Tag Archives: Colorado

antique, country, fabric, Green Living, home life, Kitchen Collectibles, Quilts & Quilting, sewing, Uncategorized, using color, vintage

Gold on the Ground

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:Fall colors, Poudre Canyon, Colorado
:Fall colors, Poudre Canyon, Colorado (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I get giddy this time of the year.  Giddier then usual I should say.  Maybe it’s the chill in the early morning, the frost on the rooftop or the simple realization that I can see my breath as I walk to the car that gets to me.  I don’t know. Fall just makes me feel alive.  I love sleeping snuggled deep into the covers, whining noticeably to my hubby when I have to get up and he gets to stay warm.  Padding around the pre-dawn hours in my heavy winter terry cloth robe is a perk I leave to winter.  While I dislike freezing temperatures and ice on the windshield, winter white represents a sense of purity that’s refreshing.  The beauty of new snow, dotted here and there with the evergreens; against a contrasting gray sky, signals rebirth is but a few months away.The best thing about fall is the linens.  The rough texture of a vintage linen towel or the silky smoothness of an Irish tablecloth, in vibrant fall colors, gets to me.  Nature knows what she is doing when she carpets the floor of the forest with the gold and reds of fallen leaves.  That’s the image represented by fall linens carefully landscaped on a Thanksgiving table.

Winter morning
Winter morning (Photo credit: blmiers2)

We’ve just put our fall stock into the stores and both stores look great.  As we have an abundance of summer linens, I did my best to separate them, but for you diehard summer people still clinging to the waning summer like weather that we have here in Colorado, don’t despair.  There are still summer linens left in stock for you.  To my fall people, go crazy.  Again, if you see me in the stores with my face buried in the linens, just move me over.  There’s room for both of us.  By the way, for my quilters getting ready to burrow in this winter with your quilt projects, we just put our quilting and fabric stock on sale.  Look in the material cubbies for the 30% off stickers.

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antique, fabric, Kitchen Collectibles, lace, Uncategorized, using color

Diapering with Damask

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Damask

Let’s talk about “diapering.” No, I’m not talking about a baby’s butt, but diapering as it applies to Damask Linens. Diapering is derived from the French term diaspre, (bed of flowers) and means to adorn or bejewel. Vintage Damask linens were used to “diaper” walls, windows, tables and bedchambers. When used in a fashion sense, ladies of the French and English court were said to have had their bed chambers “diapered” with fine Damask linens.  And (I’m speculating here) probably someone “bejeweled” a baby’s butt with a piece of Damask linen and a whole new use for the term “diapering” was coined.

From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, most damasks linens were woven in a single color, with a glossy warp-faced satin pattern against a duller ground. Two-color damasks had contrasting color warps (fatter thread) and wefts, (thinner thread.) Polychrome damask is often gold or other metallic threads or additional colors as supplemental brocading wefts. Medieval damasks were usually woven in silk, but wool and linen damasks can also be found.  (Thank you Wikipedia)

Today’s Damask is usually a single-color produced from silk, linen or linen-type synthetic fabrics. Damask weaves appear most commonly in table linens, but also in clothing and furnishings.  Many repurposers take a Damask tablecloth and repurpose it to beautiful Damask evening dresses. For a wide variety of Vintage Damask linen, visit our vintage linen and lace store in The Treasure Shop. Space B4.  We are exclusive linens and lace, and we’ve been in the same location for many years. Repeat customers come from all over Colorado to “pick” our finds. If you have never been there, we invite you to try us. Let us know what you are looking for. Send me an e-mail. If we don’t have it (yet), we may know where we can get it.

crafts, fabric, Kitchen Collectibles, lace, Uncategorized, using color

Colors and Fabric by Season

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Even though we deal in vintage linen and lace and stock a myriad of colors, we still try to coördinate our offerings with the seasons.  Our buyers are often craft or decorating people with upcoming special projects they are building months in advance.   Still, color and fabric type are important.

It’s winter as I write this and we find a lot of our wool and embroidered products going fast.  Anything blended that has wool goes quick as well.  Silk is popular with us and proper year round but the lighter silks for dresses and skirts are more summer wear while the heavier, multi-layered silks are right during the winter.   Summer is for lightweight cotton, light weight silk and linen.  Fabrics that have a loose weave and are made of a breathable fabric are great for summer. Fall is the season for wool.  Heavy weight cotton is also appropriate.  Spring is similar in terms of fabrics but you can also wear summer weights during spring.  Here in Colorado we tend to “layer” ourselves in both summer and fall weights.

We also look at colors of the season.  Traditionally winter colors are the darkest and much of our displays today have dark colors showing.  Starting with the blacks, winter colors go to charcoal, grey, browns, olives, golden’s, navy, burgundy, so on. )  Summer is the greatest pastel season (pale pink, butter yellow, baby blue, light mint, crisp white, etc)  Again, fall is often full of rusts, olives, camels, beige, light browns and so on.   Spring is light blues, roses, aqua’s, beige, and so on.   We are getting ready to rotate our stock from winter to spring.  (We do this months in advance because people are already starting to think of their spring projects.)

Don’t rely on color for what to wear.  Designers are using all colors in all seasons and craft people should follow suit.  Winter white is very popular and black is still a year round color.

The other day for example, a woman walked in and asked if we had any Hawaiian prints.  We had one or two, but a large selection is hard to find.  Here it is – dead of winter and she wants Hawaiian prints.  She said if we were vintage we should stock more Hawaiian.  After all it was very popular in the 70’s.  Go figure.

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