Not quite spring

 Most of the country has had a bit of this but last Friday night was the most severe snowstorm we've had for ages. Horizontal drifts and complete coverage!

 What better way to cheer the house up than some tulips and hyacinth? We saw these when were out shopping and couldn't resist them. A little extravagance in these austere times.
I added a few bare twigs and some  dead montbretia heads and they look even better.

Such pretty colours together and I suddenly wondered why I hadn't used them in my sewing.

So I had a go.

 I wasn't entirely happy with these yesterday. they seemed a little smaller than usual and I just wasn't in the zone as I have mentioned before.

 But they look very pretty today under the flowers.

 The light was so good today that I went on a bit of photo spree.

Staying in the Spring green mode, two large hearts.

 This is one of the smaller hearts and wouldn't go into a display with the others but its a pretty one and took just as long to make, not only that but I think I'm almost out of that colour velvet. 

Oh No! That means another dyeing session and you know how much I hate that.

 Here's the most gorgeous deep pinky purple..it doesn't look like the picture. Its juicy!

 I loved plonking these little red darlings under the flowers..

 so I did it twice!

 Colour! I love it.

(See what I did there?)

I was asked some time ago to review these two books and they arrived last week.

The first one is just about all you could want to know about history of colour and dyes in textiles. I haven't had time to read all of it but its full of fascinating facts.

 The illustrations are detailed and the information is comprehensive.

 There are chapters on all aspects of colour

 and I think its a must for the textile student, as well as being a good read for the hobbyist .

The second book I hadn't thought I'd like as I am not going to wear Vintage clothes unless I lose about 4 stone, but I can't put t down.

 It comes with a dvd full of patterns for the projects in the book. 

I haven't tried it but each pattern can be printed off in a sort of jig-saw format, many pieces for each pattern. In the front of the book there is a chart of numbers which you have to follow when you lay pattern which will give you a full size pattern for each project. 

For example.. 

 The instructions are in the book. 

Here's another:

 As well as the patterns you can print (and there are quite a few) there's the historical context of these and other styles showing how the same item evolved through the decades up to the 1970s.

If you are a sewer of clothes its a really neat way to get hold of a whole lot of patterns and information.

I was just a wee bit disappointed that they didn't have a utility coat pattern after all the illustrations of it.

But you can't have everything.

Another super book especially for the fashion student and maker/wearer of vintage clothes.

For more information about these and other craft books go to

 http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/special-interest/visual-arts/fashion/

Meanwhile I'll be making more of these.