new fabric.

Armed with coupon in hand, this morning I slipped into my local Joann's Fabrics to hunt down some pillow forms. It's time to get some pillowcases stuffed, y'all!

Unfortunately, I left the store without pillowforms. I believe they had all of two in the building, and they were huge. Much too huge, let's say, for my 12" x 12" glider pillowcases.

But I wasn't terribly disappointed. I also left the store with a stack of fabric since the entire store's fabric collection was 50% off, as the store is closing.

Oh, still my beating heart! 50% off? Trust me when I say, I exercised great restraint and didn't buy several of the fabrics at which my heart (and my hands) leaped. I only bought fabric that I could see immediate plans for, and while I feel good about that, my feet are already wondering if I should head back to the store. Thankfully, my lovely assistant is taking his nap, preventing Mama from doing just that.

 

These are the beauties I picked up. It's impossible to pick a favorite. I keep clamoring between the different fabrics. I mean, who doesn't love a good herringbone? But the peacock feathers! But the purple! Did you see the pink? I even bought a half-yard of solid magenta fabric, which I feel is a good investment, just knowing my personality. 

If that wasn't enough, a friend of mine recently returned from a several month stay in Africa, and she brought me fabric. (Well, technically she brought Nathan and I fabric, but too bad so sad for him, I claimed it.) It is amazing and wonderful and fantastic, though very large scale (hooray!) and so awesome, I'm not entirely sure that I want to cut into it. It feels like I'll need a very special project for it. I've been wanting to learn how to sew a simple A-line skirt--and actually, I had a dream last night that my mama taught me how, which wouldn't surprise me because when I was a kid, she used to make us these elaborate Easter dresses, and so a basic A-line skirt would probably take her about fifteen seconds to whip up--and I think this fabric might be awesome used in apparel. Of course, I'll have to practice with other fabrics first because there is no way I'm learning with this gorgeous piece, but goodness! I'm excited! There is some debate--are the big red things mushrooms? Spinning tops? Parasols? I say tops, but maybe only the fabric designer really knows.

So! This weekend, my plans include locating pillow forms, purchasing batting, and hopefully getting some quilting done on the solids quilt. (You know, in between last minute baby stuff and other errands.) The above blue batik is my planned backing fabric, though that picture doesn't really show it off to the fullest. It's a gorgeous blue, but it features circles that contain white, orange, and purple that match the quilt top. Also, I need to pick a thread color for the quilting. Ideas? Thoughts?