We spent a lot of money on oilcloth one season - we bought coarsely printed fabric to create different garments - but the whole project turned into a bit of a nightmare.

By cutting out birds, flowers and other motifs from printed fabric and sewing them onto a large homespun cloth a beautiful bedspread could be made.

Printed fabric was expensive even for those who were well off.

Its collections survey the evolvement of textile making over the centuries, particularly printed fabrics.

These colorful, small-patterned printed fabrics gave rise to the use of the word calico to describe a cat coat color: calico cat.