Textile Design Trends

Every year Heimtextil trade show presents all the latest in textile design. It is often easy to distinguish the trends and to define in what movement direction the consumer is moving. However, this year (presenting Fall/Winter 08/09) there were over 2,800 exhibitors so to identify the trends was not as easy.

Here are a few of my favourite textiles (grouped into three trends I could fathom) from the show.

Nature: There is a move towards the more graphic art and nature drawings. It is the elements that are most important. Take for example, an ordinary tree trunk and fragment the colours inside into a formulated pattern (refer to the top right image). Gold is another big trend when mixed with rich red or royal purple (see the third image from the right on the top). Black and white is another movement (refer to the last image) you can see the influence of traditional hand-crocheting techniques in the flowers. My favourite in this collection must be the bugs and stem textile design (second image on the top). I do not know what the significance of the bugs having numbers in them is but the simplistic nature of the design and basic use of red and black appeals to me.

…..to read the rest of the article and see all the pictures click here.

The ‘Lightning’ Pet-bed Suitcase

This weekend I tackled the ‘how much is that doggy in the suitcase’ project. I got an old suitcase from my grandmother. The back hinges were broken (so we turned the suitcase around), the lining had disintegrated and the top frame was barely held together.

Equipped with a tub of Genkem Contact Glue and a staple gun I tackled reupholstering the suitcase.

Jeremy’s mom (ie boyfriend’s mom) makes gorgeous sheepskin slippers and keeps all the scrap. For the inside pillow we punched and stitched these scraps together to make a sheepskin quilt.

When we were finished we placed two pillows inside the suitcase and covered them with the sheepskin quilt. The suitcase pet-bed was complete!

The dogs are not normally allowed inside but whenever there is lightning they cry at my door all night long if I do not let them in. Now I can let them in and not have to worry about waking up to a room full of dog hair.

I have three dogs. It was a bit of a bun fight to get whoever was in out so that they each could have a turn.

Poor Shaka, the really old Staffy who has very bad arthritis in his hips, barely fits in the suitcase pet-bed. However, once in, it takes him no less than 5 minutes to start snoring.

My petbed is not nearly as beautiful as Kirsten’s but my three smiley-faced dogs think it is the BEST!