Trout.

On the Rio Grand, Terrie Mangat for Freespirit., a photo by badskirt - amy on Flickr.

"Are you Amy?"

It wasn't exactly what I had hoped to hear as I was clutching a roll of realistic trout fabric while wading through the store clearance bin.

"I read your blog."

Oh dear lord. I hadn't brushed my hair this morning. I barely managed to put on clothes. I've been cooped up on the couch for three days fighting off a lymph infection. I'm pumped on antibiotics. I look like death walking and I've been spotted carrying around realistic trout fabric.

I somehow managed a polite hello knowing that if she got one good look at me in this state, I'd probably lose a blog reader.

Luckily for me, my awkward embarrassment was broken when a somewhat intoxicated fella stumbled in and started chatting me up. I'm not sure if it was my pale skin, bad hair or fish fabric that grabbed his attention.

Poor Cindy. I'm sure she wishes she'd just kept her head down and moved on to another section of the store. I'm sure after today, she's moved on to other blogs.

Me? I bought three meters of trout fabric. Three meters of realistic trout set against a tacky orange and green background.

I thought it might be a good challenge.

The fabric has great colours in it. Even it its a bit strange. So ugly that it's good, right? Or maybe that's just the infection talking?

I thought it might be fun to dig through my stash and see what I could come up with that worked well. Maybe lots of teeny HSTs or pinwheels in really happy shades. Maybe a whack&stack kaleidoscope quilt?

Do you ever buy ugly fabric with the hope of making it beautiful? Do you have any ideas on how I can make three meters of trout sing? What would you do with it?