Naughty bag

I went to my Thursday crochet lesson last week with a bit of a heavy heart because Helen had just announced that she is closing her gorgeous wee shop at the end of next month. I feel awful for her, and also for me because she's been a happy part of my crafting for the last two years. I needn't have worried too much though, because crochet was lovely as usual and descended into some rather unladylike discussions on topics I won't repeat here for the sake of the others (and myself!). I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. The other nice thing was being introduced to the concept of the 'naughty bag' where you hide all your closing-down sale purchases. It was actually quite stressful deciding which of the fabrics I really needed to have some of, I tried to stay practical but damn it was hard! I could have taken a metre of most of the fabrics in the shop quite happily. In the end I brought this collection home

Helen said that's nothing compared to what some people were going out the door with, so if you're planning on going in I'd suggest doing it sooner rather than later! It's all up online too.

I have plans for almost all of it, but I know I'm going to have to be strict with myself on Monday when I'm there for the quilt group. I'm going to try some paper piecing with the Japanese Liberty-esque lawn, and there are a couple Xmas projects in there as well. Helen did a gorgeous linen table runner with that pink floral mixed in with some oranges that I'd like to try and replicate.