The Bounty

My friend dropped by last night with boxes and boxes of deliciousness! She rang the doorbell and said "I went to the warehouse today and these are for you" Warehouse, what warehouse? Ohhhh - Hoad's (fabric manufacturer) warehouse (she's the PA to the GM). Metres and metres of fabulous linen blends, lots and lots of ticking in chocolate, burnt orange, slate blue, olive. The feel of them is DIVINE! Plus, metres and metres of heavy cotton with birds, fruit, roses, in strawberry, slate, earthy colours.
Here's a picture of a sheet of yummy:


Wait, there's more...


Oodles and oodles of taffeta style pieces in golds, burgandy, wine


Wait, still more....
So much I didn't even open it out: softest blue blue stripe on softest cotton. The blue wouldn't photograph well, so I have put these little lovelies in instead.


More chocolate.....lots of coordinates in a heavy cotton

I've been playing and sorting, sorting and playing for the last hour, just looking and sighing.

These are technically all for the school craft stall, in some form or fashion. How can we do it all justice? How can we turn this fab fabric into a beautiful yet practical thing (or many things as the case may be!) Can people give me some ideas - easy to make, beautiful to hold, practical to use, inexpensive to buy - that's the craft stall's mantra.

Of course, I told my friend that she was not allowed to leave this job of hers - I was serious!

Swapparooni! Cake

I'm jiggling in my seat as I type - I'm in THE Doll Quilt Swap! OMG do I know what I've done? Yes it will be Okay! What to do? Where to sew? When to start and when to stop? These are my big questions - I'm so looking forward to my parcel - I hope my swap person is too! A little snippet of something I have done already from Summer in City series - so much yummyness - I could eat the strawberry colour! I bought a Moda Tin Series from Fat Quarter Shop (on sale) thought I would give it a go! Oohh - it has a set-in-seam! Tricksters! But I knuckled down and did it! Little boo-boo right in the bloody middle! I think a well-positioned yo-yo will fix. The tin series has charm squares, pattern for hey! wouldn'tyouknowit - a dollquilt size quilt, plus cd with large quilt pattern. The doll quilt uses choccie brown squares - but I think they are much too prominent - overbearing - I scrounged stack for complementary colour and I like what I found! Much more summery! I really can't bear to sew with brown or black - why are so many quilts in all various shades of brown? One of my local quilt shops is like that - sweet as it is - I can't find much inspiration. What I have left over from my tin box are the chocolate pieces and coordinates - I DO like it when they are mixed with brighter highlights - aqua, pink, orange, grass green. I am going to attempt another with the 'leftovers' (sounds so sad), and create a masterpiece!

This photo above is of a great piece of fabric from op-shop that I would love to turn into a wrap-around skirt. It is actually a queen-sized doona cover so there is HEAPS of material there to play with. Never done a skirt before EEK. I did make one in Home Ec (girly sewing/cooking etc) which at the time, I though was completely useless - Oh, have I grown up!! My Mum chose the material for me for the class project of said skirt, which I absolutely HATED. I remember it was blue with splashes of colours all over it - yuk and no way was I going to wear it. Skirts were no in my wardrobe no way jose. I did make it but lost points for not turning the waistband seam over - who cares I said! Nobody sees it! I probably got a B for effort, certainly not for attitude.

I shall leave you with these Awful picture of my attempts at cooking oranges for a friend's dinnerparty. I do love to do desserts so I was recommended to try this very easy orange almond cake. THREE trys later, with 2 very black bottomed saucepans, this is what I end up with! aah yummy!
If you dare - recipe is on the back of the 'LUCKY' almond meal packet, from supermarket. I will post it if anyone cares! P. S. Dinnerparty went very well - everyone loved it. I made a syrup from citrus and ginger marmalade, poured over top, with lashings of cream. My hips grow even as I remember!