Fabric, fabric everywhere

-but when am I actually going to sew anything...? I usually hate shopping. Not so when it comes to fabric, though. It is all too easy to pop out that little piece of plastic with the magic word "VISA" on it when I come across tempting pieces of cotton. I have great plans for some of them, but others are bought on a "need to have" basis.

The first group here looked so good together, I couldn't bear to split them up, and I decided they would look good in a table runner - brown, tan and cream with turquoise binding. The question was when I'd get round to making it, though. Yesterday I signed up for a workshop at my local quilt shop where we will make table runners in just the kind of technique I wanted to try out. I usually work on my own, and I could probably work out how to make that particular pattern as well, but then I'd miss out on the community feeling and fun of spending a day among people just like me - people who don't think of me as funny-peculiar just because I spend my time cutting fabric into pieces and stitching them back together again... So that fabric may rest until April.

I try to support my local shop, but the lure of the internet is there, and occasionally I succumb. I started seeing those "measuring stick fabrics" on blogs everywhere and just had to find them for myself. A quick search later I found them at eQuilter and in four different colourways too, so I just had to get them all!

I also came across those turquoise and brown fabrics there, and as turquoise is a colour I can't resist, I just had to have some of those as well. The one to the right got a bit too much light so it doesn't show up to well - I'll have to take a new picture. It has pieces of newsprint in a collage-style all over, and looks really great. I love fabric with any kind of writing on them: newsprint, numbers, measurements, "handwriting", whatever - I'm building up quite a stash of these. I have seen them used to great effect in Japanese quilts, talked about in Juju's blog a while ago, and I intend to let them show up more frequently in mine as well - because I will cut into them, I will....
The last lot was a clearance offer at my quilt shop and are part of Jan Mullen's great fabric line, which for some reason never was a success here. I love them and have used them to great effect before, so these will fit in quite well with the rest of my stash.

I realize that this is beginning to sound a bit defensive ;-) But I suppose that's to do with not finding enough time to do any actual sewing lately. I have decided to take a day off my usual chores today though, and maybe finish quilting that baby quilt I'm working on.

Off to the sewing machine!