French mattress ticking

I have long had a thing about French mattress ticking, but this year have been lucky enough to find a couple of particularly old pieces.  How do I know they are so old?  Well, because they have little hand sewn eyelets placed strategically over the ticking, these were used to lace the ticking down to the old wool or horse hair filled mattresses.

My favourite piece could pass itself off as a Ralph Lauren design with its bold red, beige and black stripes.

So periodically I get them out of the cupboard and hum, and ha, and muse with the idea of making cushions etc.  Today I wondered about grosgrain ties through the eyelets, or cushions made up with linen from my postal bags.

What would you do with this fabric?  I've already sold pieces like this and I know they've gone to excellent homes, maybe I should just let go of these too ...

French laundry day

 When I have large quantities of sheets and linens to wash and dry, I always think of what it must have been like for the women who first cared for these fabrics without the help of washing machines.

I wash all our old linens in the machine then simply hang them out to dry behind the barn.  100 years ago the women  would have been down on their knees at the village lavoir, before carrying the heavy sheets out to dry flat on the grass in a meadow.   Today these lavoirs or wash houses are carefully preserved, but thank goodness nobody needs to take their laundry any more!

I actually quite enjoy caring for the linens, they smell good after blowing dry in the garden and of course they look so beautiful once freshly pressed.  Time I am happy to invest!  Right now I am preparing new sheets for the store.

Tomorrow I start my new series about my stylish French girlfriends!  Don't miss the first episode, how they dress; where they live, how do they cook and of course why they look so great!

A demain!

linen grown here

You all know how I love the old French linen sheets, 

nothing compares for sleeping well, warm in winter, 

cool in the summer.    What I also love is the flax, 

used to make those sheets,  growing  in the June fields

and colouring our valley in a patchwork of blue fields.

a good phone call

Yesterday evening I received a phone call that made my heart beat just a little faster.  A lady had heard from  a friend  that an English woman (me!) might be interested in old house linen.....  Would I mind stopping by to take a look?.... Would I mind ?!!  Wild horses couldn't keep me away!

So this morning, after rather unceremoniously dumping the children outside their respective schools, "bye darling, have a good day", I put my foot down on the accelerator, and clutching the ladies instructions for finding the house, set off on my adventure.

It was a beautiful morning and a lovely drive, past sheep, well OK a sheep, through pretty sun-speckled woods until finally I found the address.

 

The lady was emptying the house ready for sale.  She has no emotional attachment to the property and zero interest in the contents - just kept encouraging me to help myself!

Antique dealers had already been in for furniture and books, most of the rooms in the house were completely empty.  Madame steered me into a small salon beside the kitchen, filled with boxes, crates and a few small tables and chairs.

To begin with I thought that all the boxes were full of linen, but in fact most of the stuff left was crockery and kitchen equipment, none of which I wanted.

The linen she had called me out for, was already neatly folded and  appropriately piled up in two large laundry baskets.  So I did my shopping and came away with the linen,  some embroidery revues, the two beautiful old baskets and a sweet chair.  The chair and the baskets are for me, but the linen will be going into the shop., I have started listing them here  The good thing is that her prices were low, so mine will  be too!

 I'm afraid I didn't take my camera inside,  but here are the pictures of the booty I brought back with me.

don't you love the detail on the chair?

Most of the bed linen is cotton sheets, with various monograms and different sizes.

 

These embroidery revues are great, showing how to create the  monograms. 

I think they'd look wonderful framed.

There are also a load of 'traversin' or bolster cases, like the embroidered one below.  I had forgotten how elegant a bolster can be.  I 've decided  to dig out my old bolsters and start using them again, especially in the guest cottage. They'll add a very French touch.  Some of the  bolster shams are plain, some finished with lace and ready to be tightened with a pretty ribbon at each end.

I hope you're enjoying beautiful sunshine, as we have here in Normandy, 

and that your weekend gets off to a great start!.

PS  A big thank you to everyone who popped over to Ella's blog yesterday, you are a great crowd of bloggers !!  Today she's continuing the Paris series with an account of her first Paris street interview!

A fine linen cupboard

This is a good time of year to put my linen cupboards straight.  I love good bed linen, I adore slipping between well-pressed sheets.  I have to iron my bed linen, or else my dreams get wrinkled.  No seriously, I have to iron my sheets, full stop.  My particular weakness is for antique french sheets, monogrammed or not.  They are heavy, smooth, cool in the summer and warm in winter.  Nothing can compare. 

Luckily for me, not many people have the patience or the equipment to deal with ironing these monster sheets, and I often find them in our local brocante and antique fairs.  I have such fun ferreting around these places, bargaining, chatting to the vendors. 

I'm really pretty lazy, but using beautiful linen sort of makes me a better person.  I know that, with just two minutes effort, it could look like this.

or this