Good Design is Always Classic

After Keaton's band concert last night I ended up in my sewing room pulling fabric off of shelves and dreaming up pillow ideas.  It was fun, but I stayed up too late and at one point one of my shelf brackets pulled out of the wall from the weight of the fabric and I was stranded there not wanting to wake anyone up by a falling board so I was holding the board up with one hand and pulling fabric off of it with the other.  (By the way, Larry if you're reading my blog - add that to your fixit list.)

Anyway, I lost track of time as I began to uncover fabrics that I didn't even remember having.  What was really interesting was realizing how my tastes have changed with the trends.  How does that happen?  I still love my old favorites, but the fabrics that are drawing my eye the most these days were my least favorites 20 years ago when I had my business - Vintage Generations.  It's like a new car that looks so cool at first, but slowly as we are introduced to new shapes, lines and colors, what was once the latest thing eventually looks out dated.  Maybe "out dated" isn't the best word to use when describing vintage fabric because they're all "out dated" so to speak.  Oh well, what am I trying to say?  Eventually, everything old is new again.  And good design is always classic.  And tastes change.

Twenty years ago I couldn't get enough big, romantic floral barkcloth and cottons like these from my collection:

 

  

 

I also have hoards of fruit fabrics like this:

I still love those fabrics.  The florals represent my love of the shabby chic roses of the 40s and the fruit shows my love of all things bright, charming and 50s.  But these days my eye is drawn to the following vintage fabrics from my collection:

 

I used to really dislike this one - not enough flowers.

Ditto.  (no flowers)  Love it now.

 

This one has flowers, but wasn't cabbage rose-ish enough.  

Now I like the bright sort of paisley swirls.

This barkcloth - so atomic - gold highlights and all.

I really love this one now - so mod.

I used to strongly dislike this fabric - but now I actually like the simplicity of the calligraphic line.  Each of those medallions is about 12" long.  (I know it's hard to tell size by a photo.)

Or how about this one?  Love it now.  20 years ago?  Not so much.

I have a small stash of VERY 60s flower power fabric.  This is one that I have at least five yards of.  To show you the size of those flowers, check out my computer mouse in the upper left.  Very graphic.

So, what do you think of my fabric?  Where do your tastes fall these days?