Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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!

photo

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. 

Around Town Tote by Poppyprint

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.

Around Town Tote by Poppyprint
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.

Around Town Tote by Poppyprint

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)! 

Around Town Tote by Poppyprint

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

12 comments:

Little Island Quilting said...

You got me at the penultimate sentence. Very funny!

Heather D. said...

Fantastic Krista. Love the essex linen paired with the other fabrics. A lovely gift.

paulette said...

Gorgeous bag, PP!! What a lucky friend!!
I too have a weakness for spool quilts...have several on the ol'To Do List...might just have to add one more!! We quilters need to live to be 150!! Sheesh!
P

PinkGranny said...

Fabulous bag...very good detail. I think I could fall in love with Liberty too!

Nina Lise@Mrs Moen said...

Liberty has surely jazzed up their fabrics since my London days. It is one of my goto stores, and I would have loved to go fabric shopping there! Too bad I'll be traveling through London in August instead of July or we could meet up there:)
love the bag you made!

Dianne said...

Lucky you getting an advance copy of the book! The bag is lovely, of course ;0)

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Oh I need a pair of these slimming bags!
I got the book today - so beautiful!

Amy Friend said...

I am going to have to get my hands on some Liberty eventually. A nice blog reader once surprised me with 3 fat quarters but, of course, I can't cut into them!

Carla said...

I am going to try to make the medallion quilt it's so lovely. Enjoy your retreat ; )

Kirsty @ Bonjour Quilts said...

That would make a fantastic library bag. In Liberty for me but not for the kids.
Fondling Liberty sounds like the perfect holiday to me!

Judith said...

I am looking forward to meet you in London in the Summer. Of course you must go to the Libertie's store because it is just so beautiful. But the better and wider selction of Liberty Tana Lawan has Shaukat in London. http://www.shaukat.co.uk/
They are not far from the Fat Quaterly venue, assuming you are coming to this event. I also have several more shops to visist in London that you can see on my blog.

Live a Colorful Life said...

This bag is fabulous!! Wow, your ideas/adjustments just amaze me. I purchased that book too. My friend had gotten it already, and I thought we could just share it, but when I paged through I realized I needed my own copy. Just about ready to start on the Medallion, which I was trying to resist. I can hardly wait to see your Liberty spools. My friend and I are seriously talking about attending the Fat Quarterly sessions in 2014.