It's good to be in the Red

If you can get hold of the stylish and enthralling bi-monthly textile orientated magazine Selvedge, you would find in the last March/April copy two double spreads showing the brilliant red and white tickings that I collected from France in a wonderful scoop-up near the Loire. After hunting for tickings for over 2 years and being told that they had all been burnt or used up as rags to clean machinery, one day I climbed up a rickety ladder into the roof space of a huge old hay barn, and there I found hundreds, all tied up in bundles ready to go to the rag merchants, but long forgotten. They lay there, rotting under a leaky roof, nibbled by rats and mice who enjoyed the grains left by the old straw fillings, but glowing with rich reds and vibrant pinks, all in stripes, and I knew I had found my golden fleece! See my Blog 'Ticking all the Boxes' and 'French Affairs' and others! I can't stop loving them.
Kaari Meng has now got my archive of samples - about 150 of them, that I saved before selling them all -and has done a bit of research and so they have become part of textile history. Kaari is a clever and inspirational author, designer and shopkeeper in Hollywood, contact her http://www.frenchgeneral.com/ and check her excellent blog. It's full of good news!