The Perfect Fabrics

Saturday I was out and about trying to get some Christmas shopping done.  However, I got a little side-tracked.  In my travels, I stopped at Joann's just to pick up some nail head trim and see if there were any fabrics that might work for my daughter's room.  The nail head trim is for a project I have planned for a message board for her room.  You can check out here and here to see what I've done so far.  I really want to have her room finished before Christmas Eve.  We have over 25 people coming for Christmas Eve and I would hate to have a half finished room.

In Joann's I saw this fabric and loved it.  I was fairly certain it was the right shade of aqua for her room so I picked up a yard of it.  It was on sale for only $7/yard so why not.

Then when I should have been finishing up my Christmas shopping, I passed by Calico Corners.  What could it hurt to stop in for a few minutes.  Well  I walked in I was greeted by a salesperson telling me that Calico Corners was having it's twelve days of Christmas sale.  On this particular day, all of the fabrics in the store were 25% off.  However, this sale was only good for this one day...the fabrics must be purchased by the end of the business day.  25% off - Ok...now that would require a little longer look.  At this point I have a good idea as to the direction I want to take the bedding in my ten year old daughter's room.  I want that Serena and Lily look...however, it needs to be in the right colors.    I've been in love with this fabric from Serena and Lily, but there is enough pink in my daughter's room right now...I have been really wanting to find a similar fabric in a blue/green or aqua.

Image from Serena and Lily

And then I saw it.  Why had I never seen this before?  The perfect fabric!  I've been in this store countless times over the past few months.  Well, as it turns out, it was in the wrong section.  I guess it stood out to me since it was with the wrong colors.  At $23.99/yard less 25% this could really work.  Isn't it so Serena and Lily like.  Soft, elegant, timeless.  It's called Selby in the color Robin.

If you remember I stenciled a damask pattern on a focal wall in my daughter's room.  You can read all about how I did it here.  I wanted to have a fabric that related to the stenciled wall.  This fabric would certainly do the trick.

While I was at Calico Corners I also saw a fabric I have been lusting over for a while now.

It the Aviary pattern by Thomas Paul through Duralee Fabrics.  It's in the color Robin (isn't it funny how both fabrics are in the color Robin yet the colors are quite different).  My daughter loves this pattern as well.  Every time I see it, I want to figure out a way to use it.

Image from Traditional Home April 2009 issue

Here is it on a chair.  Again I swoon.  My daughter swoons too.  She wants me to make the three shams and bed skirt out of this fabric.  Let me say again, I adore this fabric.  However,  I do fear that if I used it all over her room, we could both grow tired of it.  I wouldn't want our love affair to end that way.  I think this fabric is perfect in smaller doses...like on a chair or on toss pillows.  After some smooth talking I "convince" her that the damask fabric is actually the better choice, but I promise I will find somewhere in her room for our favorite Aviary fabric.

In case I wasn't off course enough from Christmas shopping, I next came across this fabric.  Where would this fit into my daughter's room you ask.   Well that's the problem...

When I saw this fabric I thought... this would be absolutely perfect in my mud room.  My mud room is on my short list of "to do" projects.  I could make a cushion for a bench that has been in and out of my mud room (I love having a bench, however, sometimes it's more in the way than I'd like).  So it's been moved in and out quite a few times.  With this fabric, it could move back in.  It was only $20.99/yard plus 25% off for upholstery weight fabric- before I looked at the price I was sure it would be over $50/yard.  It's called Acorn Filigree in the color Gunmetal.

So I borrowed all three samples.  When I got them home and tried them out, they all turned out to be perfect (when does that ever happen?).  So I called up my favorite sales person Michelle (I am probably on her list of favorites as well as we both share a love of fabrics...although I may border on being a fabricaholic) and ordered up six yards of the Selby damask, one yard of Thomas Paul's Aviary pattern and two yards of the charcoal damask.  I can't wait for them to come so that the sewing can begin.  This will bring me one giant step closer to finishing my daughter's room.

What do you think of the fabrics?  Do you too have an obsession with beautiful fabrics?  Today I MUST try to finish up my Christmas shopping.  Yikes!

-Judy