Blooming in the Yard This week

Lots of pretty flowers blooming in the yard this week. Here are just a few: Orange and yellow poppies.


Columbine in shades of purple, pink, and white.

Roses.

And several unidentified beauties.

 And in the shade garden along the side of the house we have ferns, hosta, creeping Jenny, lily of the valley, and ajuga. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Vintage Calico Fabric

Today is all about vintage calico fabric.
Although here in the US we generally associate the word “calico” with small colorful flower prints on quilt-weight fabrics, it originally referred to the cloth itself.
Here is a brief history of the fabric and term: Calico is a plain woven textile made from unbleached cotton originating from a city in Kerala, India once known as Calicut. Block printed cottons were sent from India to England as early as 1630 and referred to as "calicuts." The term "calico" was soon used to refer to all Indian cottons with an equal weft and warp, then to any plain-weave cotton.

In the early 1700s, England banned the importation of printed fabrics from India. This caused
grey cloth (calico that had not been finished—dyed or printed) to be imported instead, and these were printed in southern England with the popular patterns.
Printed calico was imported into the United States from Lancashire in the 1780s, and here is where a difference in terminology occurred; while Europe maintained the word calico for the fabric, in the States it was used to refer to the printed design. (source:wikipedia)

In this post we’re highlighting the cute tiny floral prints known as
calicoes.
Ok, enough with the history lesson…on with the pretty pictures! :D

These are just a few of the ones in my inventory and can be found on the website. How many cute vintage calicoes are in your fabric stash? Their small scale makes them an obvious and perfect choice for quilting, but for what other projects do you find your self reaching for a calico?