Patchwork Saturday

We have just taken delivery of some wonderful vintage American patchwork quilts from one of our dealers in the States. Some of the quilts date from the early 1900's and there are some blocks of quilt that have been made up ready to join together into a quilt - but, at some point many years ago, the sewer did what we are all often guilty of and ran out of steam! I would date these to around 1930. The upshot for us is that we now have a mass of little pieces of patchwork just waiting to be made into something new - I think they will probably become cushions, with the blocks appliqued onto denim or linen. The large quilts will be cut up to become cushions and also small quilts for our dolls' bed sets. We are really pleased with this delivery as the colours are particularly bright and fun.

On the home front, we are about to put up the canvas gazebo that we keep in the garden throughout the summer and are all looking forward to spending the weekend in the garden barbecuing for friends. I am particularly going to enjoy cutting bunches of peonies for the house - deep pinks, pale pinks and creamy white - just magical!

Best wishes
Caroline

Bag sample arrives!

Huge excitement this morning as the latest deerskin bag sample arrived - it has worked out really well and ticks all the boxes we had hoped - great quality, delicious leather and a simple design that won't age. It is in fabulously supple Scottish deerskin and lined in a vintage French striped ticking - as with all Twice products we will be making as many as we can in each of the different tickings that we source. We have a number of really gorgeous tickings in various different colourways that have been waiting to be made up into these bags - there are olive and cream stripes, navy and cream, red, taupe and cream and a few in the much rarer multi-coloured stripes. They will all look great with the chocolate brown leather. There are going to be two sizes of bag - one medium sized bag which will be perfect for every day use and then a whopping great bag which has been designed to be used for carrying lots of stuff - it will be perfect for people who don't want to resort to a briefcase or it would be great as a baby's changing bag - a fabulous present for a new mother. The two bags together will be incredibly stylish for traveling - just put one inside the other as your hand luggage. My two daughters have been longing to feature somehow in Twice, so I am going to name the bags after them - the smaller one will be the 'Silvie' and the larger one the 'Eleanor'.

We are hoping that Silvie and Eleanor will be with us by the end of August ready for the autumn!

Best wishes
Caroline

Bang slap in the middle of the year!

So, yesterday was the summer solstice, which in Scotland means that it stays light until about 11.30pm and dawn is at about 3.00am - giving us hours and hours of extra day time for children, ponies, gardening and Twice!

On the fabric front, we have just received some beautiful pink floral fabric from a textile dealer in the States - it's an amazing piece which is completely unused and dates from about 1940 or earlier. There are 9 1/2 metres of it, which is exceptional and I think that it will be perfect for little girls' elasticated waist skirts - so we will be working on that today. In addition, some fabulous English chintzes have arrived, which are always brilliant for the shopper bags and peg bags, so those will be going off to be made up - should be with us in about two weeks.

We have also found some incredibly pretty French printed cotton which is very old and quite delicate but will make wonderful lampshade covers, with matching ribbon. I think we should be able to make about 10 from the fabric we have.

Best wishes
Caroline