snow!?

Here I am trying to focus on spring -- and it is colder than usual here, though the snow has all melted -- and now Spoonflower - the online fqabric printing service -- has to remind us of the weather. Their weekly fabric design contest is here and the subject is snow: I entered my starburst design because it is plenty snowy enough for me! I adore just about everything I design when I first do it, (then slowly reality sets in and Iget more critical!), but at the moment I sure love this design and if you do too, help me out by voting for it please, this week only.

(this design, and all others you see on my blog, are copyright Laura Foster Nicholson)

primroses!

Here it is grey & snowy outside and I have received the most springlike photo from Renaissance Ribbons imaginable -- so dewy and luscious it nearly made me blush! Featuring new colorways of favorite LFN Textiles ribbons, you see here an ivory version of the runaway best seller Suzani Flower in two widths, 1.5" and 7/8", and the mouth watering pink and green version of Auricula -- or Primrose, as Renaissance prefers to call it. We have scaled that in 3 sizes: 1.5", 7/8" and a darling 5/8". And then there is the adorable Ice Cream, on either shell pink or mint grounds. The solids to the left are Renaissance Ribbons' satiny rep stripe ribbons in ice cream colors. I will do my best to get them scanned and uploaded to the website in the next couple of days.

violet? or purple?

Whatever you want to call this color it certainly is everywhere. I was in Marshall Field's (OK, Macy's) men's department in Chicago before Christmas looking at men's ties (the only pretty thing men get to wear) and there was an astonishing array of lavender, orchid, violet, purple, and magenta ties to choose from. I didn't buy any of them for Ben -- don't think he is ready for it! -- but I did ask the salesperson if men had any aversion to wearing this color and she replied that they were taking it up avidly. We have been adding it to the LFN ribbon line as well, and here is Rose's purple photo of the ribbons.

(in the photo you can see, top to bottom and then left to right:
Rose's black & white Cat, Suzani Flower, Brocade dot, Auricula Lavender, Butterfly lavender, Primrose violet, Suzani Flower 22mm, Samarkand amethyst, black & white Plaid, Arabesque violet, and Chairs)

famous green raincoat

I bought a raincoat a couple of weeks ago, a trench style which is a dark British green, very snappy indeed, and fits beautifully. Trouble is, the color makes me look a bit grey. So I thought, "Ribbon!" and I knew it was meant for me because the color exactly matched my Dark Allium ribbon, and the collar is the perfect size to sew the 2 1/2" ribbon to. I sewed it both inside and outside, and it provides just the right spark of color & chic to make that coat my own.

(BTW: the collar is a slight curve, so here's a tip: I sew the ribbon along the longer outer curve line first, then iron the unsewn edge which causes it to shrink slightly, so it will lie flat when sewing the shorter, inner part of the curve).

field day

Every fall just after the harvest, our friends John & Claudia host a wonderful event for antique tractors and plows -- even with horses -- come to plow up their harvested land. Ben & I went over to watch in November and I couldn't resist taking along some of my new Tractor Ribbons to give to the farmers in honor of their lovely machines. They were typically a bit bemused about what one might do with a scrap of ribbon, but their wives would snaffle it up and say they would add it to a quilt or some other sewing project. I wish this were more modern, in that the wives would drive the tractors (well, they do!) and the men would take the ribbons for the quilts they are working on. Anyway it was fun -- but Ben was amused by the fact that although they all recognized the tractors on my ribbon (John Deere, Massey Harris & Waterloo, which were drawn from the Antique Tractor Festival hosted by Keck Gonnerman, the same outfit behind this event), each said that he would prefer a ribbon featuring only his particular make of tractor and none of the others. Rather like trying to design a dog ribbon: no matter what dog is shown, someone would always ask for their "own" breed.

photo day

Today I cajoled my daughter Rose to come into the studio and take some ribbon photographs for me. Rose has had an interest in photography for some time now. Her camera is WAY better than mine: hope you can see the difference! She also has an interesting eye for composition & color. Here are a couple of shots she took -- which will be used for postcards.


photo credit: Rose Nicholson, copyright 2010

happy new year to my web customers -- SALE on everything 12/31 - 1/31!

Once again I have managed to take on the HTML monster and I have programmed my website to offer my faithful customers 20% off everything in the store December 31 through January 31, 2010. Please use code 012010 on checkout and whatever happens, do let me know if it doesn't work! I have mentioned before that I do all of my own website maintenance with no real understanding of how to do anything, so when things go wrong despite my best intentions, I appreciate your feedback!