A little glimpse of a recent purchase...and a little rant about fabric shopping.

After managing to get hold of the now very elusive Heather Ross Far far away 1, I simply had to get my mits of some of the rest of the line. Now this is getting very hard to find but I fell in love with the lightweight double gauze fabric and just had to make a quilt, so where there is a will there is a way!

Far far away 2 is lovely aswell, but for me, the delicate illustrations seem to get lost in the heaviness of the cotton/linen mix, and the tones are a little more muted, although I have no doubt it is far more practical to work with so it will be one to think about buying in future. Check out Heathers blog for information about her new far far away 3 line for more fabric lovliness.

I just have the sashing to go and to find a suitable backing and binding.

Talking of backing fabric, My Kona card has been a fantastic tool in helping me decide which colour to go for, I cant recommend buying one enough. It's such a time saver, who wants to constantly ask for samples to be sent, right? I got mine from Simply Solids
I would definitely broaden my solid using horizons if Kaffe Fassett sold a solid colour card for his shot solids. I would love to buy a whole chunk of these one day, they look like they are the inbetween colours of the Kona solids, just gorgeous.

Talking of colours. One of my pet peeves is when online fabric shops seem to brighten up their fabrics (a lot) to the point where the fabric you receive looks a completely different colour.

Exibit A: Anna Maria Horner fabric in Filgree Plum...not looking very plum like in this picture is it?

and this is a little closer to what I actually received:

..and this is what I actually received:

Granted, most websites will say that they cant guarantee the colour will be an accurate representation, and the reason?. Some have said it is a process that is fraught with difficulties, some have blamed our computer moniters, but I have found other websites which manage it and I would much rather see a real life photo, or at least the choice of looking at a real life photo to see what I will actually get. I dont have the time to email and ask for a sample or to send things back (at my own expence)... Fabric stores take note.

So its for this reason, that I recommend you google the fabric your interested in buying first and click on images, because you are more then likely to find a true likeness in real photographs, or at least see if you will be get roughly the colour you want.

Thats all for now x