Birthday treats

Today is my birthday! I had a lovely morning opening up birthday presents from Bradley. There were lots of nice things, such as a necklace, blue floral umbrella from the Gap, and lovely stamps from Britain illustrated by famous children's book illustrators. But the main highlight were lots and lots of fabric pieces. He gave me 70 small squares of 20s and 30s reproduction fabric, and some packages of solid colour quilting squares, and 1/2 yards of three patterns. He actually started giving me little batches of the squares as a pre-birthday treat for each of the nine days before my birthday.

I'm going to show you my 36 favourite patterns. I love monochromatic colour schemes, so I've organized them a little bit along those lines. These yellow ones are my favourites. It's hard to see but the one on the top right is made up of tiny little squares. It's quite busy but will be very nice on something very small. I adore the ones on the top left and bottom right - the picture is a little bit blurry so it doesn't show them off to full effect.
Did I say the yellows are my favourites? Hmm. Maybe these are my favourites. The top right is so cute, it's apples and letters. I like red.Here are some nice greens.I love these blues. My favourites are on the bottom row. In case you're wondering the bottom right pattern is of kittens who have lost their mittens.
Here's a pinwheel showing some more of my favourites. I like to look at patterns I might not usually choose and imagine a project they would be good for. Two sewers I really admire who combine fabrics wonderfully are Alison (malisonian) and Rina (three green apples). Be sure to visit their etsy shops too: malisonian and three green apples! I like to go to Flickr and etsy to get inspiration for new projects. And finally here are the three fabrics that are 1/2 yards. Bradley knew I liked the one in the middle but he chose the other two himself. I think the one on the bottom is so cool - I can't wait to make something from it!p.s. yes, that's a picture of me at the top of the post. And regarding the fabrics, I am reminded of the time I asked my 5-year old nephew which of the animals we had just seen at the zoo was his favourite. He looked at me as if I was a little nutty and replied that ALL the animals were his favourites.