I'm growing out of all my clothes. It's been a while since they were fitting properly anyway, but now even my longer tees aren't quite cutting it and I'm relying more and more on my belly band to cover the space between my jeans and my shirt.

Enter a large stack of fabric and some simple and pretty patterns.

While the cats played hide-and-seek with the huge box the fabric came in I washed all of it and got it ready to go. Most of it is jersey so I don't feel like I need to iron it. There are also a couple of soft, lightweight pieces of wool, and a bit of cotton voile for something special. I don't know for sure I'll actually get all my ideas made up but large cuts of nice fabric can never be considered a waste. So far I've made up one skirt and a tee and will try to get some pictures of them this weekend when there is some light in the house.

p.s. The snuggled on that list is not for me. It's one of these. My sister says they are very useful and I believe her enough to try making one up. It should be cute anyway.

I spent part of this evening looking for some pictures of my garden last summer and found this one of a bunch of fabric. I just like it so much. The fabrics are part of a kit I got a few years ago. It was completely Liette's fault.

We'd finally found Earthly Goods quilt shop in Edmonton and were having a great time browsing around. I'd picked out a few fat quarters and a couple of half metres and I'm pretty sure I'd picked up a pattern or two. I'd seen this kit on a shelf and thought it was beautiful - just the sorts of colours and patterns I'd love to have around in our living room in the winter - and very carefully not looked any closer (the price tag was on the front). After paying for her own things, and before I got to the till, Liette pulled me over to the shelf, said "This just looks so you," and plunked the kit into my hands. I was doomed. It was beautiful. I couldn't put it back on the shelf.

Though I haven't got around to making up my quilt I am very glad Liette did what she did. I still love these colours and patterns. When I pulled out the kit this summer though I found I wasn't overly enamoured of the actual quilt design. It probably looks better in person than it does as a computer generated, flat image on a sheet of paper but it still doesn't grab me. Instead I'm thinking of doing a stacked coins quilt. I've always loved the look of stacked coins. Simple, geometric and scrappy. It would be awesome on our bed in the Fall.

I promised I would tell you about this pile of goodness yesterday but I took a pretty fantastic slip on our fresh ice and by the time I could be writing I was so stiff all I wanted to do was nap. Today my shoulder is a little sore and my knee is Technicolor (yes I managed to bang both) but I am otherwise just fine - all the more so for a bunch of freshly washed and pressed new fabric residing on my shelves.

My parcel was from The Workroom in Toronto and I had mostly forgotten what I'd ordered so it was pretty exciting to open. Inside were two big pieces of bamboo jersey in black and a lavender grey (love!), another big piece of Nani Iro in a deep eggplant purple with polka dots, half a metre of a Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley print (more lovely grey), Stylish Dress Book No. 3, and a fat quarter of "The Owl and The Pussy Cat" from the new Far, Far Away Collection by Heather Ross that was a treat from Karyn (and is super cute!).

The jerseys are destined to become a few new tops; I'm hoping to copy out those patterns in what remains of this afternoon. The Nani Iro print will be October's sundress. I'm debating which pattern I'm going to use; the one I really like calls for a zipper down the back and the double gauze just seems too light to have a stiff zipper stuck in it. We'll see - maybe the dress will go over my head without needing the zipper. The Hope Valley print was just for fun and my charm quilt; I've already cut out my square (plus one from "The Owl and The Pussy Cat").

The Stylish Dress Book is part of a series that I've been eyeing for ages. I'm so happy to finally have one of them. Karyn had all three at the workroom when I called but I could only justify getting one at a time. You can see pictures from inside all three books on Karyn's blog. I picked this one because I particularly liked a dress with a cute, cowl-like neckline but now that I've looked through it there are several I'd like to make this year.