Easily pleased

In the week that large tracts of the country have been officially deemed to be in drought, and hosepipe bans have been enforced, we are of course washed out today. What else should we expect - it is a holiday weekend and we have a long tradition of wet bank holidays! In some ways it's a good thing. If we still had the balmy temperatures of a little while ago I'd be lolling in a deckchair, sipping a cold drink and doing nothing more strenuous than reading a magazine. Since the garden has no appeal today I can stay indoors and get on with something productive.

I know I sound as though I'm easily pleased but I can't deny how much pleasure I get from choosing fabrics for a new quilt. Do you remember the digital prints Laura made for me from photos I took on holiday? Well, now that the Moth quilt is almost finished I can turn my thoughts to old boats and peeling paint! I find the best way to audition the fabrics I might use with the prints is to lay them out together. I'm sure this hand dye on the right will be perfect for what I have in mind and the soft blue/grey fabric will provide a quiet contrast area.

I save every fabric scrap I ever dye, paint or print - I just know one day they'll all have their moment of glory. These lino block prints and rubbings of Plimsoll line symbols were made ages ago but since they were inspired by the same nautical theme they should be OK for this new work.

I wonder if the theme justifies including these monoprinted fish I did with no particular end in mind?

I do quite like this one with the vacant but benign expression.

It's funny, I think I'm quite good with colour but I had never registered just how pinky/lilac this boat print was until I started matching other fabrics to it. It's rather a pretty combination and I am very excited to get started. The quilts will be quite abstract - I'm planning to include bands of strip pieced fabrics at the sides of the boat prints. I've got 3 different prints that I hope will hang together really well. If it rains all weekend I should get a fair bit done so if there's no work to see next week you'll know that the sun came out!

Thanks for dropping by. Talk to you soon, Linda