Hooray! Hooray! Oops!

Well, I went and pressed the button and as if by magic (okay, the 'magic' of Royal Mail who delivered quickly, but decided to deliver everyone on our street with their next door neighbours mail today. Lucky we are all nice, honest people on our street) today the rest of my fabric for P's quilt arrived. Beautiful,no? And the colours seem to work really well together. Just a slight hiccup...I spent ages deliberating over shades, patterns, price per fat quarter etc. and then failed to notice that the lovely multi polka dot in the top picture is actually fine needlecord as opposed to the cotton of all the other fabrics. Oops.
Anyhow, no problem, I'm sure I'll find a use for it- at the moment I'm considering a Noni felted market bag which I made (complete with the fiddly fuschias, which I wouldn't do again) for my mum's Christmas present a few years back. I think the larger size, lined with the polka dot cord would be rather lovely.
Of course, the real problem I'm left with is that my careful calculations for how much fabric I need are now out by one. I rifled through my fabric stash and could find any number of blues, pinks, florals etc. but no green to speak of at all really. Then I had a peek in my wardrobe and found a Howies skirt from a few years ago. I think I originally fell in love with the cute little mushroom print fabric, but the style has never really suited me- it's just a tad to short and flouncy for someone of my shape and age. I've hung onto it because it wasn't cheap and because I still harbour one of those daft hopes you have about certain garments that one day you'll try them on and magically look good. So what better than a reality check for my wardrobe and a chance for that sweet fabric to look so much better as part of a handmade-with-so-much-love quilt? You can see it nestled in the middle of the 'final collection' in the second picture. It fits the sort of 'magical woodland' theme that seems to have developed in the prints (the fish are obviously in a pond in a clearing!) and gives another lighter shade to the mix.
I've given myself backache tonight, sitting for too long on the floor and using my brand new birthday dressmaking scissors to begin cutting out squares. I'm trying to keep track of the time I'm taking to make the quilt and so far, with planning, choosing fabric and now cutting out I'm on 3 and a half hours of uncharacteristically careful work so far. It's providing a bit of contrast to the knitting though- at the moment I'm working on a commission (I love saying that!) for Audrey's Tea Shop, which involves fiddly colourwork that it's good to have a rest from sometimes. I'll post some pictures of that soon.