Lessons learnt

Chives growing in a flower bed

A carpet of Sweet Woodruff, and beyond that are perennial sunflowers.  

It's Tuesday, about halfway through May.  My '31 days' fabric postcard challenge continues.  To be honest, today's postcard wasn't very satisfying, either to make or to look at.  But more of those grumblings later...   

Here are some pictures from yesterday, the back garden looking green and lush.  So far this year I've had snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, bluebells and anemones.  Now, the march of the aliums begins.  All that vivid purple loveliness! They're going to look fabulous among the soft purples, pinks and creams of the foxgloves.  

I have to admit, yesterday saw me do a detour into my local charity shop YET AGAIN!  Okay, I can justify my frequent spending as (a) upcycling clothes is a quick, cheap way to bulk out my fabric stash, (b) the money goes to charity, not a multinational supermarket's shareholders, and (c) it's fun to snap up a bargain, and you never know what the heck you're going to find.  

This time I bought a couple of skirts.  The kind-of Sixties print was originally from Zara, while the pretty floral one came from M&Co which I'd always thought was a budget brand.  But the skirt had its original shop tag on - clearly never having been worn - and it'd cost its buyer £26.00.  Seems a lot to me, though when the vast majority of your wardrobe is bought second hand you lose track of 'proper shop' prices.  

I also picked up a nice hardback, 'Nelly Dean' by Alison Case.  The title rang a vague bell, then I read the flyleaf.  'Nelly Dean had been young Hindley Earnshaw's closest companion for as long as she can remember, living at the great house, Wuthering Heights.'  Oh, it's her!  I've no idea whether it's a worthwhile read, but the back cover has an endorsement by Tracy Chevalier, so I'll give it a try.  The skirts were £3.85 each, the book a quid.  £8.70 well spent, eh?  

Now, on to my fabric postcards.  

Monday's was a background of improv piecing.  Lots of little strips of cotton, cut and rearranged several times to come up with a scrappy background.  Onto that I added a line of trim that'd been cut off an upcycled top.  Feeling the postcard lacked a certain oomph, I tied oddments of ribbon on to the trim.  I wasn't entirely overjoyed with what I made, but I liked the ribbons and thought they'd be fun added on to a bed quilt's binding.  Though it'd probably drive you nuts tieing hundreds of knots around the border of a full sized quilt.   

Today's postcard was even less satisfying.  

I wanted to make some long skinny lines, but they weren't skinny enough.  The result looked boring.  

I did my usual trick when something wasn't working out.  

I chopped the rectangle into three pieces, turning the middle upside down.  Then sewed the seams up.  But I still wasn't happy.  The colours weren't popping.  Too plain and made even plainer by a calico binding on three sides.  

So I bound the fourth side with green fabric.  Added hand and machine quilting lines and - hmmm - it's okay but nowt special.  I was going to keep fiddling around with it - sew on a fringe? some beading? buttons? - then decided 'no'.  It is what it is, and maybe you sometimes have to learn your lesson and move on.  

My initial mistake was in not making the strips I pieced together skinny enough.  I should've began again at that early stage.  Also, not used calico for some strips and the binding.  It's too plain for my liking.  A bold colour would've looked better, be more of a contrast to the yellow, pink and green.  Oh, and I find yellow a tricky colour to use.  Lemon yellow is fine, as are yellows that have a lot of lime green in them, but this rich egg yolk yellow's too brash.  

Never mind, tomorrow's postcard will be better, I'm 100% sure of that.  On to other matters.  I had a courier delivery waiting for me when I got home from a jaunt to the supermarket today.  Several metres of material I'd ordered from an online fabric shop late one evening.  (Late night shopping should be avoided.  Too much chance of impulsively clicking on 'proceed to checkout' when you supposedly are just 'browsing'!)  It'll be my last order for ages, and to be fair the online shop's dead cheap.  Real bargain prices.  Anyhow, in addition to the metres, I'd also taken a chance and ordered a box of scraps.  You pay £7.00 for a large box of odds & ends, and it's complete pot luck what fabric you get.  Never fear, I did good.  

I'm really happy with my purchase.  Among the smaller scraps were loads of fat quarter sized pieces.  Linen, denim, suede effect, all kinds of cotton and polycotton.  There were a few sheers and stretch jersey - not practical for patchwork - but the bulk I'm really chuffed with.  

Here's the box waiting to be delved into.  

Okay, these were the uglies.  Weird orange mesh, flags, newspaper imagery and a yucky unicorn and rainbows design that made me feel queasy.  Too cutesy by far.  

The orange mesh and flags will go into the 'destined for cushion filling' basket, for when I next need to make a cushion pad.  The unicorns can join them.  Don't know about the newspaper patterned material.  Might there be a use for it?  Stranger things have happened.  

Love the gauzy pink with gold hearts, also the pink linen and a very nice mauve needlecord.  

Always good to have a selection of plains, and I like the floral fabric sat on top of the pile.  A charteuse colour, would you say?  

At the bottom of this stack are two large pieces of denim, as well as a plain royal blue.  Love the top two prints especially.  I already have plans for those.  

Plain blacks and a waffle-type black, plus a caramel coloured suede effect and that fab print topping the pile.  

A few novelty prints, including these fun daschunds, join florals and a lush pink linen-look fabric.  

Blowsy orange roses, in-your-face orange cotton, and a pair of bold prints.  Each stack contains lots of large pieces that will be ideal for piecing together to make a quilt backing.  As well as cutting up to make lengths of scrappy binding.  

Broderie Anglaise, a very useful grey and white stripe, various florals.  

All this and still half a box left that needs sorting through.  Yup, I think ordering that £7.00 box of scraps was one of my better ideas.  

Right, I'm going to try and find shelf room for this lot.  Enjoy your evening!