toile de jouy

So I have continued my long overdue exploration of the second-hand book shops in the nearby University District. Today I went to Twice Sold Tales and was rewarded with this lovely book about toile de Jouy fabrics. I actually had the pleasure of a daytrip to the town of Jouy-en-Josas last year when we were visiting Paris. There baby bear and I visited the museum on the site of the original Oberkampf factory.

I can't remember when I was first introduced to toiles de Jouy. It was when we were living in Sydney because I remember a day trip up to some suburb of Gosford to a patchwork shop which was the only place that I could find that sold the stuff. For $90 a metre.

Anyway, my heart leapt when I saw this book at the bookshop because just this morning in an attempt to ravelrise my sewing stash I had taken some photos of my own toile de Jouy fabrics (and assorted others) to store/organise on flickr. Am I nuts? you may ask. Yes, probably.

A word or three about Twice Sold Tales - this is a bossy bookshop. You know, the kind that has little signs and notices stuck up next to the cash register that read:

'If you can'y see me, I can't see you. Please ring the bell just ONCE!!.'
'No returns on books, ever. That means YOU!!.'

The use of bolded italic uppercase in these messages seems to be OBLIGATORY. As is multiple exclamation marks!! I guess that if you are the proprietor of a successful small business then you can afford to be crotchety.