. Etienne du Gres.  They are reproducing fabric in the Indienne Style produced in Marseilles in the mid 17th century and are well worth the visit, either in person or online.

My DH and I drove  half way across the bottom of France for most of the day (we somewhat underestimated the distance involved) and we didn’t arrive in St. Etienne du Gres until 4pm even though we had left ‘home’ in the Midi Pyrenees at 8.30am, but of course the day did include the obligatory 2hr French lunch!!

I’m so glad to have been able to purchase some of these gorgeous fabrics that I keep them in their own stack…I have lots of ideas about what I want to do with them but I haven’t settled on one idea yet so for now they just remind of an enjoyable but long day out (we got home at 1am but had also managed ‘to squeeze in’ a trip to Pont du Gard at sunset…beautiful)

’til soon,

thanks for visiting…