The fabric above is from MaaiDesign in Australia (the actual fabric designer is Alicia Marshall from Winding Road Design Studio), and I CANNOT WAIT for it to arrive. I have been obsessing about gingko fabric basically forever (really, forever) and this is better than I could have hoped for, to wit:

• cotton poplin
• black background
• multicolored leaves

Plus the shipping was … reasonable? for something coming from Australia?

Since we’re moving (imminently!) I had a fabric purchase moratorium in place but I made an emergency declaration and managed to get this one in under the wire. I may be throwing the parcel into the last box to be sealed (well, depending on shipping speed) but I was not going to miss out on ACTUAL GINGKO FABRIC.

Also, while you’re here: quick purge update! There are still a few dresses left, and since I realistically can’t buy any more fabric until at least June, I’ll be donating all the proceeds of the purge (net of shipping) to relief efforts for Ukraine and trans rights orgs. So grab the last dresses while you can, I’ll officially declare the purge done on 1 May!

You didn't think that piece of Liberty from last week was the only fabric I bought in Japan, did you? Perish the thought. :-) 

Here's the rest of my haul, this all from Tomato Fabric in Tokyo. First up: blue and mustard camo!

 

This is a really nice weight, and the blue is a little darker — not as teal as in this photo (not that teal is a bad thing). 

I'm not a huge Kokka fan but this print was just irresistable:

 

(I've been really drawn to that mustard color lately. I love it with red, so interesting!)

Another adorable conversation print (this is a nice heavy weight): 

 

There was also some plaid corduroy, so I bought it. Wouldn't you?

 

I also bought a single yard of this crazy super-narrow number fabric:

 

I forget who the designer is, but I saw it first made up into scarves in a department store in Japantown here in San Francisco, and loved it. But not enough to spend whatever the department store wanted, obviously. I probably should have bought two yards, because what the heck am I going to do with a yard of 22" wide fabric, I don't know. (It was still expensive even in Japan!) But I'll think of something …

Just looking at all these makes me want to jump up and start cutting things out, but it will probably be a few weeks until I have a little space clear for making these up. Suggestions welcome!

Getting an obsession is like getting a cold, only over a longer time period. First there's that little tickle in the back of your throat, and then you feel a little achy, and it's harder to get up in the morning, and the next thing you know you're sneezing at a Gatling-gun pace and getting carded when you try to buy Dayquil. 

Sewing obsessions have the same progression … first you start to notice something you've never noticed before, and then you start thinking "huh … maybe I could make that," and pretty soon you have fifty browser tabs open, you're abusing Pinterest, and you're thinking about the shoes you're going to wear with a dress you haven't even made yet.

I'm a little bit worried that I'm at the tickly-throat stage of an obsession with guipure lace, which is just FLAT OUT DUMB. First of all, the number of occasions where I could wear a guipure lace dress in a single year is measured in the average number of fingers in obscene gestures. (And that's in a year where I decide to get married. Again.) Secondly, I've never, ever sewn with lace, and thirdly, it's ungodly expensive, and fourthly, well, fourthly, I already have a curio cabinet of previous sewing obsessions, which, like all good obsessions, are only dormant, not dead. (Shirtdresses: I am talking about you.)

But: isn't it pretty? 

So: is there any kind of zinc lozenge you can take to ward off a new sewing obsession? Please send help. 

So, just as things start turning to fall (here in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) I always find one piece of summer fabric that I just HAVE to have: 

This stuff reminds me of those tubes of frozen colored sugar water that every kid under the age of eight loves. Otter Pops? Anyway, there it was at Fabric Mart Fabrics, and I had to have it. I'm sure you all understand. And they have 21 yards left, at this writing … 

Here's a closeup:

This is going to be … I don't quite know yet. But whatever it's going to be, it's probably not going to be that until next March, at the earliest. Summer fabric is going into hibernation for a few months.