Loving Liberty

Last month I visited the sewing wholesaler to gather prizes and giveaway goodies for my retreat when I spied a copy of Liberty Love by Alexia Abegg on the manager's desk. Playing the innocent, I said "oh, I didn't realize that book was for sale yet!". Of course it wasn't for sale yet, but a businessman isn't going to pass up a sales opportunity, is he? Out I walked with a smile on my face and an advance copy of Liberty Love in my lovely Happysewlucky-made fabric shopping bag!

Having read the book cover to cover, I can hardly think of anything else beyond my trip to London in July and fondling Liberty Tana Lawn in person, IN THE LIBERTY FLAGSHIP STORE!  I've previously declared my love of sweet spool quilts and even made a few selvage ones, so it's a no-brainer to put this one on my Future Quilts list. Liberty charm square acquisition is in full swing!

Instagram is loaded with amazing photos of people making the Marcelle Medallion quilt. It is exciting to see how different the central medallion looks in different colours and prints (check the flickr group for pix). I love medallion quilts, so I'm sure there will be one of these in my future, although I don't think I am keen to piece flying geese with tana lawn, so I will probably use my cotton scraps.

To kick off my own personal Liberty Love fest here, I went with a quick but satisfying project: the Around Town Tote. Alexia taught a class at Keli's amazing Drygoods Make.Do.Mend workshop last weekend and after seeing photos of the bag that K2 made there, I realized this would be the perfect gift for a friend's 50th birthday. 

I know my friend is an over-the-shoulder bag carrier, so I made the straps longer. The pattern calls for upcycling a leather belt, but I've got a buttery soft deer hide that's been waiting over 20 years for the perfect project, so I cut strips from that. Due to it's stretchy nature, I decided to stitch two strips together, rough side in, for stability. A 100/16 topstitch needle did the trick...I just went slowly with presser foot pressure turned right down and a teflon foot. I don't have an awl, so I used the same needle without thread to pre-pierce marked holes for the hand-stitched X's (sewn with doubled polyester thread, a leather needle and thimble). I didn't have any magnetic snaps on hand, so I made a tab and wooden button closure instead.

My favourite way to add some oomph: triplestitch topstitching

The Liberty tana lawn was purchased from Katy on destash ages ago. It looks amazing with Essex yarn dyed linen in black (what doesn't?!?). That linen came in a hefty 5 yard chunk from Marmalade Fabrics because I know I'll use it for many projects. For the lining, I chose Summersville weave and added a divided pocket for iphone and keys on a fob.

It is kind of hard to tell, but this bag is a very generous size (I hardly had to suck in my gut for this picture)! 

I'm definitely going to make more of these. It's rugby shirt stripes: the Liberty glam version!

The Proverbial End

Way back last summer I started a very casual quiltalong here using Denyse Schmidt's Proverbial Quilt pattern. After making my Blackbird quilt, several people expressed interest in making their favourite quote or song into a quilt as well, so I gathered up a few sponsors and we got started!

This type of quilt isn't really a quickie, and I'm a pretty pathetic quiltalong host (I've discovered) as I can't even keep my own deadlines. However, I think it's time to officially close things prize-wise.  Any longer and this book is going to find a permanent place in my shelf and the fabric?  Well you all know what would happen with that!

Denyse Schimdt Quilts was kind enough to share a hard copy of her latest book as well as a jelly roll of Chicopee. I did a random drawing from everyone in the flickr group who has shared a photo of their pattern, or their fabric, or any bits of progress on their quilts.  Stitchliterate is the lucky winner of the book and Amy (aviva_hadas) has won the jelly roll. Congratulations gals!!

A few participants have finished their amazing quilts so I thought I'd share them to inspire anyone who is considering a text quilt. I love how each of these are quilted, too! 

This is Heather's sweet baby quilt 

Cathy's Proverbial Sunshine - so perfect!

Dana's beautiful quilt made for a friend in need of encouragement and inspiration.

And this is one half of an anniversary gift for Julie's husband - check out her flickr stream for the other half!

Thanks to everyone who participated and shared their progress and supported one another with suggestions and photo tutorials. Thanks also to the sponsors that provided prizes for us!

    

One Weekend, Three Weekenders

Sigh. Another Mayne Island Retreat has come and gone. Last weekend I spent four days with five lovely women in the comfort of Rebecca's gorgeous home (and sunlit sewing room). Before retreat there was a flurry of emailing, pattern prepping, cookie & lasagne baking and just a little bit of running around gathering supplies for the Weekender Bag.

At first I resisted. My plan was always to make one for my trip to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in July. I mean, that's months away! I've got heaps of time! Fat quarters of Denyse Schmidt homedec-weight fabric had been purchased on de-stash long ago and sat piled for this project. Eventually I caved and started THE CUTTING.  You know that I narrowly survived making Amy's Blossom Bag a couple of years ago....you may also recall I said it was unlikely I'd ever make one of her bag patterns again. I'm glad I sucked it up and gave it a whirl. It is a stunning piece of luggage. Yes, I made luggage! Bonus: it's ready four months in advance of my trip!

Side 1

Side 2

Because it was made from fat quarters, there are different prints all over the place and a few unexpected seams (in top and bottom panels), but I really like the combination of prints. The lining is a voile I picked up super cheap at JoAnn Fabrics and an interior zip pocket is lined with Aviary II woodgrain in yellow.  I was so thankful for Diana's recent Pink Chalk Fabric post that showed straps made with hardware. It solved my problem of finding enough length in a fat quarter to make all of the strap required without 10 seams! 

Much has been written about this bag and between the 3 of us that made it, we'd read many blog posts and gathered great advice. Like using 6 bag feet to protect the bottom.

Many people on Instagram asked me if this "was worth it". Absolutely, of course it is! Any gorgeous project takes lots of time and effort. I may not ever make another Weekender (that piping was a major effort), but I am very happy with this one.  As you can see by my label on the inside, it's no "quickie"...

My lining is a bit floppy - I still have to do some handstitching to secure the corners

Here are our fabulous bags together!

Dianne's gorgeous poppies in the middle, Jo Ann's on the right (check her fussy cutting!)

Lest you think we were chained to the machines all weekend, here's a look at some of my favourite  tree bark in the whole wide world, taken from an oceanview train near the house.

Arbutus

In addition to the bag, I also had plenty of time to work on some more scrap blocks for my second "Scrap Vomit" quilt (the first one is a top awaiting basting). All in all, an amazing weekend retreat of friends, food and sewing!

It's Electrifying!

So much going on around here, I just can't seem to find time to share. Lots of sewing madness, school projects and March Break trip planning.

If you follow Poppyprint in Instagram you may have seen a few photos of my son T preparing his Gr. 10 Personal Project for school. My kids attend a public high school that runs teaches an International Baccalaureate program. In Gr. 10 there is a requirement that each student complete a self-directed learning discovery. They can choose any subject, activity or project they like as long as they document their learning in a process journal, a 1500 word essay and ultimately a showcase one evening at school.

Some students made snowboarding videos. Several learned how to play a new instrument. One girl perfected the souffle. My son made homemade lightening.

Behold, his 12,000 volt Tesla Coil in action.

Yes, that is a compact fluorescent bulb on the end of a wooden pole illuminated by the electricity in the air at the end of the video!

We are super proud! This was not a simple "watch a YouTube video and get instructions off the internet" project. He has spent hours and hours and hours of his weekends researching, acquiring parts, building the structure, soldering the capacitors, winding the copper wire primary and secondary coils and learning the electrics. We are lucky to have some engineer friends who confirmed safety requirements (phew!) and a plumber who helped with wholesale parts.  T purchased the transformer off eBay from a guy in Texas! He was able to use equipment in the school wood shop to cut a lot of his supports (thank you IKEA cutting boards). It was great to see the enthusiasm of the adult friends and teachers who supported him over the past 6 months. I must admit I had doubts at times - it just seemed so daunting. His stick-to-it-iveness is truly inspiring. He already has plans for a Tesla machine that fires to music!

As for me: I made a Weekender bag. Go mom! (more on that later)