Progress with fabrics

I had a day off work on Friday and used the long weekend to do some quilt shopping for the Star BOM that Judy is doing on her blog (check it out here)

These are fabrics 1-4 from left to right. (I chose 2 different prints for the third fabric - one for the sashing and the other for the borders.)

I found the hardest thing was the background fabric. In the end I chose this solid, chalky coloured plain because it seemed to be the only fabric that was the right colour. I've had this problem before. I wonder whether the importers here choose to buy in all the "wow" fabrics - with fabulous prints - overlooking the basics that are needed to support these fabrics.

My next expedition will be to find the four contrasting fabrics. I had to put that off because on Friday the quilt shop was filled with the sound of a drummer rehearsing nearby. It felt like the sound was inside my head so I called it a day with this bundle and will look out for the other fabrics over the next week or so.

I'm getting excited about making this quilt.

A New BOM

Judy over at Patchwork Times is running a BOM which is really beautiful so I'm going to make it. Check it out if you a looking for new project. I have no fabrics in my stash so I'm going to have to shop. Yay!

Orange

There's a bit of an orange theme to this post. Sandy saw my blog with the recycled bags and sent me a tablecloth. I used it to make this bright bag, and still have lots of the border print to use in some others.

I'm really enjoying having these bags to use. They are so much nicer to carry than plastic ones, and they hold lots! I have 6 this style now which are great for big grocery shops. I've made a couple of others that are based on a plastic supermarket bag and these are good if you're carrying stuff for a longer period of time - they just seem to enclose everything really well.

The other touch of orange is my finished Orange Crush top. I had a bit of a panic with the borders because I didn't have enough red and the store I bought it from had sold out. I was so pleased to find it at another store while helping a friend choose borders. The quilt is big, so doesn't quite fit on the clothesline, but you get the idea. The pieced border has really big impact "in person" though it's not so strong in the photo. You can see the variety of scrappy fabrics in the close up.

Now I need to find another big project to work on :o)