Lemon and Roses

I seem to like the colour lemon as much as I like pink, and looking about my home there is actually quite a lot of it.
I love  lemon against florals, especially roses.

I bought a lovely soft fluffy wool shawl from Laura Ashley this spring to keep on the end of the bed for cuddling up in and it fits in beautifully with my collection of quilts.

I collect a few things, Quilts being number one, closely followed by dolls ( but that's another post).

The trouble is how to store the collections, I have to be careful of sunlight.

 Many are housed in a dresser.

I have found a great way of storing my eiderdowns. I have a wall of them in the alcove of my bedroom, the effect in the real is quite stunning, which I am not quite capturing with this picture, but you get the idea. 

 I freshen up my hand stitched quilts by washing in the machine on 30 or 40 degrees, and add softener which holds the fresh smell beautifully. Giving them a spring clean also lifts the quilting up so that you can really see the patterns in all their glory. English Durhams, or North Country Quilts wash very well, I have to be  careful with my Welsh Quilts as they tend to be made with wool filling and if washed on too high a setting the wool will felt and pucker and ruin your quilting, with wool fibres coming through the fabric, I wash Welsh quilts on a 30 degrees wool wash.

On a lovely sunny breezy day my quilts dry in no time on the washing line. 

This quit below is  a French Boutis quilt, the fabric is quite grainy, a heavy cotton, compared to the high cotton silky content in Engilsh and Welsh quilts, but equally as beautiful.

 Eiderdowns are feather filled and a lot more care is needed when washing. Firstly I would check out for any repairs especially looking for holes in the corners. I wash them at 40 degrees and use the tumble dryer to ensure that the entire quilt and feathers are dry, to really get a great effect I would put 3 tennis balls in the tumble dryer to ensure an even and plump quilt.