Temptation: the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair!

I walk into events like the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair with a budget because I have to. There are dozens of pieces of fabric, evening bags, tablecloths, etc that I could buy, so I have to be realistic. Fabric is no use if it is stuck in a box for years!

What I kept in mind this year was

that, at the time of the Art Fair, I still hadn't made up all of the fabric that I bought last year!
I haven't bought myself any silk, so instead of buying several pieces of cotton I could just get one really nice piece of silk.
existing colours in my wardrobe
lengths. Did I want 2 metres for skirts? 1 metre for a top? 3 metres for a dress?
one of the people I work closely with wears green and tends to buy a lot of the same green fabrics that I would.
What did I miss out on last year?

There was actually a piece of fabric that I regretted not buying, with a turtle pattern in aqua and brown. I had run out of money and reluctantly decided not to get it. They also had a stunning scarf in red with a bright, aqua blue pattern on it. I made a mental note to look at that art centre, as I got this fabric from it last year and I really love the skirt that I made from it:

The Art Fair

There was a gorgeous array of fabric, as always. I attended the Country to Couture Fashion Show a couple of days earlier, you can read about it here. I would have loved to have been able to show you the photos of the shortlist of fabrics that I had. I only buy on the spot if I absolutely have to have something. Otherwise I'm very methodical about doing a couple of rounds looking at things and writing down what I spotted. From that original list I narrow it down. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it's not!

What I bought

I wasn't as excited this year. There weren't many new patterns and a lot of stalls had focussed on painted art rather than fabrics. There was also a lot of greys, lilac, yellow and mustard; a very interesting trend. And not at all my colours.

My favourite workshop, Palngun Wurnangat Aboriginal Corporation, was the only place that really excited me. I picked so many things up and couldn't decide what to get until I saw this silk on the wall and HAD to have it:

They also had packs of scraps, which was great. I bought two and was very excited to find that they had really good, useable pieces in them. A couple were quite big AND I got some owls!