B Textiles

 While Carmit was here, Honey, Devora, Carmit and I went to see an exhibit at the Koffler Art Gallery.  I was not impressed.  Carmit managed to 'splain the concepts but wallpaper, torn sheets and staples did not do it for me.  I know, I am both a snob and a boor.

The second part of our outing was a trip to B Textiles.  That's the fabric store on St. Clair West which was closed for 20 year and reopened fairly recently, under the same family ownership.  A treasure trove of 60s and 70s fabrics.  We were impressed but too overwhelmed to shop.

          A really rotten selfie, I am short but not a foot shorter than Carmit.  For historic purposes,             it  shows we were there.

I decided to return by myself this week, looking for a particular fabric.   It is a piece from my wedding dress.  Said wedding mini dress, was made from a remnant about 3/4 yard of fabric.  I have since used pieces of it in various textile art works, but am running low (55 years since the wedding and a good 40 years of sewing since).

 

 Alas, they did not have it.  Lisa (of the B family) told me that a wedding seamstress had come and bought up most of their white fabrics.

I decided to buy some fabric and got a half yard of each of the following.  They are all synthetics but exactly what is a mystery.

The first, because I liked the paisley pattern.  It is not cotton but a silk screen with the selvage "Carsilca International Screen Printing". And it has a paisley pattern.

 

The second, because it is so out of my comfort zone.  Flower power, also synthetic.I can see it paired with a peach fancy fabric someone gave me years ago and a deep pink/magenta dupionni silk in my stash.  What exactly I will do with them, I don't know.

 

And the third I bought because I intend to cut it up and use the individual silver circles with frayed edges in other pieces.

And before I forget, at the Faigie Estate "sale", I picked up a bag of what I thought was quilt batting.  Turns out it was white wool felt. Carmit said to wash a sample to see how much it shrinks.  A 12" square turned into a 9 1/2" square. So I won't be using it for bed quilts butI can use it for my wallhangings.  The texture is quite nice.  I may finally try some needlefelting on it.  This is what it looked like before washing.

This is what it looks like after washing.  Lovely bubbly texture.